Disclaimer--Nothing here belongs to me. Most of this scene is from PoA and belongs to JKR, who is a MUCH more accomplished writer than me. They're for the love of the craft and intended only as flattery.
Author's Notes-- "Also, I will like to thank and aknowledge your reviewers, I love to read their comments, and following them and your feedback is part of the joy of this great story ... Thanks everyone..." Bee11. I couldn't have said it better myself...you all add so much to this story. Thanks!
Strawberries and Blueberries--The Mer-people too? The noise must be deafening. Maybe this will help. *winks*
Bee11--As Hagrid says "sometimes people can be a bit stupid about their pets"...maybe Ron loves Scabbers because Scabbers is his, even if he isn't young...although, like you, I always sort of wondered why Percy wasn't more attached to what was supposed to be his rat! It is too bad the sugarquill fight distracted Ginny from Harry...on the other hand, maybe it's good for him to see she does have other things to do besides stare at him and knock things over! *winks*
Adrienne--I guess FF.net is still having trouble with traffic. I suppose we should try to cut them some slack given how many people, stories, and reviews are handled everyday, but it IS frustrating (sorry for missing your review at first)...hopefully the new upgrade they're talking about will help. *crosses fingers* You hit the nail on the head with Ginny, both with her desire to make everyone around her comfortable and her ability to identify and accept her feelings (it does sound like AA, but maybe the diary was a bit similar to an addiction. *muses*) I'm with you on the look--we Harry/Ginny fans must find "converse enough in a look to sustain us", but with the right look, that converse can be plenty romantic! *winks* I'm so flattered you appreciate Lupin and Lee more because of my story! *blushes*
Score on our good timing with the posts! *high fives* It's so cool you describe the last chapter as having a bit of everything! I'm looking forward to sharing Ginny's next year with you. *hugs*
EEDOE--Nice to see that as much as Ginny has matured, she hasn't entirely outgrown her crush isn't it? *winks* Now I have some decidedly naughty mental images in my head thanks to you! *laughs* THANKS! *nods seriously* Hmm...maybe I should stop writing Dense!Ron scenes, as I don't want to be responsible for leaving a mark on your forehead...I think you're so right about the little gestures like that being one of the strongest parts of a good friendship. I think you're not the only one atwitter with anticipation...Hermione seemed pretty intrigued, too, and there's always my sister and me...*winks* Yup--revenge, solid and reliable. *smirks* It's good to see our firecracker in control, isn't it? Oooh...nice sketch of Ginny...no wonder even the twins hold her a bit in awe in OotP! *laughs* Until next time...*hugs*
Bill--I thought about using the butterdish, but it seemed a bit far-fecthed...*winks* I loved the sugarquill fight...it's about time Ginny got to do something wild and random with her fellow Gryffindors. Ron is being a git, but you have a point about his stubborness being an asset to his friends in the long run. Tough love, that's Ginny...maybe Molly has been a better Mum than her controlling tendencies sometimes make it seem...Ginny does seem like she would be a very capable mum of six boys--even two like the twins! *hugs*
*****************
Tempest nearly pushed her out of bed in the attempt to get her attention. "Ginny!" she hissed with a tone in her voice that made it clear it wasn't the first-or even the second time-"Ginny, I think the party's starting up again. Come on!"
"Again?" Ginny groaned, already pushing back the blankets and searching around the floor with her feet until she found her slippers. "When are we supposed to sleep-in the middle of class?"
"Nonsense!" Percy said loudly as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "You had too much to eat, Ron-had a nightmare--"
Ginny glanced round in confusion, catching sight of Fred and George looking bemused in the middle of the room, Harry, Ron and Percy near the Portrait Hole, Colin craning his head from the stairway of the boys dormitory as if looking for something to take a picture of. The room was dark, flickering with the fire, and didn't show any signs of life apart from debris from the party. "Somehow," Ginny whispered softly to Tempest, "I don't think the party's started up again."
"I'm telling you--" Ron began insistently.
"Now, really, that's enough!" Professor McGonagall slammed through the Portrait Hole, nearly stepping on Ron, and glared around the room, prompting several guilty squirms. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy protested stuffily. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare--"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron roared. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME HOLDING A KNIFE!"
Ginny's knees suddenly gave out. She had to lean against the wall of the stairwell to keep from falling. She didn't find Professor McGonagall's lack of reaction reassuring, either. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley," she said, but the words lacked their customary crispness. Ginny suspected she'd only said them as a knee-jerk reaction. "How could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him," Ron retorted, pointing at the back of Sir Cadogan. "Ask him if he saw--"
McGonagall shot him one last glare Ginny suspected she was about to regret, and pushed the portrait hole open to climb out and talk to Sir Cadogan. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"
"Certainly, good lady!" Sir Cadogan cried.
"You-you did?" Ginny hoped she was imagining the sudden waver in Professor McGonagall's voice, but she didn't really think she was.
Hermione, who must have come downstairs when Ron shouted, reached out and touched Ginny's shoulder as if trying to reassure her, but her fingers were like ice.
"But-but the password!" McGonagall protested.
"He had 'em," Sir Cadogan assured her breezily. "Had the whole week's, my lady. Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Professor McGonagall came back into the Common Room, her face so white the tightness of her lips would have been fully visible without the low light of the fire. "Which person," she said, her voice dangerous even through its shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
Ginny looked around for Scabbers at the following squeak, before remembering why Ron, Harry, and Hermione weren't currently talking to one another. Scabbers hadn't squeaked...it was Neville.
Once she got her voice back, Professor McGonagall grimly promised Neville she and Dumbledore would see to him later, told Percy and the prefects to keep an eye on things, and went to organize a search of the castle. Ginny and Hermione edged around the back edge of the Common Room as the others drifted uncertainly toward the center, and caught Neville as he crept toward the stairs as if planning to slink away to his dormitory and berate himself for his stupidity.
"No lasting harm's been done, Neville," Ginny said, applying some of Dumbledore's excellent wisdom to the situation as they steered him into one of the squashy oversized armchairs in a dark corner.
Everyone stayed in the Common Room after that, but there was no excitement now, no laughter, no music, no silly impressions, no dancing...no one even seemed to look at one another, as if meeting someone else's eyes would make Sirius Black more than a dream...make the whole experience real. They sat huddled in the Common Room like refugees from some horrible disaster.
When the darkness in the windows was lightening to a hard, steely gray, McGonagall returned to tell them Black had escaped and that the Fat Lady had agreed to replace Sir Cadogan again. Since she had insisted on extra protection, and Dumbledore thought it might not be a bad idea, the portrait hole was going to be flanked by surly security Trolls until further notice. "At least the Fat Lady doesn't change the password so often," Neville rallied, trying not to sniffle.
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor McGonagall said sternly, "come with me, please."
Ginny and Hermione both gave him an encouraging squeeze, patting his shoulders as he walked away from them. "How did Sirius Black get Neville's list?" Ginny asked, frowning. "Even if Neville dropped it somewhere on the grounds, he still had to pass the dementors to find it. And-unless Neville labeled it-how did he even know what it was?" Crookshanks jumped in her lap, rubbing his head against her hand and purring as if trying to wipe the worried tone from her voice. She scratched absent-mindedly under his chin.
"I don't know..." Hermione admitted thoughtfully. "But when I think about what could have happened to Ron-Sirius Black standing over him with a knife!" She shuddered. Crookshanks moved far enough over on Ginny's lap to put his front paws on the edge of Hermione's knees with a mewling purr. Hermione reached out and scratched between his ears. "I'm going to apologize to him before anything else happens-if you think he'll listen...if he'd died and we were still fighting..." she swallowed hard.
"I'm thankful he's alive," Ginny murmured. "But...why is he? What stopped Black from killing him?"
Hermione stared. "A room full of witnesses-but that didn't stop him before, and he has to know it won't make a difference in whether or not he goes back to Azkaban now."
Ginny nodded grimly. "It's almost as though he wasn't here to murder Harry at all..."
"Then what-unless he was looking for something?"
"But what would Sirius Black want from Ron?"
"Maybe we're thinking too hard," Hermione said finally. "We're trying to make sense out of what happened, but what if Sirius Black doesn't make sense? From what I've heard, a lot of people in Azkaban have been driven crazy by the dementors..."
"You're probably right," Ginny sighed worriedly, "but I don't like it...Sirius Black is even more frightening mad than he is sane."
In her lap, Crookshanks purred.
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Author's Notes-- "Also, I will like to thank and aknowledge your reviewers, I love to read their comments, and following them and your feedback is part of the joy of this great story ... Thanks everyone..." Bee11. I couldn't have said it better myself...you all add so much to this story. Thanks!
Strawberries and Blueberries--The Mer-people too? The noise must be deafening. Maybe this will help. *winks*
Bee11--As Hagrid says "sometimes people can be a bit stupid about their pets"...maybe Ron loves Scabbers because Scabbers is his, even if he isn't young...although, like you, I always sort of wondered why Percy wasn't more attached to what was supposed to be his rat! It is too bad the sugarquill fight distracted Ginny from Harry...on the other hand, maybe it's good for him to see she does have other things to do besides stare at him and knock things over! *winks*
Adrienne--I guess FF.net is still having trouble with traffic. I suppose we should try to cut them some slack given how many people, stories, and reviews are handled everyday, but it IS frustrating (sorry for missing your review at first)...hopefully the new upgrade they're talking about will help. *crosses fingers* You hit the nail on the head with Ginny, both with her desire to make everyone around her comfortable and her ability to identify and accept her feelings (it does sound like AA, but maybe the diary was a bit similar to an addiction. *muses*) I'm with you on the look--we Harry/Ginny fans must find "converse enough in a look to sustain us", but with the right look, that converse can be plenty romantic! *winks* I'm so flattered you appreciate Lupin and Lee more because of my story! *blushes*
Score on our good timing with the posts! *high fives* It's so cool you describe the last chapter as having a bit of everything! I'm looking forward to sharing Ginny's next year with you. *hugs*
EEDOE--Nice to see that as much as Ginny has matured, she hasn't entirely outgrown her crush isn't it? *winks* Now I have some decidedly naughty mental images in my head thanks to you! *laughs* THANKS! *nods seriously* Hmm...maybe I should stop writing Dense!Ron scenes, as I don't want to be responsible for leaving a mark on your forehead...I think you're so right about the little gestures like that being one of the strongest parts of a good friendship. I think you're not the only one atwitter with anticipation...Hermione seemed pretty intrigued, too, and there's always my sister and me...*winks* Yup--revenge, solid and reliable. *smirks* It's good to see our firecracker in control, isn't it? Oooh...nice sketch of Ginny...no wonder even the twins hold her a bit in awe in OotP! *laughs* Until next time...*hugs*
Bill--I thought about using the butterdish, but it seemed a bit far-fecthed...*winks* I loved the sugarquill fight...it's about time Ginny got to do something wild and random with her fellow Gryffindors. Ron is being a git, but you have a point about his stubborness being an asset to his friends in the long run. Tough love, that's Ginny...maybe Molly has been a better Mum than her controlling tendencies sometimes make it seem...Ginny does seem like she would be a very capable mum of six boys--even two like the twins! *hugs*
*****************
Tempest nearly pushed her out of bed in the attempt to get her attention. "Ginny!" she hissed with a tone in her voice that made it clear it wasn't the first-or even the second time-"Ginny, I think the party's starting up again. Come on!"
"Again?" Ginny groaned, already pushing back the blankets and searching around the floor with her feet until she found her slippers. "When are we supposed to sleep-in the middle of class?"
"Nonsense!" Percy said loudly as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "You had too much to eat, Ron-had a nightmare--"
Ginny glanced round in confusion, catching sight of Fred and George looking bemused in the middle of the room, Harry, Ron and Percy near the Portrait Hole, Colin craning his head from the stairway of the boys dormitory as if looking for something to take a picture of. The room was dark, flickering with the fire, and didn't show any signs of life apart from debris from the party. "Somehow," Ginny whispered softly to Tempest, "I don't think the party's started up again."
"I'm telling you--" Ron began insistently.
"Now, really, that's enough!" Professor McGonagall slammed through the Portrait Hole, nearly stepping on Ron, and glared around the room, prompting several guilty squirms. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy protested stuffily. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare--"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron roared. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME HOLDING A KNIFE!"
Ginny's knees suddenly gave out. She had to lean against the wall of the stairwell to keep from falling. She didn't find Professor McGonagall's lack of reaction reassuring, either. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley," she said, but the words lacked their customary crispness. Ginny suspected she'd only said them as a knee-jerk reaction. "How could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him," Ron retorted, pointing at the back of Sir Cadogan. "Ask him if he saw--"
McGonagall shot him one last glare Ginny suspected she was about to regret, and pushed the portrait hole open to climb out and talk to Sir Cadogan. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"
"Certainly, good lady!" Sir Cadogan cried.
"You-you did?" Ginny hoped she was imagining the sudden waver in Professor McGonagall's voice, but she didn't really think she was.
Hermione, who must have come downstairs when Ron shouted, reached out and touched Ginny's shoulder as if trying to reassure her, but her fingers were like ice.
"But-but the password!" McGonagall protested.
"He had 'em," Sir Cadogan assured her breezily. "Had the whole week's, my lady. Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Professor McGonagall came back into the Common Room, her face so white the tightness of her lips would have been fully visible without the low light of the fire. "Which person," she said, her voice dangerous even through its shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
Ginny looked around for Scabbers at the following squeak, before remembering why Ron, Harry, and Hermione weren't currently talking to one another. Scabbers hadn't squeaked...it was Neville.
Once she got her voice back, Professor McGonagall grimly promised Neville she and Dumbledore would see to him later, told Percy and the prefects to keep an eye on things, and went to organize a search of the castle. Ginny and Hermione edged around the back edge of the Common Room as the others drifted uncertainly toward the center, and caught Neville as he crept toward the stairs as if planning to slink away to his dormitory and berate himself for his stupidity.
"No lasting harm's been done, Neville," Ginny said, applying some of Dumbledore's excellent wisdom to the situation as they steered him into one of the squashy oversized armchairs in a dark corner.
Everyone stayed in the Common Room after that, but there was no excitement now, no laughter, no music, no silly impressions, no dancing...no one even seemed to look at one another, as if meeting someone else's eyes would make Sirius Black more than a dream...make the whole experience real. They sat huddled in the Common Room like refugees from some horrible disaster.
When the darkness in the windows was lightening to a hard, steely gray, McGonagall returned to tell them Black had escaped and that the Fat Lady had agreed to replace Sir Cadogan again. Since she had insisted on extra protection, and Dumbledore thought it might not be a bad idea, the portrait hole was going to be flanked by surly security Trolls until further notice. "At least the Fat Lady doesn't change the password so often," Neville rallied, trying not to sniffle.
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor McGonagall said sternly, "come with me, please."
Ginny and Hermione both gave him an encouraging squeeze, patting his shoulders as he walked away from them. "How did Sirius Black get Neville's list?" Ginny asked, frowning. "Even if Neville dropped it somewhere on the grounds, he still had to pass the dementors to find it. And-unless Neville labeled it-how did he even know what it was?" Crookshanks jumped in her lap, rubbing his head against her hand and purring as if trying to wipe the worried tone from her voice. She scratched absent-mindedly under his chin.
"I don't know..." Hermione admitted thoughtfully. "But when I think about what could have happened to Ron-Sirius Black standing over him with a knife!" She shuddered. Crookshanks moved far enough over on Ginny's lap to put his front paws on the edge of Hermione's knees with a mewling purr. Hermione reached out and scratched between his ears. "I'm going to apologize to him before anything else happens-if you think he'll listen...if he'd died and we were still fighting..." she swallowed hard.
"I'm thankful he's alive," Ginny murmured. "But...why is he? What stopped Black from killing him?"
Hermione stared. "A room full of witnesses-but that didn't stop him before, and he has to know it won't make a difference in whether or not he goes back to Azkaban now."
Ginny nodded grimly. "It's almost as though he wasn't here to murder Harry at all..."
"Then what-unless he was looking for something?"
"But what would Sirius Black want from Ron?"
"Maybe we're thinking too hard," Hermione said finally. "We're trying to make sense out of what happened, but what if Sirius Black doesn't make sense? From what I've heard, a lot of people in Azkaban have been driven crazy by the dementors..."
"You're probably right," Ginny sighed worriedly, "but I don't like it...Sirius Black is even more frightening mad than he is sane."
In her lap, Crookshanks purred.
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