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Harry stared. "...Beg your pardon?"
"You heard me", Ginny said. "I want to help." She was looking Harry directly in the eyes.
Harry was fairly confused. "Why do you want to help me do something that we both know we aren't allowed to be doing, and that could go horribly wrong?"
Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, sitting down next to him on the bed. "Because I know that nothing I say or do is going to stop you from doing this, and I also know how complicated and dangerous this branch of magic can be. I figure if I can't stop you I should join you. We all know the trouble you would get into without me." She was grinning. It must be the Weasley gene in her, thought Harry.
"You don't even know who I want to speak to", said Harry, raising an eyebrow.
Again, Ginny rolled her eyes. "I figure it's either Sirius, your mum, your dad, or all three. Unless you were planning on speaking to Elvis, but if that's that case I take back my offer to help." Again she was grinning, a sight which made Harry's stomach jolt happily. He couldn't help but smile back.
"You're spoiling my fun", said Harry, laughing. "I had a lot of important questions to ask Elvis!"
Harry and Ginny spent the rest of the evening reading through the book, deciding which spells to use (for there were numerous amounts of them in the book), and making plans for when exactly they were going to do this. Obviously it would have to wait until they got to school, because they weren't allowed to use magic until then.
"We need to do it when everyone is busy with something else", said Ginny. "We don't want to be interrupted, or the spell could backfire and kill us all."
"Yeah", agreed Harry. "In that case, I think our best bet would be to do it on Halloween, when everyone is busy at the feast. Everyone will be so busy that they won't even notice if we're not there."
"Agreed", said Ginny. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going up to bed before Ron and Hermione come up here and start asking questions."
It was 2 days before school was due to start again, and Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were up in Buckbeak's room, talking excitedly about the year ahead, and everything they were planning on doing.
"May be we can get our hands on some firewhiskey", said Ron. "And then we can throw a house party!"
"Ronald Weasley!" exclaimed Hermione. "You will do nothing of the sort! What about all the first and second years. They're all too young to see a bunch of the sixth years ped on firewhiskey, and that's forgetting the fact that you are a prefect!"
Ron didn't look ashamed of himself in any way shape or form, in fact he continued to look thoughtful. "Yeah I spose you're right", he said, to Hermione's relief. "If we could find a way to get the first and second years out of the common room though..." Hermione looked livid.
Ron was saved from Hermione yelling at him when there was a knock at the door, and it opened. Dumbledore stepped into the room with a smile on his face. It appeared that he had just heard everything Ron had said about firwhiskey and house parties, though he chose not to say anything about it.
"Ah, I thought I'd find you all up here", he said. "Or rather, that's where Remus said I would find you." He gave them all a grin. He went over to face Buckbeak and bowed regally. Buckbeak waited a few minutes before doing the same, and allowing Dumbledore to stroke his head gently. Dumbledore whispered an incantation, and a bucket of dead rats appeared, to Buckbeak's obvious pleasure. Dumbledore turned back to the four of them.
"I just wanted a quick word", he said. "In fact, I need to ask you all a favor. I trust you all remember the warning the sorting hat gave us at the beginning of last year?" the four of them nodded. "Well what I wanted to ask you was whether you would consider running the DA again this year." They all looked at Harry, who stared at Dumbledore.
"I'd really like to do it, sir, but I don't understand what that has to do with the sorting hat's warning." Harry might not of understood, but clearly Hermione did.
"Because the DA will promote house unity", she said. "It's a way to get people of different houses together to fight for the same cause". Dumbledore looked at her appraisingly.
"Very good Ms. Granger", he said. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I just wanted a quick word with Harry."
When the others had left the room, Harry looked to Dumbledore. "Sir?"
"Don't worry, Harry", said Dumbledore. "You aren't in trouble". Harry was relieved. He had been wondering if maybe Dumbledore had found out about what he and Ginny were planning. Dumbledore want on; "Remus has spoken to me about a couple of dreams that you had, and were concerned about." Harry nodded, and then recounted his dreams for Dumbledore.
"So?" asked Harry when he had finished.
Dumbledore had stared raptly at Harry throughout his story, and now didn't look away from his eyes as he thought. "I agree with Remus, I don't think it is anything to worry about", he said. "If they change though, or occur more frequently, let me know, and we'll look into it further."
Harry nodded. "Ok".
"Good", said Dumbledore. "Now I must be going, lots to do before term starts up again, I'm afraid. I'll see you in a couple of days, Harry." Dumbledore went to walk out of the room, but stopped when he reached the doorway.
"Please tell Mr. Weasley that it would be a very bad idea for him to try to smuggle firewhiskey into the school", he said, with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "It has, of course, been tried before, and to no avail. If he doesn't believe you, remind him what happened to his older brothers when they tried to get over my age line during the tri-wizard tournament. A much worse fate meets those he try to get over the ant-alcohol protections I have placed on the school". With that, Dumbledore left, closing the door behind him.
Harry made a mental not to tell Ron about Dumbledore's warning. It would be an amusing thing to see Ron with a beard, or, as Dumbledore had hinted, perhaps something worse.