Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the intellectual property of J.K. Rowling. I am
not her. This is merely a fan fiction to tide us over until book 6.
A/N: Here's a chapter to tide you over until New Year's. I hope you all had happy holidays. And to those reviewers who put this on their favorite stories list you honor me. Thank you.
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"All right what do we have so far?" Ron asked as he, Hermione and Harry sat huddled around a table late one night in the common room. Holiday break was almost over and classes would begin in a week's time.
"There are 15 letters here," Hermione said. "I enchanted the drawer Malfoy keeps them in to automatically copy whatever he puts in there and transport it into my bookbag. Besides a rather obscene magazine, nothing else has been put in the draw of late."
Ron snickered at the mention of a magazine, which seem to make Hermione blush just at mentioning.
"Anyway," Hermione continued. "I have done some research into the Malfoys trying to find out where these letters talk about. I haven't really been able to connect the attacks to any places that the Malfoys say they own. However, we have know way of knowing where," she said picking up a letter. "'our lovely vacation spot' or 'that detestable lot of land' is."
"Maybe we can get Crabbe and Goyle to tell us where these places are," suggested Harry as he picked through the letters.
"That would be fine," Hermione began. "Except I doubt they would know where Malfoy took his first steps or where his 'insane Aunt Kiyangia' lived."
"How do we know some of these letters weren't written by insane Aunt Kiyangia?" asked Ron.
"We don't, but this is the only lead we have."
"I don't like having to learn all this stuff about Malfoy. It's making my skin crawl. What's next? Having to learn what brand name of silver spoon was in his mouth when he was born? What's his favorite torturing device? How many times he soiled his nappy on Guy Fawkes' Day? This is just bloody irritating," Ron said.
"How are we going to get this information?" Harry snapped. "I've asked the portraits in Dumbledore's office. All they can tell me is that the Malfoys own land in Bulgaria and France as well as Britain. Look at these bloody letters. They warn Malfoy to make sure he is 'well-seen' in the next few weeks and then talk about family estates. Attacks are going to be happening somewhere and he bloody well knows where."
"We'll just have to ask around Harry," Hermione said calmly. "That's all we can do. Perhaps we could just off-hand ask Professor Snape. He'll probably know."
"Oh that will be lovely, and what will we do, pray tell, after he expels us for stealing from Malfoy and then tells us nothing?" Ron sighed.
"Well it was worth a try."
"This is getting us no where," Harry said getting up from the table. "Let's just ask around and see if anyone knows where these summer home are of the Malfoys. That will at least get us somewhere."
Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement and began to rise from their seats too. It was at that time the common room door swung open and a haggard looking Ginny entered the room. Immediately a figure from across the room bound over to her. In all their plotting and discussion, the trio had failed to notice Neville's presence during their discussion.
"Ginny, you have to talk to me," Neville said in a voice sterner than Hermione and Ron had ever heard. It reminded Harry eerily of the voice he used when talking to the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic.
"Neville," an exhausted sigh came out of Ginny. "I'm really tired. Can we please talk about this in the morning?"
"No we're going to talk about it now," he said leading Ginny to the couch and causing her to plop down on it.
Ron made a motion to get to Ginny, but Harry stopped him. Quickly Harry tossed one end of Extendable Ears that direction. Whatever was going on he wanted to hear it. He turned and looked back to Hermione. She motioned for Ron and Harry to be quiet and she sat back down.
"This has been a long time coming," Hermione said quietly. "I want to hear what Neville has to say."
The trio's attention was once again on the two figures across the room. Neville looked back at them and with a flick of his wand cast a shield charm around him and Ginny.
"What did he do that for?" asked Ron angrily.
"Whatever he has to tell Ginny is probably personal," reasoned Hermione.
"What 'personal' information does he have to tell my little sister?" Ron snapped.
"Let's find out," Harry said holding up two pieces of what looked like string. "Extendable Ears anyone?"
"Brilliant mate," grinned Ron as he took one from Harry's hand.
"I've had enough of this Virginia," Neville's voice rang out. "What I did was completely and totally acceptable given the circumstances. There is not a single thing I would have done differently, except use more dangerous hexes on Malfoy. You are in fact perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, unfortunately during that incident you were unable to sustain the upper hand. You should be grateful that someone cared enough to follow you out and stop Malfoy before he. . . before anything worse happened. "I cannot stand you not talking to me, however if you continue to do so I will consider our friendship over."
Ginny looked up at Neville. Tears streamed down her eyes. Harry wondered how Neville could just stand there before her and not sit beside her on the couch and comfort her.
"Neville, I'm sorry," Ginny's voice cracked. "I've been a fool. I have no real excuse for what I've done to you."
"No you don't."
"Can you ever (sniff) forgive me? I can just be so stubborn sometimes."
"I'm not the only one you owe an apology to Ginny," Neville's voice said, a lot softer. "You owe one to Harry."
Ginny's eyes narrowed. "I don't know if I can."
Harry's heart fell a bit. He was truly sorry for what happened, but he hadn't tried to talk to Ginny since she hexed him down the stairs. Part of that was because he was so busy. The other part was that he was afraid of getting hexed again.
"You can and you will," said Neville. "I know he is semi-responsible for the first run-in you had with Malfoy. To tell you the truth I'm not so happy about it myself, but he deserves an apology too."
"I'll right," she said getting up and looking at Neville. "I'll apologize. Then will you forgive me?"
"Only if you'll come to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday," Neville smiled. "Oh and meet me at the greenhouse tomorrow after lunch, that way I can help you on herbology for OWLS. I know you've been studying like mad. Luna and you have been working really hard studying for you potions OWL. Now go apologize and go to bed. You look beat."
Ginny smiled. "Thanks."
A wave of his wand later, the shield charm came down. Harry and Ron quickly pocketed their Extendable Ears.
Ginny made her way over to the table as Neville watched. Harry noticed she did seem very dead on her feet. He wondered what she had been up to all day to make her look like that. Surely if she had detention he would have heard about it.
"Harry," Ginny said quietly. "I'm sorry for slapping you."
She turned to look at Neville, who made a motion for her to continue.
"And I'm sorry for hexing you, several times over, and for charming your potion's essay to say 'Snape's a git but I'm a bigger one' at the end."
"You did that?"
"Ya," she said. "I'm sorry."
"All's forgiven," Harry said to her. "I'm sorry to Gin. I shouldn't have asked you to do that."
"You did what you had to do Harry," she said as she starting walking up the stairs to the girls dormitory. "And so will I."
"What does that mean?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione.
Both of them just shrugged.
"Knowing Ginny we'll find out."
A/N: Here's a chapter to tide you over until New Year's. I hope you all had happy holidays. And to those reviewers who put this on their favorite stories list you honor me. Thank you.
~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~
"All right what do we have so far?" Ron asked as he, Hermione and Harry sat huddled around a table late one night in the common room. Holiday break was almost over and classes would begin in a week's time.
"There are 15 letters here," Hermione said. "I enchanted the drawer Malfoy keeps them in to automatically copy whatever he puts in there and transport it into my bookbag. Besides a rather obscene magazine, nothing else has been put in the draw of late."
Ron snickered at the mention of a magazine, which seem to make Hermione blush just at mentioning.
"Anyway," Hermione continued. "I have done some research into the Malfoys trying to find out where these letters talk about. I haven't really been able to connect the attacks to any places that the Malfoys say they own. However, we have know way of knowing where," she said picking up a letter. "'our lovely vacation spot' or 'that detestable lot of land' is."
"Maybe we can get Crabbe and Goyle to tell us where these places are," suggested Harry as he picked through the letters.
"That would be fine," Hermione began. "Except I doubt they would know where Malfoy took his first steps or where his 'insane Aunt Kiyangia' lived."
"How do we know some of these letters weren't written by insane Aunt Kiyangia?" asked Ron.
"We don't, but this is the only lead we have."
"I don't like having to learn all this stuff about Malfoy. It's making my skin crawl. What's next? Having to learn what brand name of silver spoon was in his mouth when he was born? What's his favorite torturing device? How many times he soiled his nappy on Guy Fawkes' Day? This is just bloody irritating," Ron said.
"How are we going to get this information?" Harry snapped. "I've asked the portraits in Dumbledore's office. All they can tell me is that the Malfoys own land in Bulgaria and France as well as Britain. Look at these bloody letters. They warn Malfoy to make sure he is 'well-seen' in the next few weeks and then talk about family estates. Attacks are going to be happening somewhere and he bloody well knows where."
"We'll just have to ask around Harry," Hermione said calmly. "That's all we can do. Perhaps we could just off-hand ask Professor Snape. He'll probably know."
"Oh that will be lovely, and what will we do, pray tell, after he expels us for stealing from Malfoy and then tells us nothing?" Ron sighed.
"Well it was worth a try."
"This is getting us no where," Harry said getting up from the table. "Let's just ask around and see if anyone knows where these summer home are of the Malfoys. That will at least get us somewhere."
Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement and began to rise from their seats too. It was at that time the common room door swung open and a haggard looking Ginny entered the room. Immediately a figure from across the room bound over to her. In all their plotting and discussion, the trio had failed to notice Neville's presence during their discussion.
"Ginny, you have to talk to me," Neville said in a voice sterner than Hermione and Ron had ever heard. It reminded Harry eerily of the voice he used when talking to the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic.
"Neville," an exhausted sigh came out of Ginny. "I'm really tired. Can we please talk about this in the morning?"
"No we're going to talk about it now," he said leading Ginny to the couch and causing her to plop down on it.
Ron made a motion to get to Ginny, but Harry stopped him. Quickly Harry tossed one end of Extendable Ears that direction. Whatever was going on he wanted to hear it. He turned and looked back to Hermione. She motioned for Ron and Harry to be quiet and she sat back down.
"This has been a long time coming," Hermione said quietly. "I want to hear what Neville has to say."
The trio's attention was once again on the two figures across the room. Neville looked back at them and with a flick of his wand cast a shield charm around him and Ginny.
"What did he do that for?" asked Ron angrily.
"Whatever he has to tell Ginny is probably personal," reasoned Hermione.
"What 'personal' information does he have to tell my little sister?" Ron snapped.
"Let's find out," Harry said holding up two pieces of what looked like string. "Extendable Ears anyone?"
"Brilliant mate," grinned Ron as he took one from Harry's hand.
"I've had enough of this Virginia," Neville's voice rang out. "What I did was completely and totally acceptable given the circumstances. There is not a single thing I would have done differently, except use more dangerous hexes on Malfoy. You are in fact perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, unfortunately during that incident you were unable to sustain the upper hand. You should be grateful that someone cared enough to follow you out and stop Malfoy before he. . . before anything worse happened. "I cannot stand you not talking to me, however if you continue to do so I will consider our friendship over."
Ginny looked up at Neville. Tears streamed down her eyes. Harry wondered how Neville could just stand there before her and not sit beside her on the couch and comfort her.
"Neville, I'm sorry," Ginny's voice cracked. "I've been a fool. I have no real excuse for what I've done to you."
"No you don't."
"Can you ever (sniff) forgive me? I can just be so stubborn sometimes."
"I'm not the only one you owe an apology to Ginny," Neville's voice said, a lot softer. "You owe one to Harry."
Ginny's eyes narrowed. "I don't know if I can."
Harry's heart fell a bit. He was truly sorry for what happened, but he hadn't tried to talk to Ginny since she hexed him down the stairs. Part of that was because he was so busy. The other part was that he was afraid of getting hexed again.
"You can and you will," said Neville. "I know he is semi-responsible for the first run-in you had with Malfoy. To tell you the truth I'm not so happy about it myself, but he deserves an apology too."
"I'll right," she said getting up and looking at Neville. "I'll apologize. Then will you forgive me?"
"Only if you'll come to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday," Neville smiled. "Oh and meet me at the greenhouse tomorrow after lunch, that way I can help you on herbology for OWLS. I know you've been studying like mad. Luna and you have been working really hard studying for you potions OWL. Now go apologize and go to bed. You look beat."
Ginny smiled. "Thanks."
A wave of his wand later, the shield charm came down. Harry and Ron quickly pocketed their Extendable Ears.
Ginny made her way over to the table as Neville watched. Harry noticed she did seem very dead on her feet. He wondered what she had been up to all day to make her look like that. Surely if she had detention he would have heard about it.
"Harry," Ginny said quietly. "I'm sorry for slapping you."
She turned to look at Neville, who made a motion for her to continue.
"And I'm sorry for hexing you, several times over, and for charming your potion's essay to say 'Snape's a git but I'm a bigger one' at the end."
"You did that?"
"Ya," she said. "I'm sorry."
"All's forgiven," Harry said to her. "I'm sorry to Gin. I shouldn't have asked you to do that."
"You did what you had to do Harry," she said as she starting walking up the stairs to the girls dormitory. "And so will I."
"What does that mean?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione.
Both of them just shrugged.
"Knowing Ginny we'll find out."