AN

I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I really intended to have it up Saturday, but my dad called me outside for yard work (which is my own fault since I've neglected it) and we spent the rest of the day doing that out front. Then on Sunday I had Service at my church, followed by orientation for my new job (I'm going to be a caddie at the golf course I live on! yay!). Then today (Monday as I write this, but only for another half-hour) we did the BACK yard.

Hopefully the fact that this is the longest chapter I've written yet in either of my stories will help you to forgive me.

Please note that this is another slow, somewhat fluffy, slightly angsty chapter, but next chapter we'll have some action.

Also please wish me luck with my new job, as I'm starting Wednesday. I have to 'shadow' a real caddie before I can really start, then I'll be an apprentice caddie.

Huge thanks to JC-S, who put some input into this chapter as it was written, and Yavinbase, who caught a lot of embarrassing mistakes. You guys rock!

Disclaimer: see prologue

Chapter 4

Cakes and Broomsticks

Harry arrived in the kitchen of Ginny's family home, wishing very much for a penseive. His head was a jumble of disjointed thoughts, and his emotions were on edge. One thought finally seemed to overcome all others, and it pounded in his head like a sledgehammer.

Ginny fancied him.

Or, she might anyway.

What was he going to do? He regretted now, more than ever, deceiving her with his animagus form.

And did he fancy her too? He certainly thought she was beautiful, and funny, and spirited, and he loved talking to her, and he wished she would talk to him the way she talked to Frost . . .

'Oh dear Merlin,' he thought, 'I do fancy her!'

He desperately wished he could talk to Sirius, for he was feeling incredibly lost and confused about the whole thing. That would have to be the first thing he did when he returned home.

A startled shriek broke through the shroud of his thoughts as Ginny's mum entered the kitchen to find him perched on the back of an empty chair.

Her startled exclamation brought every male in the house rushing to her side. It appeared that the twins, Ginny's father, and the youngest boy were the only ones home at the time, and all of them breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the cause of Mrs. Weasley's distress was not some sort of danger, but a phoenix.

Last to enter the room was a bushy-haired girl of perhaps Harry's own age. She carried a book in her hands, and there was an air of knowledge about her, and her eyes reflected a surprising amount of intelligence for one so young.

"What's wrong?" she asked, standing next to the youngest Weasley boy – Ron, if Harry recalled correctly – and trying desperately to see over the heads of the tall men blocking her view.

Wordlessly, they moved out of the way to let her see. She gasped. "Is that . . . "

Ron nodded numbly. "It is."

Mr. Weasley, by this time, had moved forward and undone the letters tied to Harry's leg. He handed each to its respective owner, leaving the ones for his three eldest sons on the kitchen table. Harry guessed they were out helping to look for their sister.

For a few minutes, there was only the rustling of paper as each member of the family read his or her letter. The bushy-haired girl looked distinctly uncomfortable about intruding on this family moment, but she stared at Harry the whole time, a calculating look in her eyes.

Acutely aware of this, Harry shifted uncomfortably and attempted to ignore her, though her scrutiny was severely unnerving.

Mrs. Weasley was the first to finish reading, and she looked to be close to bursting into tears. "Oh, Arthur," she said, "Her birthday is three days from now, it's the first time in her life she won't be here with us for it. And she'll be spending it with those Death Eaters no less."

A horrible sinking sensation settled into the pit of Harry's stomach, though he held himself high and tried not to show any sign that there was something wrong.

Mr. Weasley put a comforting arm around his wife, letting her cry onto his shoulder. For his part, he attempted to remain strong, though the mistiness in his eyes gave away his emotions.

"Now, now, Molly," he said, "I'm sure she's just fine. She says they haven't hurt her, and she's in fact being treated quite well. We'll just have to take her word for it."

Though he was trying to reassure his wife, there was doubt written all over his face. For the first time, Harry wondered what it would be like when he finally got Ginny home. He had come to like her quite a bit, and he wanted very much for them to be friends. But even if he could convince her of that, what would her family's reaction to him be?

The youngest Weasley boy's reaction to his letter gave Harry all the answer he needed.

Ron pounded his fist into the wall and started pacing the room. "I'm going to kill them!" he burst out angrily. "Just wait until I find out who they are, I'll kill them for taking her!"

He continued to stomp back and forth across the room, clenching and unclenching his hands and muttering about how he should be out there looking for his sister.

"Ronald!" exclaimed his mother dangerously, "You're too young! Now there'll be no more talk of that!"

"Mum!" he complained, rolling his eyes. "I'm sixteen, not six. I should be out there helping to find Ginny!"

"Absolutely not," she said firmly. "It's bad enough all your brothers are out there putting themselves in harm's way. You should all leave it to the Order. What if one of you got hurt?" Tears came to her eyes, and her voice dropped to a near-whisper. "What if another of you was taken?"

Ron deflated somewhat, and patted his mother awkwardly on the back. "Don't worry mum," he said uneasily. She reached out and pulled his tall, lanky frame down to her for a hug.

Harry, feeling even more like he was intruding, decided to come back later for their replies, and vanished in a ball of flames.

Soon after returning, he went to talk to Sirius about his last conversation as Frost with Ginny.

"What do I do, Padfoot?" he moaned.

Sirius' face was lit up with an ear-to-ear grin. He was quite obviously enjoying this far too much. "Do you like her?" he asked delightedly. Harry opened his mouth, but his godfather stopped him to add, "Don't lie to me, Frost, or I'm not giving you any advice."

"I told you not to use my Marauder name!" Harry hissed, throwing an anxious look at the closed door of Sirius' room. "What if she hears you?"

Sirius shrugged. "I told you not to lie to her about Frost being you, but you didn't listen to me. It's your own fault, and you're going to get found out eventually. Now," he leaned forward. "Do you like her or not?"

Harry groaned and put his face in his hands. "Yes," he mumbled.

"What was that?" Sirius asked, putting a hand to one ear and turning his head sideways. "Didn't quite catch it."

"I said YES!" Harry hissed. "Happy?"

"Very," Sirius replied, cackling merrily. "Oh this is too good."

"When you're finished," Harry snapped impatiently, "perhaps you can get on with giving me some advice. That is why I came to you after all, not to get laughed at."

"Alright, alright, keep your shirt on," Sirius said, finally becoming the adult in the conversation. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "This is certainly a predicament you've gotten yourself into, Harry."

"Never would've figured that out myself," Harry said sarcastically.

Sirius rolled his eyes and ignored him. He sat in silence for several minutes, just thinking. Eventually, he shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing else for it, you'll just have to tell her."

"What!" Harry exclaimed. "I-I can't do that."

Sirius shrugged. "Well, alternatively, you could just ignore it. It may just be a mere physical attraction and it'll go away once she leaves us, and you may even find someone else. On the other hand, if you really like her, you'll always wonder what would've happened if you'd done something about it. It's your choice, kiddo."

Harry's shoulders drooped miserably and he stared at the floor.

"Hey," said Sirius softly, setting his hand comfortingly on his godson's shoulder. "Look, she's probably going to be here for a while. You don't have to do anything right away. Just think about it for a while and get to know her better. See if you can get some hint of whether she really likes you or not. Oh, and I'd suggest coming clean about Frost soon. The longer it goes on, the worse it'll be when you admit it."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right, but I don't think I can fess up to that just yet." Sirius shook his head sadly, causing him to add defensively, "I will, just not right now!"

He got up and strode towards the door. Yes, he thought to himself. He would, eventually. In the meantime, he would just spend some time with Ginny, and see how things went.

The next few days passed by fairly quickly for Harry. Each morning he trained with his godfather, while Ginny watched with interest. After that, they'd have lunch and spend the rest of the day together, talking, playing Exploding Snap, or reading from the house's extensive library. Occasionally, Harry would carry letters back and forth from Ginny to her family, or just spend time with her as Frost.

He worried about when he would tell her Frost's true identity, for she was already beginning to wonder why she never saw both of them in the same room at the same time. She asked him twice about this, but Harry either brushed her off or changed the subject both times. He knew that wasn't going to fly for long; soon she was going to demand answers.

He only hoped she would forgive him for deceiving her.

The morning of her birthday, August 11th, he was up before dawn, preparing her surprise party. Magical sparks flew as he decorated the house from top to bottom with balloons, streamers, confetti, and large banners.

The day before, he had delivered the Weasleys a note from himself, asking them to send Ginny's presents back with Frost. The note didn't say his name, and they had been extraordinarily confused. Yet, unable to come up with an evil reason for him to want them to send her presents, they did as he asked.

Those presents were now hiding the kitchen table, along with one from himself and Sirius. A cake was in the oven, though Harry was sure he had botched it up somehow, having never before made a cake the muggle way. Magic cooking never worked out well when he attempted it, so he had refrained from even thinking about doing it that way.

Soon everything was ready; the cake was frosted (and lopsided), the presents were laid out, a large breakfast was hot and charmed to stay that way, and Sirius had even dragged his lazy self out of bed early for the occasion. (The promise of cake may have had something to do with it)

Harry went up to awaken the birthday girl at seven o'clock, praying desperately that she would like her surprise.

He was about to knock on her door when he heard a soft sound coming from within. Curiosity aroused, he pressed his ear to the door and listened closely. Soft sobs reached his ears, and he jerked back in surprise. She was crying! Probably remembered it was her birthday, and her mother had said it would be the first one she'd spent without her family.

His heart plummeted. He had caused her so much pain already, and now this? He felt low, and ashamed.

Maybe the party would cheer her up. He had to try. He knocked cautiously on her door, receiving a choked, "Yes?" from inside.

"It's Harry," he called out. "Can I come in?"

"Just a minute." She tried to keep her voice steady, but it cracked slightly.

He waited anxiously for her to compose herself, and it was a few minutes later that she opened the door for him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and a little watery, but she smiled at him in an attempt at cheerfulness. "Hi," she said.

"Hi," He replied. He gave her a weak smile. "I've got a surprise for you."

Her face brightened a little for real this time. "What is it?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it, shaking a finger at her. "Ah, ah, ah. None of that. You'll just have to see. Close your eyes."

She made a small sound of impatience in the back of her throat, and squeezed her eyes shut obediently. Just to be certain, Harry stood behind her and placed his hands over them.

He guided her carefully down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he removed his hands. "You can look now," he whispered in her ear.

A shiver, of anticipation he thought, passed through her at this, and she opened her eyes. He was standing behind her, so he could not see her face as she stared at the scene before her.

Sirius, a ridiculous muggle party hat on his head and a noisemaker in hand, waved merrily at her.

She stood that way for several long moments, before she whirled to face Harry, tears forming in her eyes.

"Surprise," he murmured.

"You did this?" He nodded. "How did you know?" she asked.

"Frost overheard your mum say when your birthday was. He told me."

"So he really can talk to you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Sort of. I can't really explain it. D-d'you like it?" He waved his hand at the decorations.

"It's wonderful," she said happily. "You didn't have to."

"I wanted to. Happy Birthday. You're 15 right?" She nodded.

"Alright you two," Sirius called out from the table, "Enough mush. Let's eat." Both teenagers laughed at him, but sat down to eat nonetheless. Harry did not fail to notice that Ginny seemed to have grown more comfortable around both himself and his godfather – a fact for which he was quite thankful.

Breakfast was delicious, if Harry did say so himself. Afterwards, they had the cake he'd made, because Sirius refused to be kept waiting until after lunch for that part.

He watched anxiously as Ginny took her first bite, and nearly groaned aloud in frustration when she had to force a grimace off her face. He took a bite himself and had to agree, it was quite horrible.

"You don't like it, do you?" he asked.

She started trying to reassure him that she did like it, but he waved his hand. "It's alright, I agree, it's awful."

She smiled sympathetically at him, and he dropped his fork in disgust. "Figures. I wanted this all to be perfect," he muttered.

"Don't worry about it, Harry," she said encouragingly. "It is perfect. You went to a lot of trouble for me." She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and whispered, "Thank you for everything, it was really sweet of you."

She sat back down in her own chair, and as she did so Harry noticed that she had turned a delicate shade of pink. Judging by the warmth in his own cheeks, he imagined he looked about the same. He could almost still feel the cool pressure of her lips on his face, and he placed his hand where she had kissed him.

A quick glance at Sirius showed that the older man hadn't noticed anything; too busy was he shoveling cake into his mouth. Judging by how fast the food was going in, Harry doubted Sirius could taste anything he was eating – which explained why he hadn't spit the horrible cake back out in disgust.

Harry and Ginny sat in an embarrassed silence for the next few minutes, until Sirius finally finished stuffing his face and exclaimed, "Presents!" so exuberantly that one would think it was his birthday instead of Ginny's.

Both teenagers rolled their eyes at him, and Ginny pulled the nearest gift towards herself. Her eyes widened in surprise when she read the tag attached, and she asked incredulously, "How did I get a gift from my parents?"

Harry grinned. "I sent them a note with Frost, and he brought them back for you."

She murmured her thanks and went back to the pile of gifts on the table. Her family seemed to have pulled out all the stops, knowing they wouldn't be with her, and it took her a few minutes to get through them all.

Finally, all that remained was a long, thin package from the kidnappers. Harry fidgeted nervously as she flashed him a brilliant smile and tore through the sloppy wrapping job. When she saw the gleaming handle of a brand new Firebolt, she gasped and turned to Harry in amazement. "These are incredibly expensive! Why-"

"I wanted you to have your own," he interrupted quickly. "You told me your favorite thing to do was fly, and this way you can keep it when you go home, instead of just borrowing Sirius' while you're here."

"Thank you. Thank you both," she breathed, unable to say more.

"We'll go flying this afternoon," he added. "That is, if you want to."

"Yes, oh, yes please!" she exclaimed immediately. "I haven't been flying for so long. When can we go?"

"Right now!" Sirius interjected. "You two go ahead, and I'll clean up here." Harry started to argue, but Sirius just waved his hands, "No, no, don't you worry about me, I have magic. You know very well I'm too lazy to really clean up around here. Now get out of here and enjoy your day. I'll see you tonight."

Harry turned and looked into Ginny's bright, hopeful brown eyes, and said, "Alright then, see you tonight, Siri."

Ginny let out a little squeal of excitement and raced up the stairs to get changed into appropriate clothing for flying.

Shaking his head in amusement, Harry followed at a slower pace and retrieved his own broom and his chest of Quidditch balls. Charmed to be feather-light, the chest also served as a portkey to the location where Harry and his godfather typically did their flying.

When Ginny returned, broom clutched tightly in hand, Harry instructed her to place her finger on the chest. That done, he followed suit and muttered the activation words, 'Gryffindor Lions.' An uncomfortable sensation behind his naval let him know that it had worked, and a second later, they landed at their destination.

Harry collapsed forwards onto his knees, but Ginny maintained her balance to gaze around in awe at her surroundings. Even though Harry had been there before, he felt like dropping his jaw along with her, for the place was truly spectacular.

They were in the middle of a gigantic clearing in a valley, surrounded on all sides by wilderness. Mountains and trees were all that could be seen for miles and miles in any direction. The clearing in which they stood was the exact size and shape of a Quidditch pitch, with the perfectly groomed grass looking freshly cut and healthy.

"What do you think?" he asked, grinning as he got to his feet and brushed off his knees.

"It's amazing," was her awestruck reply. "How . . ."

"A lot of hard work," he supplied. "Sirius knew I needed somewhere to unwind, what with all my training, and flying was the best way to do that. So, we built this. It took us around two years, working off and on, but the result was worth it, I think. There are muggle repellant wards all over the place, along with multiple powerful preservation charms to keep the pitch in perfect condition, and a sort of 'invisibility shield' forming a dome around the area, so as to keep prying eyes at bay."

"Incredible," she said. She gazed off into the distance for another moment; then asked, "So where are we?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Somewhere in Canada," he said vaguely. "Nowhere near any civilization, if that's what you're asking." He grinned at her. "Alright, enough chit-chat, let's get up there!"

She certainly gave no argument to that, and within moments they were soaring through the clean, alpine air. Harry took his broom through a series of loops, dives, and rolls that a professional Quidditch player would've been hard put to match, yet found, to his surprise, that Ginny was following him and matching him maneuver for maneuver. Knowing the invisibility shield extended a short ways into the forest, he shot into the trees, weaving in and out at suicide speeds. Ducking low-hanging branches, rolling to avoid massive trunks, he expected to find she had become scared and slowed down. Yet, as he shot back out into the clear space over the pitch, he looked back to find her still with him, a triumphant gleam in her eye.

"Not bad," he called out, having paused in mid-air to catch his breath.

"I can do better than that," she called out. "Catch me if you can, Harry!"

With that, she took off like a shot, once more entering a breathtaking series of maneuvers that nearly had his head spinning in circles. He sped up and matched her, move for move, the two of them flying in tandem; a beautiful, intricate dance in the bright, sunlit sky.

How long they flew, neither really knew until they landed quite some time later. All they knew was the joy of flight.

When finally did land, the sun was directly overhead, and their stomachs were grumbling furiously.

"That . . . that was . . . amazing," Ginny said breathlessly.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, trying to bring his breathing back under control. "I've never done anything like that before."

"Me neither." She giggled a little when his stomach let out an extra large rumble. "Hungry?"

"Yeah," he muttered. "You?" She nodded, so he motioned for her to follow him to the edge of the pitch. Just inside the tree line, he stopped, feeling around on the ground for something.

"What are you doing?" she asked, but he just waved a hand at her for silence.

"Aha!" he cried, pulling up on the small, iron ring he had just grasped. It was the handle to a trap door. It was heavy, and he grunted with effort, his muscles straining to lift the hatch open.

After a moment, he succeeded, and they both looked down the opening of a short shaft into the ground. A ladder was on the side, and Harry put his foot on the first rung.

"This is our storehouse," he explained, seeing that she was about to ask a question. "Sirius does more eating than flying while we're here, so we put a bunch of foodstuffs down here for meals, in case he didn't want to go back home to eat." He grinned. "Be right back with some food."

He disappeared down the ladder for a few minutes, putting a few sandwiches and other simple foods together.

The room was fairly small, and packed all manner of food and a few dishes. Sirius had a large supply of canned food (despite the fact that the preservation charms kept everything fresh) all in one corner of the small, earthen chamber.

Besides being a place to store snack food, it also served as an emergency cache of supplies, in case Grimmauld Place was ever compromised. If that happened, they could stay fairly well hidden at the pitch for quite some time, without starving to death.

A misplaced step sent all the canned food crashing down on top of Harry, with enough noise to wake the dead. He crawled out from under the cans, cursing his godfather inventively.

"Are you alright?" Ginny's concerned voice floated down to him.

"I'm fine," he called back through gritted teeth, trying not to make it sound as if he was angry with her. "Just a little accident; nothing to worry about."

Soon he had a picnic basket prepared for the two of them, and he conjured a blanket for them to avoid sitting on the grass in the warm, bright sunshine.

They spent the rest of the day there on the pitch, alternately flying and just sitting on the sun-warmed blanket to talk. Harry learned that Ginny played Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts, while her brother Ron played Keeper. She asked him a little about his childhood, so he told her about what he remembered of the Dursleys.

They practiced catching the Snitch and tossing the Quaffle about, and Harry found that while he could beat her at the former, he was no match for her at all at the latter.

"Why aren't you playing Chaser?" he asked as they hovered in mid-air. "You're fantastic with the Quaffle; I can't even come close to blocking your shots."

She blushed at his compliment. "Well, I'm really the only one who can Seek right now. We haven't found anyone else who can replace me."

"Oh." He could understand that. She was very good at Seeking too, even if not near as well as at Chasing.

Harry insisted that they stay until night fell, for he wanted to show her something. When the sun had completely set, and the night was as dark as it was going to be, he had her lay down next to him on the blanket and look straight up into the night sky.

She gasped, and he had to agree with her. Far up above them were the stars; their incredible beauty undiminished by city lights, smoke, or even clouds.

"Beautiful isn't it?" he asked. She nodded, speechless with awe. "I've always loved the stars," he said, almost to himself, "Ever since Sirius told me about Voldemort, and what happened to me when I was a year old. I went outside that night and looked at the sky, and all I could think was that there was something beautiful and sacred; something Voldemort could never destroy, or control, or even touch."

He broke off, a tear sliding down his cheek. "They always make me realize that, no matter what happens, he will never win. He will never triumph, for there will always be something he can't have."

He glanced over at her to see a tear sliding down her cheek as well. She rolled over onto her side, facing him and propping herself up on one elbow. "Harry, is that why you're training? To fight You-Know-Who?"

He copied her move, so that they were facing one another. He started to deny her question, but something stopped him. For some reason, he wanted to tell her the truth. Didn't she deserve it? Didn't she deserve to know why they were holding her prisoner? She would be safe with them as long as necessary; no one could force the information out of her at Grimmauld Place. For reasons he couldn't explain, he trusted her, completely.

"Yes," he admitted, "I am going to fight him. There was a Prophecy made before I was born, it states that I am the only one who can defeat him. That's why he tried to kill me when I was a year old, and that's why he's kept trying to kill me now."

Her eyes widened. "He's still trying?"

He nodded sadly. "Yes, for quite some time now. When Sirius rescued me from my aunt and uncle's, it became front-page news in wizarding papers around the world. Voldemort, who was not dead, but not yet alive, heard of this and possessed the body of a young wizard to come after us both. Out from under the protective wards of my 'home,' I was vulnerable to him.

"Sirius had not expected this; he thought Voldemort had indeed died that night at my parent's house. He wanted to turn himself in and put me back in Dumbledore's protection, but I begged him not to. I finally had family. I wasn't about to lose it without a fight."

He paused, a melancholy look stealing over his features. "Those years were hard. We had to move around a lot. Always the Order, the Ministry, or Voldemort were hot on our tails; Voldemort closest of all. He caught up with us several times, but each time we managed to escape by the skin of our teeth. Until one year ago, when he finally got his own body back."

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought of that night. Voldemort had tricked him into thinking Sirius was waiting to meet him in the cemetery outside a small town called Little Hangleton, England. Sirius was supposed to be out trying to find a new location for them to hide, but the message was sufficiently like him for Harry to go.

Once there, he realized why it was that it was so convincingly like Sirius' handwriting and manner. Peter Pettigrew, the traitor of the Marauders, had written it. He fled from where ever he'd been hiding the minute news of Sirius' escape came out, and joined up with his master a few years later.

Once he was at the graveyard, Peter hit Harry with stunning and confusion spells before he realized it, and he was soon bound to a gravestone and used for the resurrection of Voldemort's body.

Once his Death Eaters were summoned, the Dark Lord challenged Harry to a duel.

That had been his big mistake. He removed the confusion spell from Harry and gave him his wand, arrogantly believing he could easily beat the boy.

When the duel commenced and Harry's thoughts returned to their normal state, he found that he was under an anti-disapparition jinx and facing a barrage of spells from the most powerful Dark Lord of the age.

Instincts born of years of training kicked in, and he dodged them, immediately sending back a few curses of his own. He knew he wasn't ready for the final duel, and he needed to get out of there; and for that he needed time to shift to his animagus form.

He was hard pressed to do so, for Voldemort was angry that he was not able to immediately destroy Harry. The Dark Lord was far more powerful than the boy, but Harry was faster.

Eventually, a thought had come to him, and before he could think better of it, he cast the Killing Curse at his enemy. Voldemort was so shocked by the fact that a Light wizard had used that spell that he almost didn't dodge it in time. This gave Harry the opportunity he'd been waiting for, and he vanished in a ball of flame.

"Harry?"

Ginny's voice shook him out of his thoughts. "Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay, I just wanted to ask, um, a few days ago you told me he thought you were dead. Why is that?"

A grim, but somewhat pleased smile grew on his face. "Now that's an interesting thing. Voldemort is no fool. He knows I'm dangerous because of the Prophecy, and he knows that I'll probably come after him using magic. So, he tried to kill me using muggle means."

"What? But I thought he hated muggles and everything to do with them? How would he even know how to do it?"

"He's half-muggle," Harry replied simply. Her eyes widened in shock. "Yep, that's right," he went on, "He's a true hypocrite if I ever saw one. Anyway, he must know a thing or two about muggle explosives, because he planted a car bomb in the vehicle Sirius and I were using. Fortunately, I had silent wards placed on it to let me know if anyone tampered with it, and we placed strong anti-fire and anti- shields over ourselves before getting in the car. We thought it'd be best if he thought we both died, and we were right. We haven't been bothered since, and that was almost a year ago.

"After that, we moved into Grimmauld Place, so that I could train in peace, waiting for him to come out of hiding and show his existence to the world."

"Were you the one who told Professor Dumbledore that You-Know-Who came back?" Ginny asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nah, that was his spy, who felt Voldemort calling to him. We were going to send the headmaster a message, but fortunately it turned out we didn't need to." His expression became one of great bitterness. "Of course, that bumbling old fool, Fudge, doesn't believe Dumbledore, and that will make the fight against snake-face all that much harder."

"Mum and Dad believe him," Ginny said.

Harry nodded. "I'm glad. At least your family will know to protect themselves."

"Harry," Ginny started cautiously. She stopped, hesitant to ask whatever it was she had on her mind, so he waved at her to go ahead. "Why . . . Why don't you at least try to talk to Dumbledore? I bet he'd believe your story about Sirius if you just talked to him and explained it."

He shrugged. "Sirius and I have always done things by ourselves. I've spent most of my life running from Dumbledore and his Order, among others. You can't really expect me to trust him after that, can you? I've never even met him personally. Sirius trusted him, once upon a time, but not any more. If the headmaster had tried to help him at all when he was sent to prison, then maybe, but he didn't. He didn't even attempt to find out Sirius' side of the story."

She obviously disagreed with him, but they said no more on the subject; lying back once more to stare at the sky.

After a few minutes, Ginny asked, "You're really going to fight him aren't you?"

"Yes."

She made a strange choking noise, and he asked, concerned, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing. It's just . . . I don't want you to get hurt."

He blinked, surprised. "Really?"

"Yes!" she almost shouted, then more quietly, "Over the last few days, I-I guess I've come to see you as my friend. It's silly."

She turned away, embarrassed, but he put a hand on her arm and pulled her back to look at him. "I would be honored to be your friend, Ginny, and I hope you'll be mine. I've never had a real friend before, other than Sirius. And he doesn't count."

She giggled. "Of course I'll be your friend."

They sat in a comfortable silence for some time, until Ginny broke it once more. "Do you trust me?"

Harry nodded. "Yes. Yes I do."

"Then, can I have my wand back? I promise I won't try to escape, I know now that I'll be putting you and myself in danger."

He sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, I can't do that." She looked hurt, so he hastily added, "It's not that I don't trust you, but it wouldn't be any use since if you used it the Ministry would detect it and we'd have to move to another location." Suddenly, a thought came to him, and his face brightened. "You can use my spare wand, though!"

She looked hesitant to hope. "Really?"

"Really," he confirmed. She let out a little squeal of joy and hugged him excitedly, then seemed to realize what she was doing and backed away hurriedly, cheeks flaming.

"Right," Harry said, flustered by the hug. "We better get back, then, or Sirius will be wondering about us."

"Of course," she agreed, avoiding his gaze.

As he stood and Vanished their blanket, Harry could still almost feel her body pressed up against him, her soft warmth comforting. The smell of her hair had been so intoxicating; he just wanted to breathe it in forever.

He shook his head to clear it of these thoughts, and went back to gathering up the Quidditch supplies. It had been a truly wonderful day, spending so much time with her, but now it was time to go home.

AN

PLEASE REVIEW! I mean it, even if just to say, "I read it," please give me a review! You don't have to like it to review, you just have to have read it (be polite please, if you don't like it, say so politely. don't flame me, I'm a highly flammable material)

Hopefully, this chapter clears up a few questions about the alternate history aspect of this story. In his first year, Voldemort was chasing him instead of the Stone, so it stayed safe. In second year, it is my personal belief that without Harry, Malfoy wouldn't have planted the diary at Hogwarts (with Ginny), but after all, Sirius didn't break out of Azkaban when Harry was five either. (AU ROCKS!). Third year is unecessary, for obvious reasons, and the tri-wizard tournament DID take place, but there were only three champions (Cedric won, and is now waiting for his fiance, Cho, to graduate so they can get married.) Fifth year is also unecessary. Also, I hope the bit about Peter was believable. Will I connect Scabbers with Wormtail in the story? Maybe.

Now, with your permission, I'd like to rant (not at you, but to you, thanks for listening). I tried to put this story up on another site (which shall remain nameless) and it was REJECTED! Want to know why? Because there were concerns about the plot! I'm not sure, but I take that to mean there were holes (like the Chamber incident) in the plot. Now, did they include a way to contact the administrators of the site so that I could tell them that that would be explained in later chapters (since I'm only allowed to submit two to see if it gets accepted)? NO! They said to go get myself a beta and have him check over my work! I ALREADY HAVE TWO FRICKIN BETAS! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?

Screw them, I'll take my story elsewhere. Thanks again for listening (reading) my rant. It feels good to get that off my chest.

ON TO THE REVIEW RESPONSES! TALLY HO!

theKRITIC: two reasons. 1) because Ginny is also technically a kidnap victim, and may therefore be a Stockholm Syndrome case. 2) the title doesn't necessarily mean they HAVE SS, so much as others BELIEVE they have it. For instance, if Harry told his story to Fudge, the pompous old fool would wave it off as SS.

Rachel A. Prongs: One very sad, pathetic thing I find about us humble (er, I mean loud, obnoxious, proud, obstinate) HGers is that most of the time we try too hard to make them get together too fast. This tends to make people not like Ginny very much, and it chases people away to other ships. That is why one of the most rewarding things for me as a writer is when someone who doesn't like my ship, reads the story anyway and likes it. Even more rewarding (though you're the first for me) is possibly convincing someone to ship-shift. My advice to you is to not get yourself stuck on any one ship. Keep an open mind about them. I wish I had, because now I can't stand reading Harry with anyone but Ginny, and vice versa.

Powerful!Harry seems to also be a popular thing, though not just among HGers (far from it). I did that a little bit in my other fic, because I like to writecharacters different ways in different stories. When I started this story, I decided to make him more the warrior-type, with strong fighting skills, but notso much raw magical power that he blasts Voldemort into oblivion with no trouble.

He knows Occlumency. thanks for the excellent review!

Dumbledore: Wow, 99 favorites. LOL. I do promise to bring more action into it (next chapter, to be precise), and there will be interaction with other characters soon (who, I refuse to tell). You know, you sounded a little like a Jedi...Balance is the key.

Esper: It refers to both, or either, depending on how you look at it.

luka-black: I'd hate to be him too, and I'm going to be evil with that part. Just ask my brother. He insists I'm twisted, and I tell him my plans for the fic.

lilybug: Ginny will be mad of course. And the goblins don't care about who puts money in their bank (they didn't care when Sirius bought Harry the Firebolt in book 3), so Harry and Sirius are safe as far as that goes.

Marcus Lazarus: Yep, you got it. And we'll see more of the Weasleys soon. Just think of the reaction when they find out their daughter/sister's new boyfriend (once I stopscrewing around andgetour two lovebirds together)is the one who kidnapped her. oh the drama!

annie: This story usually takes longer because I'm more careful about getting it just the way I want it (maybe that's even why you like it more than the other one) I certainly will try to get the chapters out as often as humanly possible.

Nikki: Tired of HG? Not me, that's for sure. And no one else I know personally. heh

Tanydwr: left out the 'h!' I knew that! No, really I did! er...

Anyway, the age at which you can drive here varies by state (I lived in Montana for a while, and you can drive with a licensed adult in the front seat at 14 1/2 years old there) Her in Washington, you can get a partial license at 16, but ONE infraction (like one speeding ticket) gets it suspened til you're 18. So for two years you have to be perfect. Florida was way better in that regard.

Maxfic rings a bell (I've read Gift from the Past, Promise for the Future) but HP and the Unkown Power does not. I may have read it (I read a lot a few months ago that I don't remember), but if I did, the idea didn't come from there. Thanks for the heads-up.

If anyone British spots problems, I would SO appreciate an email on that. I don't usually know the thing myself unless someone points it out, which is why I have two betas that find obvious things. They're both American though.

My dad didn't really make me not write, either, it was just that we worked from early in the morning til about ten at night, so I only had an hour or so before I fell asleep at my laptop. It was an hour set by me so that I didn't drop dead from exhaustion, but it was still indirectly my dad's fault.

saugart: Well, he's wary of giving her too much info at first, but he opened up a bit in this chapter. And you're right, he could've said that much to her, but also remember that he doesn't really know her that well. It's hard to talk about someone out to kill you with someone you've only met a couple days before (someone you're pretty sure hates you for kidnapping them)

SeekerTLK: yep, high school, though I'm homeschooled (and halfway through 12th grade atm). Thanks for the encouragement, I needed it. I love kids! Don't know how good I am with them, but I know I want to start a BIG family some day (after I find someone to start it with of course. I'm patient, I can wait for the right girl)

Disco Jesus: Harry and Sirius' plan revealed in next chapter, and Remus comes in eventually (reunion of best friends!)

SilverPunk with an attitude: thanks, I'm glad to know I can bring in even readers that don't like the ship.

everpresent: So how'd I do with Gryffindor's resident certifiable genius?