Chapter Nine: Waiting Out The Winter
Thanks to his late night, it was well past dawn before Harry stirred that morning, and when he finally emerged out of the haze of sleep, he smiled broadly remember the hours of pleasure that he and Ginny had enjoyed together the night before as they explored each other's bodies. He looked down at Ginny who was spooned up against him, her head tucked under his chin.
He bent down, and grinning mischievously, he kissed her on the shoulder, trailing his lips across the bare skin. After a few seconds, Ginny stirred and moaned, then turned to look at him. "Good morning, Harry."
"Good morning, Gin," Harry replied, then with a grin he added. "Did you have a good sleep?"
Ginny smiled. "It was great. Once you stopped trying to keep me awake and actually let me get some sleep."
"You didn't complain at the time," Harry reminded. "In fact I seem to remember getting rather a lot of encouragement, actually."
"Yes, you did," Ginny agreed. "Now, as much as I'd love to lie here with you all day, I'm hungry."
"Hungry, I can deal with that," said Harry, arching his eyebrows suggestively.
"I need food, Harry," Ginny told him. "Can I use your shower? I'm all sweaty."
"Of course you can, love," Harry told her. "What is mine is yours. I need one too actually. Do you want to go first?"
"Who said anything about going in one at a time?" Ginny asked slyly.
"Not me," Harry agreed and followed her into the en-suite bathroom.
----
Fortunately, they managed to avoid anyone on the way down to breakfast. It wasn't until most of others had joined them at the table and they were all eating that the problems started. And surprisingly it was Luna that dropped them in it, not that she realised it of course.
Ginny was just helping herself to some sausages, when Luna looked at her and asked. "Did I miss you come in last night, Ginny? You were gone when I got up."
Ginny sighed, and looked at Harry, he bent down so he could whisper in her ear. "We might as well tell them. Last night wasn't a one-off, at least not for me." Ginny nodded, and reached under the table for Harry's hand grasping it hard. Then she turned to Luna. "Actually Luna, I stayed with Harry last night."
Luna nodded sagely, as if that was the answer she'd been expecting. However others weren't as calm. Ron went bright red and turned towards them. "What do you mean by stayed with him?!"
"That's none of your business, Ron," Ginny told him. "I don't ask what you and Hermione get up to."
"That's different!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my baby sister!" Ron told her. "You shouldn't be having sex!"
Seeing Ginny's other hand creep towards her wand, Harry leaned over grasped both hands. Then he turned to Ron. "Ron, you're my best friend, but so help me, if you call Ginny a baby again, you'll regret it. Ginny is sixteen, the same age you were when you and Hermione started being together, and she's a free agent. You have no right to talk down to her like that."
Ron had the good grace to look in embarrassed but said nothing.
"Ginny, we need to talk," said Mrs Weasley, getting up out of her seat.
"Mum-" protested Ginny.
"Now."
Ginny looked despairingly at Harry but he shook his head. He had an idea the sort of things Mrs Weasley wanted to discuss with Ginny, and he knew that they needed to be touched on. Even if talking about them was rather embarrassing.
Ginny sighed and got up, following Mrs Weasley out of the room. After a pause, Tonks, Hermione and Angelina followed her to back her up. When Harry turned back to the table, he saw that Sirius, Remus and the Weasley men were looking rather serious, even the twins. "Finish your breakfast, Harry," Sirius told him. "Then we're going to take a walk."
Harry sighed. He knew this was coming.
----
Ten minutes later, Harry and Sirius left the keep and headed down towards the stables. Once they were out of earshot, Sirius spoke. "Harry, I think you may have a rough idea, the sort of things I'm going to say?" Harry nodded. "Now, I never expected to be giving 'the talk', I mean I was hardly a perfect example myself. I dated two girls in my OWL year, three girls during my sixth, and another four in my final year. Of those, I fooled around with six, and had sex with four." he paused. "Of course, none of them had six brothers or Molly for a mother."
"I'm being careful, Sirius," Harry assured him. "We're taking it slow."
"Good, Merlin knows I wish I had," Sirius said. "Leona was right there in front of me, but I just ignored her. And went chasing after anything that put up a fight. About the only one I didn't chase after was Lily, I knew James wanted her and that wouldn't have been right."
"So, what you're saying is. do what I say, not what I do?" said Harry. "Or rather did."
Sirius nodded, "As for when you do actually have sex."
"Don't worry, Sirius. Civis told me the right book to look in months ago." Harry told him. "And I fully intend to use it."
"I hope so, Harry," Sirius told him. "There's a time for having kids and while you're at school isn't it."
"I know, Sirius!" Harry said. "We'll be careful."
"I'm sorry, Harry. It's just difficult."
"I know, it's not easy for me either."
By this point they'd reached the stables, Harry suggested that they stop in and check the horses. Sirius, thankful for the change in subject, agreed and followed Harry inside. Half an hour with Ravlin and the other horses calmed Harry down and when he met up with Ginny in the sitting room ten minutes later, it was with a smile on his face.
"How did your 'talk' go?" Ginny asked him as he sat down beside her and drew her into a loose embrace.
"Fine, it helped that Sirius wasn't exactly the Class Innocent," Harry told her. "He'd had sex with four girls by the time he left Hogwarts."
"Really, who?"
"He didn't say, all I know is that it wasn't my mum or Leona," Harry admitted. "And I'm fairly sure he didn't date any Slytherins." He turned his head to look straight at Ginny. "How was your talk?"
"As bad as I expected," Ginny said grimly. "Mum went on for about ten minutes about how girls never had sex before they were married. Which I know from Hagrid, is a load of rubbish. Then she said that we had better be careful and use protection."
"She's right about that," Harry agreed. "I think Leona will brew some Prophylaxis Potion if you ask her. I've seen the recipe and it's pretty complex. I'd be surprised if Hermione's been able to make it."
"I'll ask Hermione and Leona about it," Ginny told him. "Do you know any other methods, that potion's not a hundred percent reliable you know. My mum was on it when she had me."
"The book Civis gave me about it has a couple of good Barrier Spells that might do the trick, there's also a Temporary Sterility Charm in that book too. I think we're covered as long we're careful and actually use protection."
Ginny nodded her agreement and they settled down to wait quietly for their friends to gather.
That night, Ginny came to Harry again, and they practised the charms from Civis' book.
----
A week later, it was time to head back to Hogwarts. Harry, Ginny and the other students packed up their things and with the usual guard of Order members they Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and then drove to King's Cross. The trip back to Hogwarts was uneventful, and they were installed back at Hogwarts a few hours later.
Harry asked Civis if he would unpack for him, which he agreed he would, then Harry headed over to the War Room, where most of the Council - with the exception of Professor Sprout and Shi Ngau - were already assembled. Once they arrived, Dumbledore opened the meeting.
"As some of you may know from the Daily Prophet or other sources, Voldemort and his servants and allies were very busy over the holiday. Fortunately, there were no fatalities or serious injuries among the student population or their families, however the most recent information that we have available suggests that thirty people were killed and as many as a hundred and fifty people were hospitalised - three-fifths of which were non- combatants and largely Muggles. Our information also suggests that a large scale attack on the Ministry is imminent and that an attack on Hogwarts will occur within the next few months.
"Does the Council believe that curfew measures should be increased to protect the students?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't, Sparky. I think we should increase security patrols yes. And possibly minimise travel outside the school grounds, but other than that. Until we have hard evidence of an attack I don't see the point. It'll cause more trouble for us, and make the students' lives difficult."
"I agree, Harry," said Dumbledore. "All those in favour?" The majority of the Council sided with Harry, with only Snape, Shi Hu and Shi Ngau dissenting.
"I do however, have one request regarding security." Harry said.
"Go ahead."
"I would like authorisation to separate students I feel are a security risk from the general population and to confine them under guard in a safe location in the event of a major attack occurring," Harry explained. "At my discretion, no questions asked."
Dumbledore nodded. "I believe that is fair, after all we do not want to fight a war on more fronts than we can avoid. Does everyone agree?"
This time only Professor Snape dissented, and Harry was given the authorisation he wanted.
After dealing with a few more minor issues, Dumbledore dismissed the meeting. Harry left the War Room immediately and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
----
The next couple of weeks were very busy ones for Harry and his friends: in addition to their classes, Harry doubled the sessions with Shi Hu and his pupils and increased the DA meetings to three times a week. The effects of this increased activity were obvious to all the participants: by the time the snow melted in early February over two-thirds of the DA could cast potent Shield and Stunning Charms and use them in a combat situation and slightly over a quarter could produce corporeal Patroni. During the second practice session of the month, Shi Hu declared himself satisfied with the progress of Harry, Ginny, Jamie, Blaise and Romulus who could now all use chi to an extent although Harry was the best. He did however say that he felt Neville and Luna would never truly get the hang of his techniques and that Ron and Hermione at least had a long way to go. About Susan, Mark and Anita he said nothing.
Once the snow melted, Harry meant with the other Quidditch captains on the DA and they agreed to incorporate some training that would make the most of the strengths of the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff teams when the time for battle finally came. He also obtained the services of Madam Hooch and Corinne Anderson as instructors. Within two weeks, he was favourable impressed by their efforts and training was scaled back so they could concentrate on preparing for the upcoming Quidditch Cup matches.
At the same time, most of the seventh years, including Harry, were sending out job applications to their chosen professions. The number of applications that each sent out depended on the personality and drive of the person concerned: Harry - who was very keen to be an Auror, sent only two applications; one to the DFDL to apply for a place on the Auror Training Program, and the other to the Quidditch Association to put himself up for consideration for a Seeker slot on one of the League teams; Hermione - who still couldn't quite make up her mind what she wanted to be - applied for a total of seventeen different posts, eight within the Ministry, two in major wizarding institutions, and the remaining seven in the private sector; and Ron applied for three: the training programs for Hit Wizards and Curse Breakers, and for a League slot as a Keeper.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter, the promised outtake from the previous chapter (which will now be R-rated) is currently in the hands of my beta- reader Weapotternger and will be posted some time in the next week or so as will - hopefully - the next chapter of this story. In the mean time, please review.
Thanks to his late night, it was well past dawn before Harry stirred that morning, and when he finally emerged out of the haze of sleep, he smiled broadly remember the hours of pleasure that he and Ginny had enjoyed together the night before as they explored each other's bodies. He looked down at Ginny who was spooned up against him, her head tucked under his chin.
He bent down, and grinning mischievously, he kissed her on the shoulder, trailing his lips across the bare skin. After a few seconds, Ginny stirred and moaned, then turned to look at him. "Good morning, Harry."
"Good morning, Gin," Harry replied, then with a grin he added. "Did you have a good sleep?"
Ginny smiled. "It was great. Once you stopped trying to keep me awake and actually let me get some sleep."
"You didn't complain at the time," Harry reminded. "In fact I seem to remember getting rather a lot of encouragement, actually."
"Yes, you did," Ginny agreed. "Now, as much as I'd love to lie here with you all day, I'm hungry."
"Hungry, I can deal with that," said Harry, arching his eyebrows suggestively.
"I need food, Harry," Ginny told him. "Can I use your shower? I'm all sweaty."
"Of course you can, love," Harry told her. "What is mine is yours. I need one too actually. Do you want to go first?"
"Who said anything about going in one at a time?" Ginny asked slyly.
"Not me," Harry agreed and followed her into the en-suite bathroom.
----
Fortunately, they managed to avoid anyone on the way down to breakfast. It wasn't until most of others had joined them at the table and they were all eating that the problems started. And surprisingly it was Luna that dropped them in it, not that she realised it of course.
Ginny was just helping herself to some sausages, when Luna looked at her and asked. "Did I miss you come in last night, Ginny? You were gone when I got up."
Ginny sighed, and looked at Harry, he bent down so he could whisper in her ear. "We might as well tell them. Last night wasn't a one-off, at least not for me." Ginny nodded, and reached under the table for Harry's hand grasping it hard. Then she turned to Luna. "Actually Luna, I stayed with Harry last night."
Luna nodded sagely, as if that was the answer she'd been expecting. However others weren't as calm. Ron went bright red and turned towards them. "What do you mean by stayed with him?!"
"That's none of your business, Ron," Ginny told him. "I don't ask what you and Hermione get up to."
"That's different!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my baby sister!" Ron told her. "You shouldn't be having sex!"
Seeing Ginny's other hand creep towards her wand, Harry leaned over grasped both hands. Then he turned to Ron. "Ron, you're my best friend, but so help me, if you call Ginny a baby again, you'll regret it. Ginny is sixteen, the same age you were when you and Hermione started being together, and she's a free agent. You have no right to talk down to her like that."
Ron had the good grace to look in embarrassed but said nothing.
"Ginny, we need to talk," said Mrs Weasley, getting up out of her seat.
"Mum-" protested Ginny.
"Now."
Ginny looked despairingly at Harry but he shook his head. He had an idea the sort of things Mrs Weasley wanted to discuss with Ginny, and he knew that they needed to be touched on. Even if talking about them was rather embarrassing.
Ginny sighed and got up, following Mrs Weasley out of the room. After a pause, Tonks, Hermione and Angelina followed her to back her up. When Harry turned back to the table, he saw that Sirius, Remus and the Weasley men were looking rather serious, even the twins. "Finish your breakfast, Harry," Sirius told him. "Then we're going to take a walk."
Harry sighed. He knew this was coming.
----
Ten minutes later, Harry and Sirius left the keep and headed down towards the stables. Once they were out of earshot, Sirius spoke. "Harry, I think you may have a rough idea, the sort of things I'm going to say?" Harry nodded. "Now, I never expected to be giving 'the talk', I mean I was hardly a perfect example myself. I dated two girls in my OWL year, three girls during my sixth, and another four in my final year. Of those, I fooled around with six, and had sex with four." he paused. "Of course, none of them had six brothers or Molly for a mother."
"I'm being careful, Sirius," Harry assured him. "We're taking it slow."
"Good, Merlin knows I wish I had," Sirius said. "Leona was right there in front of me, but I just ignored her. And went chasing after anything that put up a fight. About the only one I didn't chase after was Lily, I knew James wanted her and that wouldn't have been right."
"So, what you're saying is. do what I say, not what I do?" said Harry. "Or rather did."
Sirius nodded, "As for when you do actually have sex."
"Don't worry, Sirius. Civis told me the right book to look in months ago." Harry told him. "And I fully intend to use it."
"I hope so, Harry," Sirius told him. "There's a time for having kids and while you're at school isn't it."
"I know, Sirius!" Harry said. "We'll be careful."
"I'm sorry, Harry. It's just difficult."
"I know, it's not easy for me either."
By this point they'd reached the stables, Harry suggested that they stop in and check the horses. Sirius, thankful for the change in subject, agreed and followed Harry inside. Half an hour with Ravlin and the other horses calmed Harry down and when he met up with Ginny in the sitting room ten minutes later, it was with a smile on his face.
"How did your 'talk' go?" Ginny asked him as he sat down beside her and drew her into a loose embrace.
"Fine, it helped that Sirius wasn't exactly the Class Innocent," Harry told her. "He'd had sex with four girls by the time he left Hogwarts."
"Really, who?"
"He didn't say, all I know is that it wasn't my mum or Leona," Harry admitted. "And I'm fairly sure he didn't date any Slytherins." He turned his head to look straight at Ginny. "How was your talk?"
"As bad as I expected," Ginny said grimly. "Mum went on for about ten minutes about how girls never had sex before they were married. Which I know from Hagrid, is a load of rubbish. Then she said that we had better be careful and use protection."
"She's right about that," Harry agreed. "I think Leona will brew some Prophylaxis Potion if you ask her. I've seen the recipe and it's pretty complex. I'd be surprised if Hermione's been able to make it."
"I'll ask Hermione and Leona about it," Ginny told him. "Do you know any other methods, that potion's not a hundred percent reliable you know. My mum was on it when she had me."
"The book Civis gave me about it has a couple of good Barrier Spells that might do the trick, there's also a Temporary Sterility Charm in that book too. I think we're covered as long we're careful and actually use protection."
Ginny nodded her agreement and they settled down to wait quietly for their friends to gather.
That night, Ginny came to Harry again, and they practised the charms from Civis' book.
----
A week later, it was time to head back to Hogwarts. Harry, Ginny and the other students packed up their things and with the usual guard of Order members they Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and then drove to King's Cross. The trip back to Hogwarts was uneventful, and they were installed back at Hogwarts a few hours later.
Harry asked Civis if he would unpack for him, which he agreed he would, then Harry headed over to the War Room, where most of the Council - with the exception of Professor Sprout and Shi Ngau - were already assembled. Once they arrived, Dumbledore opened the meeting.
"As some of you may know from the Daily Prophet or other sources, Voldemort and his servants and allies were very busy over the holiday. Fortunately, there were no fatalities or serious injuries among the student population or their families, however the most recent information that we have available suggests that thirty people were killed and as many as a hundred and fifty people were hospitalised - three-fifths of which were non- combatants and largely Muggles. Our information also suggests that a large scale attack on the Ministry is imminent and that an attack on Hogwarts will occur within the next few months.
"Does the Council believe that curfew measures should be increased to protect the students?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't, Sparky. I think we should increase security patrols yes. And possibly minimise travel outside the school grounds, but other than that. Until we have hard evidence of an attack I don't see the point. It'll cause more trouble for us, and make the students' lives difficult."
"I agree, Harry," said Dumbledore. "All those in favour?" The majority of the Council sided with Harry, with only Snape, Shi Hu and Shi Ngau dissenting.
"I do however, have one request regarding security." Harry said.
"Go ahead."
"I would like authorisation to separate students I feel are a security risk from the general population and to confine them under guard in a safe location in the event of a major attack occurring," Harry explained. "At my discretion, no questions asked."
Dumbledore nodded. "I believe that is fair, after all we do not want to fight a war on more fronts than we can avoid. Does everyone agree?"
This time only Professor Snape dissented, and Harry was given the authorisation he wanted.
After dealing with a few more minor issues, Dumbledore dismissed the meeting. Harry left the War Room immediately and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
----
The next couple of weeks were very busy ones for Harry and his friends: in addition to their classes, Harry doubled the sessions with Shi Hu and his pupils and increased the DA meetings to three times a week. The effects of this increased activity were obvious to all the participants: by the time the snow melted in early February over two-thirds of the DA could cast potent Shield and Stunning Charms and use them in a combat situation and slightly over a quarter could produce corporeal Patroni. During the second practice session of the month, Shi Hu declared himself satisfied with the progress of Harry, Ginny, Jamie, Blaise and Romulus who could now all use chi to an extent although Harry was the best. He did however say that he felt Neville and Luna would never truly get the hang of his techniques and that Ron and Hermione at least had a long way to go. About Susan, Mark and Anita he said nothing.
Once the snow melted, Harry meant with the other Quidditch captains on the DA and they agreed to incorporate some training that would make the most of the strengths of the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff teams when the time for battle finally came. He also obtained the services of Madam Hooch and Corinne Anderson as instructors. Within two weeks, he was favourable impressed by their efforts and training was scaled back so they could concentrate on preparing for the upcoming Quidditch Cup matches.
At the same time, most of the seventh years, including Harry, were sending out job applications to their chosen professions. The number of applications that each sent out depended on the personality and drive of the person concerned: Harry - who was very keen to be an Auror, sent only two applications; one to the DFDL to apply for a place on the Auror Training Program, and the other to the Quidditch Association to put himself up for consideration for a Seeker slot on one of the League teams; Hermione - who still couldn't quite make up her mind what she wanted to be - applied for a total of seventeen different posts, eight within the Ministry, two in major wizarding institutions, and the remaining seven in the private sector; and Ron applied for three: the training programs for Hit Wizards and Curse Breakers, and for a League slot as a Keeper.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter, the promised outtake from the previous chapter (which will now be R-rated) is currently in the hands of my beta- reader Weapotternger and will be posted some time in the next week or so as will - hopefully - the next chapter of this story. In the mean time, please review.