Chapter Seven: Marauding Moths
The first day back to lessons after the Hogsmeade attack was fairly routine: the Gryffindors in Harry's year started studying the Disillusionment Charm in Charms, and McGonagall tested them on their ability to hold a partial Venificus Mutato Charm: which, in Harry's case, involved shifting his facial features and head to mimic that of a large cat. He managed the shift, but they couldn't figure out what breed he was yet, which McGonagall assured him was quite normal. After lunch, Harry, Ron and Neville had a free lesson, and Hermione had Double Arithmancy with Slytherin. When the rest of their friends had left lunch for classes, Neville disappeared down to the greenhouses, allegedly to help Sprout with some pruning, and Harry and Ron decided to go up to Harry's office and do something they hadn't done for a while: play a game of chess together.
By the same classes finished, they had played five games, and Ron had thrashed Harry in four.
"You're getting better," Ron observed. "A while ago you won't even have managed that stalemate."
"I know," Harry admitted. "A leader I may be, but a tactician I'm not. I'll leave that to you or Romulus."
"Now he's not bad," Ron added. "Although, d'you want to know who the best chess player I've ever played was?"
"Yes, I would."
"Malone."
"Thomas Malone, the healer?" Harry said incredulously.
Ron nodded. "You bet. He's a chess monster. I played him a couple of games yesterday morning, and he beat me within five minutes both times."
"Impressive."
"You bet," agreed Ron. "Shall we go and meet the girls?"
"You get Hermione, I'll go and find Neville. Luna'll bring Ginny up."
Ron nodded and they left Harry's office, each heading a different way once they reached the staircase.
----
As he expected, Neville was still in the greenhouses. He was in the middle of pruning the Venomous Tentacula in Greenhouse Three, but he looked up when Harry entered. "Hi Harry, is it time?"
Harry nodded. "Have you got what you need?"
"Yeah, I do," Neville confirmed, and pulled out a small package from under one of the tables. "Shall we go?" Harry nodded, and the two friends headed back up to the castle with Civis trotting behind them.
When they entered the DA room a few minutes later, Harry was pleased to see that most of the people he was expecting had already arrived: Ron and Hermione, Blaise, Romulus, Jamie and Mark, the Bones sisters, Hagrid, even the twins, Charlie, Bill and Fleur, and Angelina, Alicia and Katie. The only people that were missing were a few of the DA, including the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team; a representative or two from the Guardians; and of course Luna, who was escorting the Guest of Honour.
Harry had just got to his seat when Draper ducked inside the room. "She's coming." He told the assembled crowd, who immediately darted into hiding places around the room. Harry crept over to the door, and then extinguished the lights.
The door creaked open and Luna and Ginny walked in. Harry brought the lights and everyone jumped out from their hiding places. Harry looked over at Ginny and saw to his horror that unlike the year before she was certainly not happy. In fact, she was crying. Before he could do anything, she run towards the door of his office and slammed it shut. Hermione, Luna and Bill all moved to follow her, but Harry stopped them. "It was my mistake. I'll fix it."
All three paused, then nodded and allowed Harry to pass.
----
Harry's office was empty, but he could hear Ginny inside his bedroom, so he eased open the door and went inside. He could see Ginny for a while as he scanned the room but then he noticed that his bed was rather more rumpled than it should be, so he tiptoed over and lifted the cover. "Ginny, are you okay? What's wrong?"
Ginny sat up, and wiped her eyes before speaking. "I'm sorry, it's just. after what I saw in Hogsmeade, after trying to help Culkin ." she stopped, to overcome to continue.
Harry scowled, he didn't like to see Ginny like this. He sat down on his bed and took her in his arms, rocking her slightly. "It's alright, Ginny, I understand. I should have thought, remembered. I'm sorry."
"Just hold me, Harry. Stay here, please?"
"Of course, Ginny," Harry assured her. When Civis poked his head in a few minutes Harry mouthed that Ginny was okay, but that now wasn't the time for a party. The hobgoblin nodded his understanding and ducked back out again.
After a while, Ginny regained her composure, but didn't make any move to leave. "Can I stay here with you to-night?" she asked, looking up into Harry's eyes.
"Of course you can, Ginny," Harry assured her, then he removed his glass and reaching for the blanket, pulled it over them. "Good night, love."
"G'night Harry." Ginny mumbled, and held snugly in his arms she was soon asleep, with Harry not far behind.
----
Despite their rather early night - and perhaps because of being together - the two Gryffindor woke later that they would normally have done. Harry woke first, and was a little confused by two things; one, that he appeared to still be wearing his clothes, and two, that he appeared to have company. Harry looked down and smiled at Ginny, who was sleeping curled up in his arms with her head pillowed by his chest, her long hair spread out across his torso, he reached over with his free hand and ran it through her hair enjoying the silky smoothness of it. Ginny stirred, blinked and looked up at him. "Morning Harry."
"Morning Ginny. Sleep well?"
Ginny nodded. "Thanks for last night, Harry. And I'm sorry about the party, normally I'd love one but."
"You didn't feel in the mood," Harry finished for her. "I understand Gin, I really do. I just wish I'd realised."
"Don't worry, Harry," Ginny told him. "It's okay now."
They lay in bed together for a little bit longer, then Harry realised that it was light outside and so they should probably get moving. He also realised that Ginny would need some clothes. "Civis!"
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then there was a 'pop' and the hobgoblin appeared out of thin air. "You called?" he asked sardonically.
"Yes, I did," Harry confirmed, then turned to Ginny. "Do you want to get ready here, or go back to Gryffindor Tower?"
"Here, if that's okay, Harry?"
"That's fine," Harry told her. "Civis, could you find Winky and ask her to retrieve some clothes for Ginny to wear?"
"Right away," Civis confirmed. "Do you need anything else?"
Ginny shook her head. "I've got a light schedule today, and all the books and things I'll need are here."
The hobgoblin nodded, and disappeared with another pop. Five minutes later, he reappeared accompanied by Winky the House-Elf, who was carrying a small bundle of clothes and a make-up bag, she quickly handed them over and disappeared. Civis didn't Apparate out again, instead he went out into Harry's adjoining office, leaving Harry and Ginny alone. They showered, and changed into fresh robes - Harry had no problem with clothing as he still hadn't moved back to Gryffindor Tower yet and was living in that room anyway - and then walking arm-in-arm, left Harry's quarters and headed down to breakfast.
The reception they received at breakfast was a mixed one as Harry expected it would be, when they entered the Great Hall several people pointed at them and there was a lot of whispering in the background mainly from the Slytherins, but also from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The Gryffindor table remained thankfully silent, although this didn't do a great deal to improve Harry's mood, as once he had taken his seat opposite Ron and Hermione at the table he could see that another argument with Ron was probably in the offing, because his friend looked furious.
Harry sighed and scanned the faces of the other friends sitting around him: Hermione had a puzzled, but friendly look on her face, although Harry could tell it was a little forced, probably due to Ron; Neville and Mark were their usual selves, and Jamie's questioning look seemed to stem from a wish to know what had happened, rather than an intention to condemn him. "Ron?" Harry asked. His friend didn't reply and continued to eat his breakfast. "Ron, I'd like to talk to you."
At first, Ron stayed silent, but then Hermione elbowed him sharply in the ribs and he answered. "Yes Harry?"
"Nothing happened last night. Ginny ran out because she was still upset about what happened on Saturday. She went into my room, I found her, and we talked for a while, then she asked if she could stay with me. I agreed and we went to sleep. That's all. Nothing happened, we were fully clothed the whole time. If you don't believe me, ask Civis. He saw us just before we went to sleep and first thing this morning."
Ron grunted, clearly still not entirely convinced. "Ron, Ginny means far too much to me for me to do anything that she's not really for. And neither of us were ready for that last night. And even if we had been, what Ginny and I do together is our business and ours alone, understand?"
This time Ron's expression cracked, and he looked up to face them. "I'm sorry, Harry," Ginny coughed. "And you Ginny. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."
"No you shouldn't have, Ron," Ginny agreed. "You should have known that Harry would never take advantage of me. He's your best friend for Merlin's sake!"
Ron looked chastened and quickly apologised again. Harry assured him that his apology was accepted and suggested that they get on with their breakfast.
After they had finished breakfast, Harry realised that he should probably do something about the rumours that were circulating around the castle and probably beyond. On their way down to Potions, Harry ducked into an empty classroom and indicated that Civis should return to his natural form. "Could you do me a favour?"
"Probably, what is it?"
"I want you to go to Professor McGonagall and make sure she knows that nothing went on between Ginny and me last night. Then send Hedwig and Hedley to Gryphon's Eyrie and the Burrow with the same message."
"Hedley's a delivery at the moment," Civis reminded him.
"Then use Haimric, Pig or one of the school owls," Harry told him. "I don't care, just make sure they get there before the Evening Prophet comes out tonight."
"I understand," said the hobgoblin and disappeared with a 'pop'.
Harry shook his head and then headed towards the potions dungeon. To his chagrin, Snape had obviously heard the rumours about what he and Ginny had done that night, as he assigned them the Prophylaxis Potion and sneered at Harry while he did. Harry needn't have worried though, although he wasn't very familiar with the potion, Romulus - who had been paired with Harry by Snape at the beginning of term - was and with his help, Harry managed to brew follow the initial stages of the potion correctly. Like the Polyjuice Potion it would actually take several lessons to complete due to the fact it needed to simmer for two weeks before it could be tested.
----
As Harry expected, the Daily Prophet that arrived next morning showed a large banner headline publicizing the 'fact' that he had had sex with Ginny the night before while she was overcome with guilt over her 'inability to help a fellow student who had been injured due to the inadequate security of Hogsmeade village'. Harry snorted, and scanned down to the by-line, then turned to Hermione. "'Mione, could you do me a favour?"
"Sure Harry."
"Could you ask 'our friend' if she can find dirt on. Wilhelmina Wyrm? And then 'ask' her to publish it. I'm sure Mr Lovegood would be happy to provide her with the space needed."
"Of course Harry," Hermione assured him. "I'll do it after DADA."
"That'll be fine."
As far as Harry was concerned though, the day went downhill from there. Distracted by Madam Wyrm's article, he didn't secure his defences properly and he got hit by a Cryonicus Curse by Neville, which although easily reversed was also rather painful, and to make matters worse, Hagrid chose the lesson after lunch to introduce them to a beast that Harry had been dreading meeting since he first heard about them the year before: the Siberian Ice-Moth. Unfortunately, Grubbly-Plank's Passivity Charms wore off halfway through the lesson and as no one (not even Hermione) knew the proper incantation, they ran riot and only the timely arrival of the airborne Guardians Antonia Menotti and Corrine Anderson prevented their escape. The one good thing as far as Harry was concerned was that, as several students - Parvati Patil, Crabbe, Goyle and Millicent Bulstrode - had been hit by the creatures paralysing Freezing Quills and needed to be taken to the Hospital Wing, Hagrid excused them early.
Saturday found Harry, Ginny, Jamie, Mark and Civis at the Quidditch pitch watching with Neville, Luna, Anthony Goldstein and the other Ravenclaws as they lost sixty points to a hundred-and-ninety after a two hour game when the new Ravenclaw Seeker, Orla Quirke beat Summersby to the Snitch by a mere two lengths.
"They'll still have to pull off a miracle to win the Cup though," Harry mused as they hurried back to the castle. "With that loss they've dropped to third place behind Hufflepuff. They'll have to score at least two hundred and fifty points against us to draw, and that's if Turpin can stop us from scoring and Quirke can beat me to the Snitch. I can't see that happening."
"Let's not get too cocky, Harry," Ginny warned him. "It could happen."
"I know it could, love," Harry assured her. "But I intend to make sure it doesn't."
A/N: Sorry this chapter's a little short, but I wasn't sure what else to put in it, and I won't have been able to do anything more with it for a while anyway so I though I'd leave it there. I'll try and get Chapter 8 up soon, but it might not be up before the weekend. As always please review.
The first day back to lessons after the Hogsmeade attack was fairly routine: the Gryffindors in Harry's year started studying the Disillusionment Charm in Charms, and McGonagall tested them on their ability to hold a partial Venificus Mutato Charm: which, in Harry's case, involved shifting his facial features and head to mimic that of a large cat. He managed the shift, but they couldn't figure out what breed he was yet, which McGonagall assured him was quite normal. After lunch, Harry, Ron and Neville had a free lesson, and Hermione had Double Arithmancy with Slytherin. When the rest of their friends had left lunch for classes, Neville disappeared down to the greenhouses, allegedly to help Sprout with some pruning, and Harry and Ron decided to go up to Harry's office and do something they hadn't done for a while: play a game of chess together.
By the same classes finished, they had played five games, and Ron had thrashed Harry in four.
"You're getting better," Ron observed. "A while ago you won't even have managed that stalemate."
"I know," Harry admitted. "A leader I may be, but a tactician I'm not. I'll leave that to you or Romulus."
"Now he's not bad," Ron added. "Although, d'you want to know who the best chess player I've ever played was?"
"Yes, I would."
"Malone."
"Thomas Malone, the healer?" Harry said incredulously.
Ron nodded. "You bet. He's a chess monster. I played him a couple of games yesterday morning, and he beat me within five minutes both times."
"Impressive."
"You bet," agreed Ron. "Shall we go and meet the girls?"
"You get Hermione, I'll go and find Neville. Luna'll bring Ginny up."
Ron nodded and they left Harry's office, each heading a different way once they reached the staircase.
----
As he expected, Neville was still in the greenhouses. He was in the middle of pruning the Venomous Tentacula in Greenhouse Three, but he looked up when Harry entered. "Hi Harry, is it time?"
Harry nodded. "Have you got what you need?"
"Yeah, I do," Neville confirmed, and pulled out a small package from under one of the tables. "Shall we go?" Harry nodded, and the two friends headed back up to the castle with Civis trotting behind them.
When they entered the DA room a few minutes later, Harry was pleased to see that most of the people he was expecting had already arrived: Ron and Hermione, Blaise, Romulus, Jamie and Mark, the Bones sisters, Hagrid, even the twins, Charlie, Bill and Fleur, and Angelina, Alicia and Katie. The only people that were missing were a few of the DA, including the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team; a representative or two from the Guardians; and of course Luna, who was escorting the Guest of Honour.
Harry had just got to his seat when Draper ducked inside the room. "She's coming." He told the assembled crowd, who immediately darted into hiding places around the room. Harry crept over to the door, and then extinguished the lights.
The door creaked open and Luna and Ginny walked in. Harry brought the lights and everyone jumped out from their hiding places. Harry looked over at Ginny and saw to his horror that unlike the year before she was certainly not happy. In fact, she was crying. Before he could do anything, she run towards the door of his office and slammed it shut. Hermione, Luna and Bill all moved to follow her, but Harry stopped them. "It was my mistake. I'll fix it."
All three paused, then nodded and allowed Harry to pass.
----
Harry's office was empty, but he could hear Ginny inside his bedroom, so he eased open the door and went inside. He could see Ginny for a while as he scanned the room but then he noticed that his bed was rather more rumpled than it should be, so he tiptoed over and lifted the cover. "Ginny, are you okay? What's wrong?"
Ginny sat up, and wiped her eyes before speaking. "I'm sorry, it's just. after what I saw in Hogsmeade, after trying to help Culkin ." she stopped, to overcome to continue.
Harry scowled, he didn't like to see Ginny like this. He sat down on his bed and took her in his arms, rocking her slightly. "It's alright, Ginny, I understand. I should have thought, remembered. I'm sorry."
"Just hold me, Harry. Stay here, please?"
"Of course, Ginny," Harry assured her. When Civis poked his head in a few minutes Harry mouthed that Ginny was okay, but that now wasn't the time for a party. The hobgoblin nodded his understanding and ducked back out again.
After a while, Ginny regained her composure, but didn't make any move to leave. "Can I stay here with you to-night?" she asked, looking up into Harry's eyes.
"Of course you can, Ginny," Harry assured her, then he removed his glass and reaching for the blanket, pulled it over them. "Good night, love."
"G'night Harry." Ginny mumbled, and held snugly in his arms she was soon asleep, with Harry not far behind.
----
Despite their rather early night - and perhaps because of being together - the two Gryffindor woke later that they would normally have done. Harry woke first, and was a little confused by two things; one, that he appeared to still be wearing his clothes, and two, that he appeared to have company. Harry looked down and smiled at Ginny, who was sleeping curled up in his arms with her head pillowed by his chest, her long hair spread out across his torso, he reached over with his free hand and ran it through her hair enjoying the silky smoothness of it. Ginny stirred, blinked and looked up at him. "Morning Harry."
"Morning Ginny. Sleep well?"
Ginny nodded. "Thanks for last night, Harry. And I'm sorry about the party, normally I'd love one but."
"You didn't feel in the mood," Harry finished for her. "I understand Gin, I really do. I just wish I'd realised."
"Don't worry, Harry," Ginny told him. "It's okay now."
They lay in bed together for a little bit longer, then Harry realised that it was light outside and so they should probably get moving. He also realised that Ginny would need some clothes. "Civis!"
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then there was a 'pop' and the hobgoblin appeared out of thin air. "You called?" he asked sardonically.
"Yes, I did," Harry confirmed, then turned to Ginny. "Do you want to get ready here, or go back to Gryffindor Tower?"
"Here, if that's okay, Harry?"
"That's fine," Harry told her. "Civis, could you find Winky and ask her to retrieve some clothes for Ginny to wear?"
"Right away," Civis confirmed. "Do you need anything else?"
Ginny shook her head. "I've got a light schedule today, and all the books and things I'll need are here."
The hobgoblin nodded, and disappeared with another pop. Five minutes later, he reappeared accompanied by Winky the House-Elf, who was carrying a small bundle of clothes and a make-up bag, she quickly handed them over and disappeared. Civis didn't Apparate out again, instead he went out into Harry's adjoining office, leaving Harry and Ginny alone. They showered, and changed into fresh robes - Harry had no problem with clothing as he still hadn't moved back to Gryffindor Tower yet and was living in that room anyway - and then walking arm-in-arm, left Harry's quarters and headed down to breakfast.
The reception they received at breakfast was a mixed one as Harry expected it would be, when they entered the Great Hall several people pointed at them and there was a lot of whispering in the background mainly from the Slytherins, but also from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The Gryffindor table remained thankfully silent, although this didn't do a great deal to improve Harry's mood, as once he had taken his seat opposite Ron and Hermione at the table he could see that another argument with Ron was probably in the offing, because his friend looked furious.
Harry sighed and scanned the faces of the other friends sitting around him: Hermione had a puzzled, but friendly look on her face, although Harry could tell it was a little forced, probably due to Ron; Neville and Mark were their usual selves, and Jamie's questioning look seemed to stem from a wish to know what had happened, rather than an intention to condemn him. "Ron?" Harry asked. His friend didn't reply and continued to eat his breakfast. "Ron, I'd like to talk to you."
At first, Ron stayed silent, but then Hermione elbowed him sharply in the ribs and he answered. "Yes Harry?"
"Nothing happened last night. Ginny ran out because she was still upset about what happened on Saturday. She went into my room, I found her, and we talked for a while, then she asked if she could stay with me. I agreed and we went to sleep. That's all. Nothing happened, we were fully clothed the whole time. If you don't believe me, ask Civis. He saw us just before we went to sleep and first thing this morning."
Ron grunted, clearly still not entirely convinced. "Ron, Ginny means far too much to me for me to do anything that she's not really for. And neither of us were ready for that last night. And even if we had been, what Ginny and I do together is our business and ours alone, understand?"
This time Ron's expression cracked, and he looked up to face them. "I'm sorry, Harry," Ginny coughed. "And you Ginny. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."
"No you shouldn't have, Ron," Ginny agreed. "You should have known that Harry would never take advantage of me. He's your best friend for Merlin's sake!"
Ron looked chastened and quickly apologised again. Harry assured him that his apology was accepted and suggested that they get on with their breakfast.
After they had finished breakfast, Harry realised that he should probably do something about the rumours that were circulating around the castle and probably beyond. On their way down to Potions, Harry ducked into an empty classroom and indicated that Civis should return to his natural form. "Could you do me a favour?"
"Probably, what is it?"
"I want you to go to Professor McGonagall and make sure she knows that nothing went on between Ginny and me last night. Then send Hedwig and Hedley to Gryphon's Eyrie and the Burrow with the same message."
"Hedley's a delivery at the moment," Civis reminded him.
"Then use Haimric, Pig or one of the school owls," Harry told him. "I don't care, just make sure they get there before the Evening Prophet comes out tonight."
"I understand," said the hobgoblin and disappeared with a 'pop'.
Harry shook his head and then headed towards the potions dungeon. To his chagrin, Snape had obviously heard the rumours about what he and Ginny had done that night, as he assigned them the Prophylaxis Potion and sneered at Harry while he did. Harry needn't have worried though, although he wasn't very familiar with the potion, Romulus - who had been paired with Harry by Snape at the beginning of term - was and with his help, Harry managed to brew follow the initial stages of the potion correctly. Like the Polyjuice Potion it would actually take several lessons to complete due to the fact it needed to simmer for two weeks before it could be tested.
----
As Harry expected, the Daily Prophet that arrived next morning showed a large banner headline publicizing the 'fact' that he had had sex with Ginny the night before while she was overcome with guilt over her 'inability to help a fellow student who had been injured due to the inadequate security of Hogsmeade village'. Harry snorted, and scanned down to the by-line, then turned to Hermione. "'Mione, could you do me a favour?"
"Sure Harry."
"Could you ask 'our friend' if she can find dirt on. Wilhelmina Wyrm? And then 'ask' her to publish it. I'm sure Mr Lovegood would be happy to provide her with the space needed."
"Of course Harry," Hermione assured him. "I'll do it after DADA."
"That'll be fine."
As far as Harry was concerned though, the day went downhill from there. Distracted by Madam Wyrm's article, he didn't secure his defences properly and he got hit by a Cryonicus Curse by Neville, which although easily reversed was also rather painful, and to make matters worse, Hagrid chose the lesson after lunch to introduce them to a beast that Harry had been dreading meeting since he first heard about them the year before: the Siberian Ice-Moth. Unfortunately, Grubbly-Plank's Passivity Charms wore off halfway through the lesson and as no one (not even Hermione) knew the proper incantation, they ran riot and only the timely arrival of the airborne Guardians Antonia Menotti and Corrine Anderson prevented their escape. The one good thing as far as Harry was concerned was that, as several students - Parvati Patil, Crabbe, Goyle and Millicent Bulstrode - had been hit by the creatures paralysing Freezing Quills and needed to be taken to the Hospital Wing, Hagrid excused them early.
Saturday found Harry, Ginny, Jamie, Mark and Civis at the Quidditch pitch watching with Neville, Luna, Anthony Goldstein and the other Ravenclaws as they lost sixty points to a hundred-and-ninety after a two hour game when the new Ravenclaw Seeker, Orla Quirke beat Summersby to the Snitch by a mere two lengths.
"They'll still have to pull off a miracle to win the Cup though," Harry mused as they hurried back to the castle. "With that loss they've dropped to third place behind Hufflepuff. They'll have to score at least two hundred and fifty points against us to draw, and that's if Turpin can stop us from scoring and Quirke can beat me to the Snitch. I can't see that happening."
"Let's not get too cocky, Harry," Ginny warned him. "It could happen."
"I know it could, love," Harry assured her. "But I intend to make sure it doesn't."
A/N: Sorry this chapter's a little short, but I wasn't sure what else to put in it, and I won't have been able to do anything more with it for a while anyway so I though I'd leave it there. I'll try and get Chapter 8 up soon, but it might not be up before the weekend. As always please review.