Chapter 7: To be or not to be a prefect?
Harry and the others stepped through the portal hole into the Gryffindor commons room to be met with thunderous applause. All of the Gryffindors were there, and soon all the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were surrounded by eager students trying to find out what had really happened, so for the next hour or so, they all gave their account of what happened, to the gasps and applause of the Gryffindor audience.
Harry especially was gaining an audience, it seemed. Every single female in Gryffindor and a few that were not single were eyeing Harry appreciatively. Harry of course, noticed this fact and quickly glanced at Ginny who was scowling heavily in the general direction of the females. Uh-Oh, I need to do something quick, or Ginny the green eyed monster is gonna attack those girls.
*Why don't you just let her duke it out with them?* asked Apollo. *It might be entertaining.*
*Because you twit, Harry doesn't want Ginny 'entertaining' him in that way,* replied Artemis. *Harry you should probably alert the female population of Gryffindor, if not the whole school, that you are taken; that way the girls will know that you are HANDS OFF and Ginny will know that you don't care about any of those airheads.*
Probably sound judgment, Harry decided, then he sighed. Well I could always do it tomorrow instead of wait until her birthday.
*Why wait till tomorrow?* asked Ganymede. *Why not just do it now?*
Because I think that doing it in front of the whole school at breakfast tomorrow would be more romantic, Harry replied. In addition, I already know how I'm going to break it to Gryffindor that I'm 'Hands Off.'
At that, Harry stood up and held out his hand to Ginny. Puzzled she took it with her own, and he effortlessly pulled her out of her seat, and pulled her into a long, passionate kiss. When they broke apart, Ginny and Harry were both breathless, and Ginny looked a bit dazed, as if her mind was not working quite right. Then Harry noticed that no one was making a sound. Looking around Harry was pleased to see that he and Ginny had the sole attention of everyone in Gryffindor, then…
"BLOODY BRILLIANT," exclaimed Seamus.
"Hilarious," added Dean.
Ron, grinning, added, "You know that you've just earned the enmity of pretty much the entire female witch population right Ginny? I mean, while we were in the Burrow, no one but 'Mione saw you two kiss, now that all these girls have seen you two, they are not gonna be quite about it. You'll probably be getting Howlers by the end of the week!"
Ginny, who still hadn't quite recovered from the kiss, shook her head to clear it, and then looked around. Now the tables were turned, all the other Gryffindor girls were scowling at her and probably plotting her demise. Looking to Harry, she grinned impishly.
"Come on Harry, I'm tired, let's go up to our room," she said.
Harry, grinning just as mischievously nodded and said, "Goodnight all, we'll see you all in the morning. Again, the Commons room was silent as Harry and Ginny walked up the stairs to the top of the dormitory where the Prefect's rooms were. Going to the door marked with Harry's name they both walked inside, the fact that all of Gryffindor was following them with their gazes apparent.
As soon as they closed the door, Harry and Ginny looked at each other and burst out laughing. "That was a stroke of GENIOUS Ginny!" exclaimed Harry. "Now Ron, Hermione have to explain why we're sharing a room!"
Ginny looked at him suddenly. "You know what? That never even entered my mind. I just wanted to see everyone's faces when they found out that we ARE sharing a room," she said with a smile.
They laughed at that for a few more minutes, and then looked at the room that they were going to share. To say that it was impressive was an understatement. This room was easily as large as an entire dorm that they had stayed in during their previous years at Hogwarts. Decked out in Gryffindor gold and red, it was spacious, with a couch and a few chairs by a fireplace that was crackling merrily with a good-sized fire. To one side of the room were a dresser and a desk, and on the other side was a four-poster bed, that looked to be extremely comfortable for one occupant, but would probably be a bit cramped for two. There was plenty of room to add another dresser and desk, and still have plenty of room to move around and what not, even if they DID expand the bed. There were two perches for birds, Lily, who had flown away as soon as they got off the train to go hunt, occupied one and she had somehow known to come back here. The other perch was obviously for Hedwig who was either hunting or at the owlrey. Midnight was already out of her cage, obviously figuring out how to do unlock it, and was on the bed playing with what looked to be the remains of a sock.
Harry looked at Ginny, trying to gauge her reaction, and smiled at the delighted expression on her face. She looked up at him and smiled a smile of her own before standing on her toes and kissing his cheek.
"Why don't we get settled in then see what secrets this room has hmm?" she suggested. Nodding in agreement, Harry took out his wand, thought a second, then put it away. At Ginny's puzzled expression, Harry grinned, gestured his hand towards the desk, and suddenly there were two of them. One was hovering silently over the original, but there were definitely two desks. Harry glanced back to Ginny and her eyes were wide with surprise.
"Guess I forgot to mention that I can do magic wandlessly and wordlessly, huh?" Harry asked, with a mischievous look on his face. "Where do you want this?"
At that, Ginny snapped out of her surprised stupor, and like any other female on the planet, made Harry move almost the whole room around. Of course, some of her fun was lessened because whenever she told Harry to move something, he would just point to it, and it would start floating in the air. Finally, they both had two dressers that were next to the closet that they had found as they explored and settled in at the same time. Their two desks were settled together in a corner of the room in front of two windows. The third window actually opened to a small terrace where they could both sit outside which had a surprisingly wonderful view of the Quidditch pitch. The bed was in the middle of the room backed up to the wall, and was now the size of a fairly large queen sized bed. "Any larger, and I might actually get lost in there," Ginny complained, half teasingly. The only things that they did not move were the two chairs and the couch by the fire. They were both in one of the chairs just then gazing into the fire, when they were both startled by a nock at the door. Harry, waving his hand carelessly, made the door open, and Ron, Hermione, and Katie all came in, looking around the room in surprise.
"How did you guys move all that so fast?" asked Ron. "It's barely been a half hour, we came up here to help you," he informed them as he and Hermione settled in the other chair, while the Katie claimed the couch, stretching out on it. Harry, who had taken his wand back out, swished it at the door lazily and it shut, and locked again. Ginny, noticing this, looked at him a bit puzzled. I don't want anyone else to know about my abilities just yet, Harry sent to her looking at the seventh year girl. Understanding flooded Ginny's mind, and she nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Well Ron, we do know a lot of magic, don't we?" replied Harry with a grin. "A few levitation charms here, an unpacking charm there, it wasn't all that hard."
"Where did you get that big bed?" asked Katie, looking at the queen size bed behind her.
"It was here when we got here," replied Ginny. Well it's not quite a lie, is it? she sent to Harry who just smirked and hugged her tighter to him.
"Did you guys see that we all have our own baths?" asked Ron, excitedly. "They just added them this year cuz they didn't want prefects going all the way down to the prefect bathroom at night."
"Yeah, ours is huge," replied Harry with a grin. "It's got a bath and a shower."
"All of them are like that," said Hermione. "They like to take care of us prefects that's for sure." Everyone agreed to that statement, and Harry wondered briefly if Malfoy's room was anything like this one. Then he squeezed Ginny again, and knew that even if Malfoy's room was twice as opulent, it would never be as good as this room, just because Ginny was here.
"So…" Harry began picking Ginny up and placing her back down on the chair. She pouted for a second, then remembering the surprise that Harry had for everyone, quickly stopped, but not before she got a kiss. Harry went to their closet and opened it and rummaged around in his trunk till he found what he was looking for. He returned to the group and handed a piece of paper to Katie Bell.
She took it, a bit confused, but then her eyes widened as she saw what it was. She slowly, shakily looked up at Harry with wide, unbelieveing eyes. "You… You bought the team ALL Bolt Series Brooms!?!?" asked Katie, finally.
"Actually Katie, I bought Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and you Bolt series brooms," replied Harry with a grin. "I also bought two extra for the two beaters I thought about it, and I decided that the Gryffindor Team deserves the best."
At this, the Head Girl stared up at him dumbly for a second, then, before anyone could react, The door slammed open and Harry's wand was pointed at a somewhat angry beautiful woman with long black hair that fell to her waist, and sparkling blue eyes that were clouded with anger at the moment. Behind her was Remus, who grinned apologetically.
"Sorry Harry, Matilda got a bit worked up when I told her that you bought a full set plus one of her Bolt Series. I couldn't stop her," apologized Remus.
Harry, bewildered, lowered his wand, and asked the woman tentatively, "Why would you be angry that I bought a bunch of your brooms? I mean… doesn't all the money for them go to you?"
"DO YOU THINK THAT I NEED MONEY!" screamed the woman, now quite red in the face. "MY FAMILY IS PROBABLY AS RICH AS SIRIUS WAS! WE'VE BEEN MAKING BROOMS SINCE BEFORE WIZARDS COULD FLY ON THEM!"
Harry, taken aback, glanced at Remus, hoping that he could help.
"Calm down Matty," said Remus smoothly. "Harry doesn't have a clue who you are, remember? The last time you saw him was when he was a baby." At this, the woman visibly relaxed, and calmed down a bit. Remus, still at the door, shut it, and then locked it again. Then he looked at Harry. "Harry Matty here was your mother's best friend at school. When it came time to name your godparents, James chose me, and Lily chose Matty. She's your godmother."
At this revelation, Harry understood. "You didn't want me to spend money on anything that you made, did you?" he asked, and Matilda nodded, not letting her eyes stray from his for a second. Again Harry understood, just how Sirius had been unsure as to the type of welcome Harry would give him two years ago, Matilda was the same way now. Without saying another word, Harry wrapped her in a tight hug, and finally she broke down and started crying.
"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry. I tried to convince Dumbledore to let you stay with me instead of those horrible Muggle relatives of yours, but he would not let me. He insisted that you would be safer with the Muggles than if you were here in the wizarding world. If I could have, I would have raised you in a second." This all came out in a rush in one breath.
"It's O.K. Matilda," replied Harry. "I'm just glad that I have you as my godmother now."
Once Matilda finally let go of Harry, or rather Remus pried Matilda off of Harry, He looked around. All the girls had tears in their eyes, and were smiling at the Harry and his godparents. Remembering his manners, Harry invited them to join the group.
"Here, please, come join us." And before they were able to say anything about the fact that there was no more room, Harry said, "I'll draw you up a chair."
Then he did, literally. He pulled out his wand, and like Dumbledore a few years ago, drew a comfortable chair, identical to the one that Ron and Hermione were sitting in, and placed it next to the one that Ginny was sitting in. He then picked Ginny up, and sat down again, placing her back onto his lap with a contented sigh. Remus and Matilda sank into the chair with sighs of their own.
"You know what Harry," said Remus after a second. "Now I know where Lily and James went when they wanted to be alone. They just went to one of their rooms! I forgot that prefect rooms were this nice!" At this everyone laughed.
"So, what were you all discussing when we um… barged in on you?" asked Matilda.
"Funny you should ask," answered Harry. "I was just showing everyone the brooms I ordered from you."
"Oh, I have those with me," said Matilda absently. "I knew that there was supposed to be a shipment coming to Hogwarts, and since I was coming to the Feast to see all of you get into the Order of Merlin, I thought that I might as well bring the order with me. I didn't even look at the name until tonight, and… well… I guess I got a bit mad."
"That doesn't even cover HALF of what you got," joked Remus, who was promptly hit on the chest by Matilda.
"That's O.K." said Harry. "You should have been here for my meeting with Sirius, I wanted to KILL him!"
"Really?" asked Matilda brightly. "Why was that?"
"Oh, you know, the whole Sirius Black is a wanted criminal who betrayed his best friends, the Potters, and all that jazz," answered Remus for Harry. After a second, everyone in the room started laughing at the unspoken joke.
"So, how long are you staying at Hogwarts Matilda?" asked Ginny.
Matilda looked at Remus, then Harry then back again, then sighed. "I don't know," she confessed. "I was supposed to just come up for the dinner and stay the night, but now Moony here wants me to stay with him. And with you here, I'm finding it hard to resist."
"Can you work if you are here?" asked Harry, "because if my vote counts I would love to get to know you better."
"I was afraid of that," replied Matilda. "Yes I can work here, I've brought all the things I need to make as many brooms as I want to, but that's not the problem."
"Oh? What is?" asked Katie, interested in the woman who created the best broom series in the world.
"Snape," growled Remus, his voice speaking volumes.
"Snape?" asked Harry, looking at Matilda who sighed.
"Yes, Severus had a bit of a crush on me all throughout school. He still sometimes tries to call me and ask me out, but I had eyes for only one man," this she said as she gazed lovingly up at Remus, who still had a murderous look in his eyes.
Getting an idea Harry caught his Guardian's eye and said, "How would you like to play a prank on Snape that would guarantee that he will never come near Matilda ever again Moony?" he asked.
"I don't know…" said Remus hesitantly. "I was never much for Sniviles bashing in the old days…"
"Oh come on Remus, that's the teacher in you," complained Matilda. "The Marauder I fell in love with would jump at the chance." Between Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Matilda, they finally convinced Remus to play along.
"Oh all right fine," he finally said. "What do you have in mind Harry?"
"Well we'll have to wait a while for this to fully pan out, but here's what I was thinking…" And so the prank was planned out.