Harry reached over to the table and placed his glasses on and looked around the deserted hospital wing. Everyone was off at Hogsmeade now, everyone but him that was. He looked to the ceiling, thinking of the last game, he was happy they had one and began to think that maybe it was a good thing his two friends were off alone for a bit. Then he began to once again feel sorry for himself and wished he was there with them.
About a half an hour of staring at the ceiling and thinking of what he was missing at Hogsmeade, he heard someone enter the hospital wing. He turned to see Ginny walking in with a small smile. "I told you I would come by," she said sitting down beside him.
"I know you did," Harry said. "I didn't doubt your words for a second…" he said, knowing that a few times he wondered if she would remember. He sat up in his bed and looked at her. "How was the essay?"
"Don't ask," Ginny said with an obvious hint of frustration in her voice.
"That bad?" Harry asked, not surprised at the least.
"Yeah," Ginny said, but then skipped the topic of potions; it was obvious not what she wanted to talk about. "How are you doing?" she asked him taking his hand and holding it…then she let it go and blushed.
Harry wasn't sure what to say as his mind flashed back to the valentine his second year here. "Well, not long till Christmas, you done you're shopping?" he asked her trying to push a conversation, knowing he was bored out of his mind.
"Oh, no…" Ginny said smiling a bit… "and yes."
"What does that mean?" Harry asked confused.
"I'm still waiting for one gift to come in, its coming by owl order, and it hasn't arrived yet." Ginny said looking at him and then with a slight jump turned to her pocket and pulled out a chocolate frog and gave it to him. "I brought this for you."
"Thanks," Harry said taking it. He opened it up and then broke the frog in half handing half to Ginny, who took it without arguing. Harry was of course more interested in the card. He turned it over; he knew the wizard on the front but didn't have the card yet. The wizard on the card was none other than Denziel Shadis, or, as Harry knew him, Proffesor Shadis. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
"He's on a card?" Ginny asked reading over Harry's shoulder. Harry only nodded turning it over to read what it said…
Denziel Shadis is famous for many things, but is most famous for his invention of the Sneek-o-Scope. A small device that spins when evil is near. He learned over a period of time that it more worked by reading the minds of people and has been working on more than just memory modification inventions since his discovery. Some believe him to be a very smart wizard. A friend of Dumbledore's from school at Hogwarts, top of his charms class, and being beaten only by Dumbledore himself in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"That's quite interesting," Harry said turning it over some and handing the card to Ginny. It didn't take her long to read it.
"Didn't Ron get you one of those?" Ginny asked him handing the card back to him.
"A sneek-o-scope? Yeah," Harry said. "He got me it for my birthday. It spun all the time around Ron because of Peter being in his pocket." Harry stopped speaking as he mentioned his father's old friend.
"It says here he is working on something other than memory charms…" Ginny said looking at it.
"I wonder if that has anything to do with why Dumbledore had me finish Occlumency with him instead of Snape." Harry hadn't thought of why, except that Snape hadn't wanted to help him anymore after the previous years.
"It probably does," Ginny said, but Harry saw something else in her eyes.
"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked her looking into her eyes.
"Maybe he's the reason we need occlumency in the first place…" she said and Harry could tell she had been thinking about it for a few minutes.
"I guess it is possible that he could have been the one to invent both, the curse and the counter curse." Harry said shrugging. He decided it was about time to see if he could stand. He turned around and stood up, and felt fine. His leg didn't hurt at all.
"Would you like to go for a walk?" Harry asked Ginny wanting to get some exercise. "We can continue this conversation on the walk."
"Sure," Ginny said very quickly. "Maybe we will run into professor Shadis on the way there."