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Chapter 33

"How can I avoid him if I'm going to see him everyday for the next two years?" she asked out loud as she was alone in the attic. "Maybe I can transfer over to Hufflepuff or something. Dumbledore will understand. He understands every--OW!" Ginny yelped. She found the shoe that hit her in the head. "You stupid ghoul! I thought you were gone!"

"I thought you were gone! After all, didn't you mess up everything between you and that Potter boy while you were in here?" the Ghoul shouted and then laughed.

"You better stop talking, you dumb ghoul! This attic doesn't belong to you!" Ginny yelled and threw the shoe back to where it came from, but it didn't seem to hit the Ghoul.

"It's more mine than yours, butterfingers!" the Ghoul yelled back.

"Listen, I don't want to fight! I can't be anywhere else but here right now. Please just leave me alone for once!" Ginny strongly requested. "I'm already in enough stress and heart break! Don't give me anything else!"

The Ghoul was quiet for some minutes, but it began to speak again. "What, is he still mad at you?"

"For your information . . . I don't know, but I have a feeling he's not. I just can't be with him! I can't even be friends with him anymore."

"Why not? You were totally crushing!" the Ghoul answered. Ginny was being annoyed by the Ghoul, but she didn't mind sharing her feelings for some reason.

"Well, yeah, but I can't look into his eyes without thinking horrible thoughts, and--why am I telling you this anyway?" She demanded. The Ghoul was quiet again and then began to speak again, but it wasn't the same voice Ginny was used to hearing.

"Ginny Wheezy," said the squeaky and high-pitched voice. "Yous can't give up on Harry Potter. He cares about yous a lot."

"What? What happened? Ghoul?" Ginny asked, flustered. "Who are you?"

"Winky! Winky has been pretending to be the Ghoul in your attic," she said and came from behind the crates and boxes. It was Winky the house-elf indeed with her tomato nose and her tea towel outfit.

"Winky? Why are you here?" Ginny demanded and saw that she was wearing a tea towel. "And are you employed?"

"Yes, by your brother Ron Wheezy. He didn't want anyone else to knows except his Harry Potter," she confessed. "And he ordered Winky to find out what yous and your Wheezy twins were doing in here. Winky didn't tell Wheezy anything, but she showed him and Mr. Harry Potter what Winky found in the attic."

"The Transpectacles and Extendable Ears," Ginny said. She didn't have much right to be angry at Winky for showing them the objects since she was employed by Ron. It wasn't much of a matter to her at the moment though. "And what happened to the Ghoul?"

"He has been in slumber for a long, long time. Dobby gave him a sleeping potion," Winky answered.

"Dobby is here, too?" Ginny asked. "Why would he be here?"

"Dobby wants to keep an eye on Harry Potter so he don't get hurt," Winky explained. "Winky thinks it's a very good idea. But Winky doesn't think it's a good idea that you want to stay away from Harry Potter."

Then, Ginny heard a loud crack! and Dobby the house-elf apparated out of thin air. "Dobby don't think it's a very good idea, either!" he said once he appeared. "Dobby wants to help Harry Potter with his social life, as well!"

"Dobby! How long have you been here?" Ginny demanded. He was wearing a familiar-looking sweater and several pairs of socks.

"Dobby has been in the attic for hours. Dobby has been in the house ever since Harry Potter arrived. No one knows that Dobby has been here except for you and Winky," Dobby answered. He snapped his fingers and a large mirror appeared and landed on the floor.

"Winky, Ron probably wouldn't have wanted you to reveal yourself in front of me. Wouldn't you be torturing yourself by now?" Ginny asked. She knew house-elves were very loyal to their masters.

"Winky figured that she was worth more than that. Winky gets paid too!" she answered.

"Well, Hermione will be happy," Ginny mumbled to herself.

"Dobby wants Ginny Wheezy to look through the glass of Aperio," he said and signaled to the mirror laying on the floor.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"You can see and hear Harry Potter and his Wheezy through the glass of Aperio," Dobby explained. "Dobby wants you to know what they are doing and saying."

"No, I won't be doing that again. That got me in enough trouble," Ginny refused. Whatever caused Harry to have pain caused her to have pain. She didn't want to be treacherous to him again.

"But yous must!" Winky exclaimed. "Harry Potter cares a lot about yous and yous got to sees it for yourself because yous won't believe Dobby and Winky."

"Winky is right," Dobby added.

"Alright, but just for a second." Ginny didn't want the house-elves to keep badgering her so she looked into the mirror and saw a clear view of Harry and Ron in their room. Not much is going on, she thought. She looked away and walked towards the door to go downstairs. "I think that's enough with you two."

"No, please, give it another looksie!" Winky insisted.

"Yes, please, sister Wheezy!" exclaimed Dobby.

"No, I really don't feel right about--" Ginny started to argue until she heard her name being said through the glass. She got closer to it and saw that Harry and Ron were talking about her. "Okay, hold on a minute."

She looked in and Ron was polishing his Cleansweep and Harry was standing directly in front of him. Harry was holding a familiar looking crinkly piece of paper.

"What's with you and Ginny? I thought you agreed with me that she was another bad seed in the family," Ron demanded.

"Whatever she did, it's nothing compared to Percy. You can tell the difference, Ron. You and I were just mad, plus she did all she could to show how sorry she was," Harry answered.

"To you! But she didn't apologize to me about it. She might've not done much, but maybe soon, she'll leave us and possibly join forces with Percy," Ron said. "She was just playing with your mind, anyway. Ginny is smart like that and a brilliant liar. Don't be fooled by her fake apologies."

"Well, she's not Percy! They weren't fake apologies. And she wasn't playing with my mind!" Harry exclaimed. He didn't seem very angered. It was more as if he was trying to get a point across Ron's mind.

"But how do you know?" Ron demanded.

Harry looked at the note still clutched in his hand. "I just know, alright?"

Ginny looked away from the glass of Aperio. She would have jumped for joy the day before, but after her dream, she wished that Harry would still hate her so she could hate him back. What also struck her hard was that Ron compared her to Percy as if she would dishonor the family like he had.

She missed Ron. They were the youngest of the family so they always spent the most time together--usually eating and throwing food at each other and trading chocolate frog cards. Every time they got in a tiff, it would be forgotten about in less than an hour.

"Why is little girl Wheezy still sad?" Dobby asked.

"Yous should be happy! Harry Potter loves yous!" Winky exclaimed.

"I know, it's just that I can't love him back. I'm trying to fight it," Ginny answered. She was looking at her feet in an expression of sorrow.

"Why?" Dobby and Winky asked in unison. Ginny couldn't explain anything to them without telling them about the dream so she told them what happened in great detail.

"That's a scary nightmare, but Dobby won't let anything bad happen to Harry Potter!" Dobby said.

"Winky thinks that yous should tell Harry Potter about the dream."

"Dobby agrees with Winky on that. Dobby knows that Harry Potter has had many bad dreams, and maybe he will understand."

"But I can't. He won't understand! I can't tell him anything," Ginny answered. "As much as I'd like to keep on talking to you two, I better go. I better go somewhere else to be alone with my thoughts."

"It's been nice seeing you Miss Wheezy," said Dobby.

"Bye and take care! Winky hopes for the best!" Winky added.

"See you two," said Ginny and she left the attic.