Disclaimer: So sue me. You can have my two dollars.
A/N: This chapter finally jumped to life. It's a little bit of fresh air to keep the story from being too serious.
Harry Potter and the Lost Library
Chapter 7: Beware the Three-Headed Monkey
Ginny was both overwhelmed and confused by her first glimpse of Floogle Castle. The confusion came from the castle's strange architecture and the sense of being overwhelmed was a reaction to the sheer size of the building. "You live here?" she asked in awe.
Harry felt a twinge of embarrassment. "The castle is really not that big," he murmured. "It's just trying to puff itself up to impress you."
"It can do that?" Ginny asked sharply.
"Floogle Castle is a little like Hogwarts," Harry replied. "It has a mind of it's own."
As they crossed the drawbridge that spanned the castle moat, Harry groaned at the kelpies who were swimming around in a synchronized pattern. He had spent two whole summers carefully re-engineering the ditches that fed and drained the moat only to end up creating a world-class kelpie habitat. Ginny paused to watch the water demons in their carefully rehearsed dance. Harry was afraid that she might be falling under their spell, but she turned sharply towards him. The kelpies flared their nostrils in response. "You have kelpies in your moat," she commented.
"You noticed," Harry said dryly. He kicked a rock off the bridge towards one of the demons. It reared up slightly before bolting out of sight around the castle. The rest of the herd followed suit.
"You should try adding some butterbeer to the water," Ginny suggest. "Kelpies can't stand the stuff."
"What!" Harry blurted.
"I know, quite shocking" Ginny sighed, "Who doesn't like a good butterbeer?" With her rhetorical question still hanging in the air, Ginny glided through the castle gates and into the inner courtyard.
The Weasleys had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Harry was pushed aside as family engulfed Ginny. Though he was glad to be home and away from Muggles, Harry couldn't help feeling slightly saddened that their journey had come to end. The easy companionship Ginny and he shared had been a relaxing comfort.
Mrs. Weasley had truly out done herself. In the few hours it had taken Harry and Ginny to travel from London, she had thrown together a banquet that would rival any feast at Hogwarts. The dinning hall of Floogle Castle had been festooned with a rainbow of paper streamers, and the twins had specially enchanted some of their fireworks so that they danced merrily and harmlessly over the party's heads.
Harry found himself watching and gauging Ginny's reactions throughout the night's festivities. She didn't eat enough to satisfy her mother, but Mrs. Weasley wisely didn't push. It was clear that Ginny was not used to have such a savory selection for dinner. She seemed also a little overwhelmed by her family's exuberance, but to her credit, she remained calm and engaged.
The only time Ginny gave the impression of being distressed was when Dobby suddenly appeared. As he ambled in her direction, Ginny sunk back in her chair and gripped the edge of her seat until her knuckles were white. Harry was unconsciously reminded of all the times that his Uncle Vernon had drug him away to his cupboard for some superficial crime.
Dobby was obviously put off by Ginny's reaction and looked over at Harry to see whether he should punish himself. Harry shook his head and sent Dobby an encouraging smile. "Dobby brought Miss Weasley a welcome home gift," the elf said hesitantly. He held out a poorly wrapped package towards her. A small battle of wills was fought across Ginny's features, but eventually her common sense won out over her fear and she accepted the present. Dobby's entire countenance lightened as Ginny unwrapped his gift, and his ugly face split into a grin when she held up a vivid pair of socks. One was a red and white stripped knee sock, and the other was a neon green anklet with hot pink hearts on it. "Dobby picked out one," the elf explained, "and Winky picked out the other."
Ginny didn't seem to know exactly how to react and looked around the table. Mrs. Weasley appeared to be praying for patience, and Hermione was smiling in an encouraging manner. Everyone else was trying to desperately hide his or her laughter. Ginny had just joined an illustrious club of miss-matched and uncommonly ugly sock owners. "Thank you," Ginny murmured to the house elf.
With his mission complete, Dobby disappeared in a flash. The room erupted into laughter.
Ginny made it through dessert before signs of fatigue started to show. She asked politely to be excused, and Hermione had shown her to her room. As soon as the dinning hall door shut behind the two women, the mood plummeted. The smiles faded and were replaced by the expressions that showed the weariness the strain of the past days had wrought. One by one the Weasleys retreated to their own beds.
Harry was exhausted as well, but his thoughts were racing much too quickly to allow him to sleep. So, he sat in his library staring absently at a nearly blank piece of parchment on the desk in front of him.
The groan of the library door hinges interrupted his private revelry. Harry looked up to see Ginny slip into the room. She was dressed in an old Chudley Canon's jersey of Ron's. One tall red and white sock reached up her calf towards the bottom of the jersey, and her other sock appeared to be giving off a few watts of pink, heart-shaped light. Harry watched closely as she inhaled deeply and released a sigh of relief. The corners of her mouth curved upward slightly, and she hurried over towards one of the tall bookshelves. Ginny leaned heavily on the shelf and pressed the side of her face against the spines of the books. It was like she was embracing the volumes as old friends.
Harry coughed politely. Ginny whirled quickly to face him. Her face drained of color a second before turning bright red with embarrassment. "I didn't see you there," she uttered.
"Couldn't sleep?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded in response. "Why don't you have a seat?" He gestured to one of the chairs. His lips twitched as he watched her hesitantly cross the room. Dobby's miss-matched presents looked even sillier in motion. "You realize that you don't have to wear them?"
Ginny paused and looked down. "I felt sort of bad for the way I reacted tonight," she shrugged. "I thought that Dobby might realize that I didn't mean it if he saw me wearing his socks. Besides, I don't have any others, and the castle floors are cold."
Harry didn't know why, but the thought that Ginny didn't even own a pair of matching socks bothered him greatly. "You've met Dobby before, haven't you?" he asked. "He was the Malfoy's house elf. He came to work at Hogwarts after the Chamber of Secrets incident." Almost as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, Harry had to quell the desire to smack himself for his stupidity. Why after all these years did he still forget that he had not been alone during his first visit to the Chamber?
Ginny's expression was unreadable, but Harry thought the light in her eyes dimmed slightly. "Of course," Ginny mumbled while sinking into a chair across the desk from Harry. "I was just surprised to see a house elf. That's all."
Harry realized that Ginny's reaction to the elf had little to do with surprise but wisely changed the subject. "How do you like your bed chamber?"
"It's very nice, thank you," Ginny replied politely. "It reminds me of my room at the Burrow, except it's bigger and the floor shakes less."
Harry laughed. He had forgotten that Ginny's bedroom at the Burrow had been right next to the twins' room. While at Floogle Castle, the twins always stayed in rooms far removed from other guests. Their ability to start small fires and blow up household items at all hours of the night and day didn't make them pleasant neighbors.
"What are you doing?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked down on the scroll in front of him. "I'm writing my memoirs."
Ginny's brow crinkled in disbelief. "Memoirs, as in a noun meaning autobiographical observations and reminiscences," she teased.
"It was Hermione's idea," Harry grumbled.
"It would be," Ginny sighed. "I never took you as a Gilderoy wannabe."
"Good lord, no," Harry spat quickly.
"Can I read them?" Ginny asked craning her neck to see the document in front of him.
"NO!" Harry shouted quickly covering the parchment with his hand. "It's not finished yet."
"Come on," Ginny whined, "Let me read it. I promise I won't laugh."
"No, I...I can't spell," Harry lied desperately.
"LOOK," Ginny shouted suddenly, pointing behind him, "A three-headed monkey."
Like the stupidest person in the world, Harry swung around quickly to see a reflection in the window glass of Ginny lunging across the desk to grab the scroll of parchment. Harry turned back and watched red-faced while Ginny scanned the manuscript. She looked at him with confusion and then scanned the document again. This time, she even flipped the scroll over to see if there was any writing on the back.
"This is it?" she demanded.
Harry sighed heavily and nodded. Ginny released a snort of laughter. "Hey," Harry condemned, "You promised."
Ginny wiped the smile off her face. "How long have you been working on this?" she asked. Her voice trembled from her efforts to quash her laughter.
"Three years," Harry admitted. He grimaced at how incredibly lame that sounded. He had worked three years on a single, three-word sentence. That averaged out to one word a year.
"Wow...that's amazing...progress," Ginny said tightly. Her eyes were now watering from the strain of trying to suppress the giggles.
Harry sighed dejectedly as Ginny covered her mouth and bent over in the chair. Her shoulders shook as peels of laughter burst from her. Finally, Harry could not help but join in and have a good laugh at himself.
Ginny sat up suddenly. Her bright red complexion and tear stained face made Harry laugh even harder. Ginny paused to take a couple deep breaths and fanned herself. When she noticed that she had picked up his pathetic memoirs to use as a fan, she gave in to her mirth once again.
The minutes rolled by merrily as the couple fed off each other's laughter. Finally, they both leaned back in their chairs grinning at each other like a pair of idiots. Harry couldn't remember a time when he had laughed that hard.
"I suppose I could help you with this," Ginny said. Harry chuckled as she leaned forward, grabbed a quill, and wrote something on the parchment. "There," she said, grinning broadly, "I've doubled your memoirs."
Harry took the parchment and read. His stirring sentence "I was born" had its period crossed out and the phase "at Godric's Hollow" added to it. "That's brilliant," he congratulated his new co-author.
"You should also probably add something in there about being extremely gullible and having an aberrant fear of three-headed monkeys," Ginny quipped. Her eyes danced merrily within her otherwise innocent expression.
Harry froze briefly with a stunned expression on his face before launching himself out of his chair. Ginny let out a squeal and raced out of the room.
A/N: This chapter finally jumped to life. It's a little bit of fresh air to keep the story from being too serious.
Harry Potter and the Lost Library
Chapter 7: Beware the Three-Headed Monkey
Ginny was both overwhelmed and confused by her first glimpse of Floogle Castle. The confusion came from the castle's strange architecture and the sense of being overwhelmed was a reaction to the sheer size of the building. "You live here?" she asked in awe.
Harry felt a twinge of embarrassment. "The castle is really not that big," he murmured. "It's just trying to puff itself up to impress you."
"It can do that?" Ginny asked sharply.
"Floogle Castle is a little like Hogwarts," Harry replied. "It has a mind of it's own."
As they crossed the drawbridge that spanned the castle moat, Harry groaned at the kelpies who were swimming around in a synchronized pattern. He had spent two whole summers carefully re-engineering the ditches that fed and drained the moat only to end up creating a world-class kelpie habitat. Ginny paused to watch the water demons in their carefully rehearsed dance. Harry was afraid that she might be falling under their spell, but she turned sharply towards him. The kelpies flared their nostrils in response. "You have kelpies in your moat," she commented.
"You noticed," Harry said dryly. He kicked a rock off the bridge towards one of the demons. It reared up slightly before bolting out of sight around the castle. The rest of the herd followed suit.
"You should try adding some butterbeer to the water," Ginny suggest. "Kelpies can't stand the stuff."
"What!" Harry blurted.
"I know, quite shocking" Ginny sighed, "Who doesn't like a good butterbeer?" With her rhetorical question still hanging in the air, Ginny glided through the castle gates and into the inner courtyard.
The Weasleys had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Harry was pushed aside as family engulfed Ginny. Though he was glad to be home and away from Muggles, Harry couldn't help feeling slightly saddened that their journey had come to end. The easy companionship Ginny and he shared had been a relaxing comfort.
Mrs. Weasley had truly out done herself. In the few hours it had taken Harry and Ginny to travel from London, she had thrown together a banquet that would rival any feast at Hogwarts. The dinning hall of Floogle Castle had been festooned with a rainbow of paper streamers, and the twins had specially enchanted some of their fireworks so that they danced merrily and harmlessly over the party's heads.
Harry found himself watching and gauging Ginny's reactions throughout the night's festivities. She didn't eat enough to satisfy her mother, but Mrs. Weasley wisely didn't push. It was clear that Ginny was not used to have such a savory selection for dinner. She seemed also a little overwhelmed by her family's exuberance, but to her credit, she remained calm and engaged.
The only time Ginny gave the impression of being distressed was when Dobby suddenly appeared. As he ambled in her direction, Ginny sunk back in her chair and gripped the edge of her seat until her knuckles were white. Harry was unconsciously reminded of all the times that his Uncle Vernon had drug him away to his cupboard for some superficial crime.
Dobby was obviously put off by Ginny's reaction and looked over at Harry to see whether he should punish himself. Harry shook his head and sent Dobby an encouraging smile. "Dobby brought Miss Weasley a welcome home gift," the elf said hesitantly. He held out a poorly wrapped package towards her. A small battle of wills was fought across Ginny's features, but eventually her common sense won out over her fear and she accepted the present. Dobby's entire countenance lightened as Ginny unwrapped his gift, and his ugly face split into a grin when she held up a vivid pair of socks. One was a red and white stripped knee sock, and the other was a neon green anklet with hot pink hearts on it. "Dobby picked out one," the elf explained, "and Winky picked out the other."
Ginny didn't seem to know exactly how to react and looked around the table. Mrs. Weasley appeared to be praying for patience, and Hermione was smiling in an encouraging manner. Everyone else was trying to desperately hide his or her laughter. Ginny had just joined an illustrious club of miss-matched and uncommonly ugly sock owners. "Thank you," Ginny murmured to the house elf.
With his mission complete, Dobby disappeared in a flash. The room erupted into laughter.
Ginny made it through dessert before signs of fatigue started to show. She asked politely to be excused, and Hermione had shown her to her room. As soon as the dinning hall door shut behind the two women, the mood plummeted. The smiles faded and were replaced by the expressions that showed the weariness the strain of the past days had wrought. One by one the Weasleys retreated to their own beds.
Harry was exhausted as well, but his thoughts were racing much too quickly to allow him to sleep. So, he sat in his library staring absently at a nearly blank piece of parchment on the desk in front of him.
The groan of the library door hinges interrupted his private revelry. Harry looked up to see Ginny slip into the room. She was dressed in an old Chudley Canon's jersey of Ron's. One tall red and white sock reached up her calf towards the bottom of the jersey, and her other sock appeared to be giving off a few watts of pink, heart-shaped light. Harry watched closely as she inhaled deeply and released a sigh of relief. The corners of her mouth curved upward slightly, and she hurried over towards one of the tall bookshelves. Ginny leaned heavily on the shelf and pressed the side of her face against the spines of the books. It was like she was embracing the volumes as old friends.
Harry coughed politely. Ginny whirled quickly to face him. Her face drained of color a second before turning bright red with embarrassment. "I didn't see you there," she uttered.
"Couldn't sleep?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded in response. "Why don't you have a seat?" He gestured to one of the chairs. His lips twitched as he watched her hesitantly cross the room. Dobby's miss-matched presents looked even sillier in motion. "You realize that you don't have to wear them?"
Ginny paused and looked down. "I felt sort of bad for the way I reacted tonight," she shrugged. "I thought that Dobby might realize that I didn't mean it if he saw me wearing his socks. Besides, I don't have any others, and the castle floors are cold."
Harry didn't know why, but the thought that Ginny didn't even own a pair of matching socks bothered him greatly. "You've met Dobby before, haven't you?" he asked. "He was the Malfoy's house elf. He came to work at Hogwarts after the Chamber of Secrets incident." Almost as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, Harry had to quell the desire to smack himself for his stupidity. Why after all these years did he still forget that he had not been alone during his first visit to the Chamber?
Ginny's expression was unreadable, but Harry thought the light in her eyes dimmed slightly. "Of course," Ginny mumbled while sinking into a chair across the desk from Harry. "I was just surprised to see a house elf. That's all."
Harry realized that Ginny's reaction to the elf had little to do with surprise but wisely changed the subject. "How do you like your bed chamber?"
"It's very nice, thank you," Ginny replied politely. "It reminds me of my room at the Burrow, except it's bigger and the floor shakes less."
Harry laughed. He had forgotten that Ginny's bedroom at the Burrow had been right next to the twins' room. While at Floogle Castle, the twins always stayed in rooms far removed from other guests. Their ability to start small fires and blow up household items at all hours of the night and day didn't make them pleasant neighbors.
"What are you doing?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked down on the scroll in front of him. "I'm writing my memoirs."
Ginny's brow crinkled in disbelief. "Memoirs, as in a noun meaning autobiographical observations and reminiscences," she teased.
"It was Hermione's idea," Harry grumbled.
"It would be," Ginny sighed. "I never took you as a Gilderoy wannabe."
"Good lord, no," Harry spat quickly.
"Can I read them?" Ginny asked craning her neck to see the document in front of him.
"NO!" Harry shouted quickly covering the parchment with his hand. "It's not finished yet."
"Come on," Ginny whined, "Let me read it. I promise I won't laugh."
"No, I...I can't spell," Harry lied desperately.
"LOOK," Ginny shouted suddenly, pointing behind him, "A three-headed monkey."
Like the stupidest person in the world, Harry swung around quickly to see a reflection in the window glass of Ginny lunging across the desk to grab the scroll of parchment. Harry turned back and watched red-faced while Ginny scanned the manuscript. She looked at him with confusion and then scanned the document again. This time, she even flipped the scroll over to see if there was any writing on the back.
"This is it?" she demanded.
Harry sighed heavily and nodded. Ginny released a snort of laughter. "Hey," Harry condemned, "You promised."
Ginny wiped the smile off her face. "How long have you been working on this?" she asked. Her voice trembled from her efforts to quash her laughter.
"Three years," Harry admitted. He grimaced at how incredibly lame that sounded. He had worked three years on a single, three-word sentence. That averaged out to one word a year.
"Wow...that's amazing...progress," Ginny said tightly. Her eyes were now watering from the strain of trying to suppress the giggles.
Harry sighed dejectedly as Ginny covered her mouth and bent over in the chair. Her shoulders shook as peels of laughter burst from her. Finally, Harry could not help but join in and have a good laugh at himself.
Ginny sat up suddenly. Her bright red complexion and tear stained face made Harry laugh even harder. Ginny paused to take a couple deep breaths and fanned herself. When she noticed that she had picked up his pathetic memoirs to use as a fan, she gave in to her mirth once again.
The minutes rolled by merrily as the couple fed off each other's laughter. Finally, they both leaned back in their chairs grinning at each other like a pair of idiots. Harry couldn't remember a time when he had laughed that hard.
"I suppose I could help you with this," Ginny said. Harry chuckled as she leaned forward, grabbed a quill, and wrote something on the parchment. "There," she said, grinning broadly, "I've doubled your memoirs."
Harry took the parchment and read. His stirring sentence "I was born" had its period crossed out and the phase "at Godric's Hollow" added to it. "That's brilliant," he congratulated his new co-author.
"You should also probably add something in there about being extremely gullible and having an aberrant fear of three-headed monkeys," Ginny quipped. Her eyes danced merrily within her otherwise innocent expression.
Harry froze briefly with a stunned expression on his face before launching himself out of his chair. Ginny let out a squeal and raced out of the room.