a/n: to all the people who like my writing, I'm so sorry this is taking me so long. There's one thing about me that I should have learned a long time ago and that is that I fill up my time with WAY to many things. I will try to work on this much faster. I know how much I hate to wait for fics to be posted. :o)

Chapter 9: Discoveries

Ginny spent a lovely day with Dean, walking around the lake and talking. When she was with Dean she felt that time just flew by, and for a change, she was not concerned about wasting it. For as long as she could remember herself she had always had plans with only small snippets of time, usually at the end of the day, in which she could truly sit down and relax. Days in which she would do nothing always made her feel guilty, as though she should be doing things that were important. But when she was with Dean it was as though she was doing the only thing that mattered. She felt comfortable with him and open to talk about everything, which surprised her after the experience with Tom. There were only a few moment when she felt uncomfortable. At these times Dean would turn and look at her with a strong emotion in his eyes that she could not understand.

Even though she knew it had been a while since they left the castle, the darkening sky surprised her. When they finally did return it was much latter than she expected. With a last look at the sky and a silent wish to the first star, they entered the dark castle and headed towards the Gryffindor Tower. But they had hardly taken a dozen steps when Professor McGonagall stepped into their path.

"Miss Weasley, I have been looking for you. Please come with me," She said in her usual brisk manner. "Mr. Thomas will wait for you in the Gryffindor common room. Or he may go to dinner. It is almost over but I'm sure he will find something to eat."

Ginny noticed that Dean was looking at her worriedly. She shrugged and turned to follow the professor trying not to show her apprehension. She had no idea what she had done or why McGonagall wanted to talk to her. Ginny's nervousness increased when she realized that McGonagall was not leading her to her office, instead, Ginny was led to a wall guarded by gargoyles behind it a spiral staircase.

McGonagall did not go into Dumbledore's office with her. Ginny had to work up the courage to open the door on her own. By then she was extremely scared and many possible disaster scenarios were running through her head, so that when she finally opened the door and saw that Dumbledore was smiling she was very relieved.

Dumbledore was talking when she came in but stopped mid-sentence and beckoned her to come in and sit down. It took Ginny a few seconds to notice who he had been talking to. Medea sat sprawled across one of the armchairs facing Dumbledore's desk, her leg dangling over one of the armrests. Her dark blue dress matched the color of the armchair so perfectly that Ginny was surprised she noticed her at all. Medea seemed not to care about Ginny's presence as Dumbledore had and by her expression and tone of voice, Ginny gathered that the two had been arguing.

"I don't care if you had her under your nose this whole time, dressed her up and did her hair like a doll and when you got bored used her for target practice" Medea sounded frustrated. "You do not ignore such things."

Dumbledore smiled at her over his glasses but other than that Ginny felt that he did not listen to Medea at all. He made no response to Medea but instead turned to Ginny.

"Medea here tells me that I have been neglecting your education," Dumbledore said earning a few irritated sounds from Medea.

"I'm not sure I understand what you are talking about." Ginny answered, "I'm doing fine in my classes and I get the same education as most other students. I try to take advantages of the opportunities here. I mean, I don't take as many classes as Hermione and stuff, but…" Medea snorted.

"Not many students take as many classes as Miss Granger," Dumbledore said lightly. "You do not take Divination do you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Ginny shrugged, "Because I saw the way my brother and his friends reacted to the class and I figured I wouldn't learn anything from it anyway."

Dumbledore nodded and glanced at Medea as though Ginny's answer had proved his point. Medea just glared back.

"You do take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, am I right" Dumbledore returned to questioning her.

"Yes, I do. But Professor," Ginny hurried to answer before he asked another question, "why are you asking me all this?"

Medea straightened up and turned to her. She was the one who answered Ginny's question. "It had been a tradition for many years that Hogwarts' Headmaster, or Headmistress," she nodded to the portraits of the women around the room, "is a Listener. It's one of the things that set Hogwarts apart from other magic schools."

Ginny just stared blankly at her, not understanding where Medea was going with this. After a slight pause Medea continued. "This was decided because it is easier for Listeners to detect other Listeners and train them. Dumbledore is one of the strongest Listeners that ever existed yet he seems a little deaf sometimes." Dumbledore's smile only deepened.

"The princess is under the impression that you are an undetected Listener and is quite bitter about the undetected part." His eyes were twinkling, "So I decided to call you up here and subject you to a few tests, if you don't mind."

Ginny did not know how to react. Medea had mentioned something about Listeners to her when they were in the Hospital Wing but Ginny had not taken her very seriously. She thought that Medea was still sick and therefore her powers might have slipped. She was not sure she liked the idea of unknown tests but she was used to school and felt that she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

"I thought so," Dumbledore startled her by saying. "Now, just listen carefully and tell me what you hear."

Ginny shifted in her seat nervously. She strained her ears but all she could hear was Medea and Dumbledore's breathing.  After a few minutes of feeling extremely stupid she shrugged and reported that she had heard nothing.

"That's because you're listening with your ears only," Dumbledore seemed unperturbed. This annoyed Ginny more than anything. Small sparks of her temper began to take flight in the pool of her emotions.

"What am I supposed to listen with?" she snapped, forgetting that she was talking to the headmaster, "My foot?"

 Medea did not even blink, instead Ginny saw her annoyed expression lift a little and saw the amusement in her eyes. "You could try that, I guess."

"Fine!" Ginny answered and crossed her arms. Leaning back she was determined to listen with neither ears nor any other part of her body. Instead she just stared at Dumbledore and his undaunted smile without doing anything. Just when she was about to announce that it did not work, she heard a small voice whisper in the back of her mind. "Dumbledore knows you're a Listener. He's just keeping this façade of innocence and making up these tests because it irritates Medea. It's a game between the two of them, like in the Great Hall this morning" She gasped. Dumbledore's smile deepened.

"So now you know my little secret," He winked at her. "I guess we will have to train you now in a different way. I was waiting for you to grow into your powers (and I was slightly preoccupied) but that does not seem to appeal to our little royalty here..."

"Little indeed!" Medea scoffed, "you know very well that…"

Dumbledore did not even notice, "So I will teach you once a week. Her Majesty will work with you too, whenever you two work out the time."

Medea and Ginny just gaped at him. Finally, Medea got over the shock. "I asked you not to use formal titles, I hate them. And how am I supposed to help? This is not the way it usually works!"

"Tradition changes. You had concerns about my methods therefore you will assist me in the new ones."

"You're a fox, you know that?" Medea snapped

"Coming from you, my dear, I don't believe that was a compliment" Dumbledore's answer signaled the end of the discussion. "Have a nice evening both of you. Medea you have a room set up for you," Medea nodded, still glaring daggers at him, "And Miss Weasley I expect to see you here tomorrow night at this time." With that he turned and left the room.

"Come on," Medea got up and stretched. "Let's go to bed." She pointed her thumb in the direction Dumbledore had just left, "He thinks that he should punish me for sticking my long nose into the business that belongs to his even longer nose. At least my nose is only long metaphorically. And he thinks that if I'm staying here I should make myself useful." She put her arm through Ginny's and as they left the room the portraits could hear her whisper in Ginny's ear, "We'll have fun. You'll see."