Sakura Sayoran - bowing Thank you, kind reviewer, for your words of praise! I have the same pet peeve, so I doubly appreciate hearing that you think my work is well-written.
Trinity Valyntine – Ooh, that's a nice, scary evil laugh. Mind if I borrow it sometime? I can think of a few kids I'd like to use it on… lol. Anyway, glad you're liking, and keep reading and reviewing!
Shahrezad1 – Yeah, you know, those darn kitchen gremlins are always messing with my recipies, too! Why just the other day, somehow the sugar and salt got mixed up… those cookies turned out to be QUITE unusual… As for Moaning Myrtle, I was thinking more along the lines of getting cleaned up, but apparently you had something ELSE on your mind. winks suggestively Anyway. Not to worry, Ginny's going to get Harry but good eventually
Amidala – I'm glad you're enjoying my little tale, keep reading and reviewing!
Chapter 3
Harry glanced again at where Moaning Myrtle was sitting, magically frozen and facing away from the sinks. He'd asked her to let him have a little privacy, but she just had to keep popping out of the drain just as he was reaching for his shirt. Hence the freezing spell.
Harry sighed, and pulled his wand out. He flicked it in Myrtle's direction. "Look, Myrtle, I'm sorry I had to do that," he said very quickly before the ghost could burst into her customary wails. "But you gotta give a guy some privacy." He wasn't terribly surprised when she started to sob, anyway.
"Oh, that was so mean…" she cried, before diving down into a toilet with another sob.
Harry sighed again and pocketed his wand. He'd still need a shower later, but at least he looked clean and normal, and he didn't smell. As far as anyone would know, Harry Potter hadn't been up to anything suspicious at all.
Several minutes later, he stepped through the doors and into the Great Hall, where dinner had already started. He scanned the Gryffindor table, eyes coming to rest on the two red heads and one brown at one end of the table. They were currently huddled together as if discussing something. He grimaced. Probably his little outburst upstairs hadn't been the best course of action to take with those three. He knew his friends, they would sink their teeth into something and not let go until they had the answers. Hermione because she wanted to know, sometimes just for the sake of knowing. Ron, because he was a bloody stubborn git. And Ginny… well, he had to guess it was a shared Weasley trait.
And Harry knew that all three were perfectly serious in their intentions to help him. After all, they'd done it before, many times. Ron and Hermione from the very beginning. Ginny since she'd gotten over being possessed by Voldemort. Bloody hell, he thought, suddenly feeling the fatigue from his hour of practice catching up with him, what the hell else was he supposed to do? Let them sacrifice their lives, just so they could say they'd helped again?
Ron looked up at that moment, and spotted Harry. His eyes got narrow, and he looked over at Hermione and said something. Her head and Ginny's turned in Harry's direction and he was studied a moment by all three. It was a little unnerving, after all, his life would go from sucky to truly miserable if they all decided they hated him, but he stood there and just looked back.
Finally Hermione pursed her lips and then said something to the other two that got slow nods. She looked back at Harry and raised one eyebrow. Harry could almost hear the command, and his lips twisted wryly. Count on Hermione to be the level-headed one, the one to make peace first.
He walked slowly over to take a seat next to Ginny, across from Ron, being very careful not to let his leg touch hers. He didn't look at the redhead next to him, couldn't. Instead, he focused his eyes on her brother, sitting opposite with a stony face. "Ron," he said quietly.
Ron scowled at him. "Let's get one thing straight, Potter," he said, voice low as he stared right back at Harry. "I don't give a shit how great a wizard you are, or whatever else everybody else says. You just get this through your head. You have no right to decide ANYTHING for me. Hell, for any of us." He thumped his chest. "We're the ones that decide what we want to do with our lives."
Hermione chimed in then. "You haven't liked people running your life for your Harry," she said, eyes serious. "Don't try to do it to us, either."
Harry glanced down at his hands, lying flat against the table. It was kind of funny to think that even right at this moment, he thought absently, he could probably kill any person in this room. Well, maybe not some of the teachers. Snape and Dumbledore would be pretty tough, McGonagall, too. He sighed and looked back up at Ron. "Yeah, I get that," he said softly. "But you've got to get something, too. I'm not going to help you end up dead. And yes, I know a couple of things you don't. And if I told you, it wouldn't do any good. You'd just be that much closer to being someone else I used to know."
"You're such an arrogant prick, Harry," Ginny said from next to him, staring straight ahead. "You think you're just the best, don't you? We're all too bloody weak to measure up to the Great Harry Potter." She picked up her fork and stabbed a bite of her previously untouched dinner. "Well, fuck you."
"Gin," Ron said, a low warning growl. He looked at Harry again, eyes neutral. "I've been your mate a bloody long time, and I'm trusting that you don't really think that. Because otherwise I'd have to pound the living daylights out of you. But you'd better start getting used to the idea that we're going to be right there when something goes down, like it or not."
Harry and Ron locked eyes. Ron's were blue and serious and about as intent as he'd seen his friends. It hurt, knowing people cared this much about him, that they'd walk into death with their eyes open for him.
Hermione was the one who broke the tension. "Boys," she said softly, and Ron eased back, one corner of his mouth curling down into a frown. Harry sighed, and looked down, rubbing one hand over his hair.
He wasn't going to make it through the year, not if he had Hermione and Ron mad at him. Sometimes it was like he was trapped in his own mind, circling and feinting and trying to find some kind of damn weakness or advantage over bloody Voldemort. He needed his friends to keep him from going insane.
"Look," he said slowly, trying to find the right words to explain, to get it right, and fumbling. "Look," he said again. "How about we say, I'll tell you as much as I feel comfortable, especially if it can help you." Ron frowned but didn't say anything. Harry looked at Hermione. "We're not going to agree on this," he said, forestalling her. "We're just not. But…" he hesitated. It was hard, saying things that left part of him open. He'd gotten too good at walls. "But I need you guys. I'm sorry if you didn't think that. I need you all," he said, glancing at Ginny next to him and then looking away quickly. "Sometimes it's like I'm stuck in my head and can't get out. And, well…" he shrugged a bit helplessly.
He must have said something right, however, because Hermione's face had softened considerable. "Harry, you're our best friend," she said. "Just know we're here for whatever you need us for, and for the things you don't think you need, too."
Ron was looking at him with a speculative gleam in his eyes, that didn't fade when Harry turned back to him. "Yeah," he said slowly, still eyeing Harry. It made him nervous. Ron could be thick at times, but there were moments when his friend got it faster than anyone else should be able to. Ron gave his head a slight shake. "Mates," he said, and held out a hand.
Harry's mouth curled, relieved, and he shook it with his own in a firm clasp. "Mates," he echoed. He glanced at Ginny, but she was still staring down at her food.
Before he could look away, she'd lifted her head and pinned him with that brown gaze. "You can run, but you can't hide, Harry," she said, anger and hurt still lingering in the back of those eyes. "And you'll get help whether you want it or not." She turned back to her dinner. "Now eat, before you waste away and start looking like bloody Seamus Finnigan, all scarecrow and scary looking," she said, and stabbed another piece of broccoli.
Harry grinned, feeling a bit lighter. Finnigan had shot up nearly a foot from his overly short height this summer and was currently thinner than a beanpole. And Ginny couldn't really hate him if she could tell him to eat and not get thin. He rolled his eyes at Ron. "Why are girls always telling me to eat?" he asked, picking up his fork and reaching for the platter of chicken.
Ron snorted, already shoveling some of his own neglected dinner. "Because you're a scrawny, underfed, and ugly git," he mumbled through a mouthful.
"Ron! Don't talk with your mouth full, it's disgusting!" Hermione scolded.
Harry grinned and took a bite himself. He had great friends.
Ginny was still plenty pissed at Harry Potter. Pissed, hurt, infuriated, demeaned, you name it. She was still in the mood to introduce him to her Bat-Bogey Hex as she headed up from the Great Hall toward the common room.
"Oi, Ginny!" she heard a voice call behind her. She paused, one foot on the first step of the staircase and turned to see Colin hurrying after her. "Gin, do you have time to help me?" he asked, face pleading. She'd told Colin that she'd help him get his photographs from last year in some kind of an order, her friend being miserable at organization.
Maybe something nice and mindless like putting pictures in order would be just the thing to get rid of all this pissed off emotion, she thought. She forced up a smile. "Sure," she said. It would probably take all night.
Colin heaved a huge, dramatic sigh. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you," he said, and caught her off guard by grabbing her hands and twirling her in a circle. Ginny found herself laughing, that heavy anger lifting off her chest. There was more to life than Harry Potter and his dark mysteries, she told herself, flinging her arms around Colin with a squeal as he lifted her off her feet and kept spinning.
"Colin!" she laughed, before he finally set her down. She clung to his arm as she caught her breath and waited for the hall to stop spinning. Getting herself set again, she lifted her head and looked straight into grass-green eyes. Harry stood at the end of the hall, just outside the doors to the Great Hall as Ron was saying something to him. There was a strange dark intensity in his eyes as he held her gaze, almost as if he didn't realize he was doing it. She felt breathless, on edge, as if she was a bare edge away from his dropping that wall behind his eyes and showing her something he'd held back until now…
And then Ron clapped him on the shoulder, and Harry looked away and the moment was lost. Ginny let Colin pull her up the stairs, absently letting his chatter about some of the great shots he'd caught on film last year wash over her. You can run, but you can't hide, Harry, she thought silently. I will get you to tell me what it is you're hiding.