Disclaimer: I don't own any of the HP characters.

Authors Notes: blah blah.

"It never ends!"

~Dogma~

The welcome feast was the same as ever, the seat to the left of Professor Mcgonogal (I so didn't spell that right) remained empty until after the sorting of the first years when the headmaster stood to make his opening announcements.

"Your attention please. I only have a few announcements before we can all begin our meal. First of all, the forest on the perimeter of the school grounds is out of bounds. Secondly, our caretaker has added twenty-two new entries to the list posted outside of his office of forbidden items. I would also like to introduce you to your new Head Boy and Girl; if you have any problems that you don't feel comfortable coming to your professors for, they will be more than happy to help you. Mr. Jacob Matheson from Hufflepuff and Ms. Rinoa Edwards from Gryfindor, could the two of you please stand up?" Rinoa hesitantly rose from her seat and glanced fearfully around the room, it was painfully obvious to anyone who knew her that she was beyond uncomfortable having every eye in the school on her. "And finally, we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Most of you should recognize him, he's been in the news quite a bit recently...Professor Black." At this point Sirius Black emerged from the staff door in the back of the hall and proceeded to his chair at the table, ignoring the gasps from students and teachers alike.

"I expect you to treat Mr. Black with the same respect that you would any other professor in this school, and remember that he is and was an innocent man," continued Dumbledore. "Now I think it's time we all tuck in don't you?"

When the feast was finished Harry, Luna, Neville, and Ginny quickly approached the staff table. Rinoa, Hermione, and Ron all had prefect duties to attend to, but demanded a full report the minute they returned to the common room.

"Sirius! Why didn't you tell us you were coming to teach?" said Harry in mock outrage.

"well, that would have ruined the surprise now wouldn't it?" replied Sirius with a very innocent look upon his scruffy face. Ginny put her hands on her hips and fixed Sirius Black with an evil glare. "Sirius Black, just how long have you known about this?"

Sirius pretended to count up the days and weeks in his head and sported a 'Thinking Pose' (art term) "oh, it's wasn't more than a month or two."

The four students were ushered back to their common rooms shortly after, and were immediately questioned by the three who had not been present. An hour later they were the only one's left in the common room. "Does this mean we can keep doing wepons training with Sirius now that he's here full time?" asked Ron. "That would be bloody marvolus."

"yeah I hope we still can," replied Ginny.

The next day Quidditch try out times were posted in the common rooms and as Harry descended the stairs for breakfast he was attacked by a very exited Ron Weasley.

"Harry! You're the Captain!"

"Ron, what the bloody hell are you on about this early in the morning?" grumbled Harry.

"You're the Captain of the Gryfindor Quidditch team!"

"What? I am?" asked Harry in bewilderment.

"yeah. We're going to have to have tryouts for practically the entire team now that all of our chasers are gone you know," said Ron enthusiastically.

"When are tryouts?" asked Rinoa approaching the pair staring at the incomplete roster.

"Tomorrow at four," said Ron reading the sheet attached to the announcement board.

"I'm in," said Rinoa.

"ooo, me too," said Ginny. "I think I'd like being a chaser much better than a seeker this time!"

"ok well I guess we'll see you guys out there tomorrow," said Harry still in shock as to why anyone would choose him to be the captain of the Gryfindor quidditch team.

The tryouts were very interesting to say the least. Most of the second through fifth years tried out for the team, unfortunately not very many were actually good. Ginny flew spectacularly well and could definitely hold her own on the field. Rinoa was an even greater surprise to those who watched her. She had a sense of grace that could not be taught or learned, and when she and Ginny were put together to score against Ron they managed to outsmart him almost every time. It was rather amusing to see how frustrated Ron got when his baby sister outsmarted him at quidditch.

"Rhin, why didn't you ever try out for the team before?" asked Harry after the session was over.

"Chaser was the only position I ever was good at and there were never any openings until now. Besides, I didn't have my own broom until this summer," she responded.

"When did you get a broom?"

"When Albus settled all of Melissa's accounts, her property was added to the trust my parents left for me. So, when Molly went to Diagon Alley I asked her to get me a broom."

Wednesday the new sheet was posted on the Gryfindor board with the names of those who made the team. Harry and Ron had stayed up and deliberated all night as to who would make the cut and were both trudging down the stairs to the common room.

SEEKER ~ HARRY POTTER

KEEPER ~ RON WEASLEY

BEATER ~ SEAMUS FINNIGAN

BEATER ~ DEAN THOMAS

CHASER ~ GINNY WEASLEY

CHASER ~ RINOA EDWARDS

CHASER ~ COLIN CREEVEY

Classes with Sirius started on Thursday and were only rivaled by the classes they had had with Remus in their third year and even then it was a tight comparison. An even greater advantage was that the seven student Order members could continue their training on through the school year. So again the room of requirement was put to good use on Saturday's for their training. Severus and Sirius took turns every other Saturday for three hours with the students and the seven were progressing beautifully.

The month went on and before anyone even began to realize it and soon it was October.

It was a chilly Saturday night in Gryfindor tower on October 15th and Hermione and Ron were the only one's out of bed at 1:42 am. They were playing chess and Hermione refused to stop until she had beaten Ron (never going to happen dear).

"Give it up 'Mione, it's almost two," said Ron following a rather loud yawn.

"No! I'm determined to master this game if it is the last thing I do."

"Face it Mione, I'm just better than you at chess. It's not that big of a deal."

"C'mon Ron, we're almost done with this game, and I think I can win this."

Ron looked at the board and saw that Hermione only had a bishop, king and two pawns left. "Hermione, there is no way you're going to win this now or ever." Hermione sighed in defeat and huffily pushed the scowling pieces away from her in exasperation.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you in the morning Ron," she said with a small blush about her cheeks as she got up from her chair.

"Yeah," said Ron standing as well and awkwardly putting his hand behind his neck as if he had an itch.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

The two had migrated over to the stairway and when they were on their forth 'yeah' sprung towards each other and initiated a searing kiss. Hermione's hands were groping in Ron's red hair making it stand up at increasingly odd angles, while Ron's hands traveled over her back crushing her body against his. The couple only separated when air became an issue, and gasping, simply gazed at each other for a long time. It was Ron's whispered words that finally broke the silence between the two, and cemented what had been in motion all summer long.

... "I love you 'Mione."

Under an invisibility cloak on the stairway to the boys dormitory...

"Ahhhhhh, they're so cute," whispered Ginny Weasley.

"Ok, one that is your brother and my honorary sister. It's not cute, it's gross," whispered Harry.

Ginny and Harry had been on their way to the kitchens under the invisibility cloak when they had encountered their friends in a heated embrace at the foot of the stairs.

"It looks like we're just going to have to wait it out," said Ginny.

"yup," said Harry unenthusiastically.

Eventually Ron and Hermione broke apart and awkwardly headed up to their rooms. Ron narrowly missed running into Harry and Ginny in the narrow stair well as the two descended towards the portrait.

In the Kitchens ten minutes later...

"so should we just pretend that we don't know tomorrow, or should we give them a hard time about it?" asked Ginny mischievously.

"Let's just leave them alone, let them tell us when they want to."

Harry and Ginny stayed in the kitchens for another hour until exhaustion overtook them and they had to head back to their dormitories.

When another hour had passed and Harry Potter still could not get to sleep he began to get annoyed. What was the matter with him? He never used to have a problem with Ginny, now he could barely stand to be around her it hurt him so much. He knew he could never be with her, it would be much to easy for the enemy to target her. It didn't matter if she had protested over the summer on the subject, she didn't understand. If something happened to her he wouldn't be able to go on. He needed her. She was amazing.

Authors Notes: OK PEOPLE I'M SOOO SORRY. I'VE BEEN OUT OF TOWN AND MY SISTER WAS SUPPOSED TO POST CH. 12 AND 13 TOGETHER, BUT NO. AND SHE POASTED THE BARE BONES, DRAFT VERSION AND I CAN'T FIND THE FINISHED VERSION. SO, I REDID CH. 12 RIGHT NOW. BLAH. SHE'S BEEN READING MY REVIEWS TO ME OVER THE PHONE BECAUSE I WAS IN NEW YORK UNTIL YESTERDAY NIGHT. SORRY FOR THE VERY BAD CHAPTER. PLEASE REVIEW.