A/N This chapter is dedicated to my wonderful beta, who not only corrects my grammar, but helps me make sure that you guys can follow my plot.

Ginny didn't know how long she had been asleep when she was awoken by the sound of a strangled sob and her bed shaking. She sleepily pulled herself up to see what was causing the commotion.

"Dobby?" Ginny asked as she rubbed her eyes. "Dobby what's wrong?"

The house elf looked at her with his huge eyes, unable to stop his tears. "Dobby is a bad house elf!" he sobbed.

"Shhhh, Dobby," Ginny said, moving so she could try and comfort him. "Is there something wrong with Harry?" Dobby nodded his head as he began to sob harder. "I can't do anything to make it better if you don't tell me what's wrong," Ginny said as if she were talking to a small child.

"Dobby is a failure!"

"No, you're not," Ginny tried to convince him.

"Dobby's only job was to take care of the great Harry Potter and now he's missing!" Dobby wailed.

"Wait, what do you mean he's missing?" Ginny asked, trying not to panic.

"Dobby went to go check on him like Miss Wheezy asked and that captain man was in Harry Potter's bed!" Dobby managed to get out.

"So, Harry is probably just sleeping in Tank's room. He did want his own room," Ginny reasoned.

"But he isn't! Dobby and the other house elves have been checking the property for the last three hours and Harry Potter isn't here!"

"But no one other than myself, Mason, and Perry can Apparate within a mile of the property and the fireplace is only open if I open it!" Ginny exclaimed, growing angry. "He's either walking or flying a mile away from the property before he leaves."

"But he's gone!" Dobby cried.

"Don't worry, Dobby. I'm sure he'll be back. Were all of his things gone?" Ginny asked patiently. Dobby shook his head with a sniff. "Then he'll be back in the morning before he thinks anyone will miss him. Go get some sleep, Dobby. I'll take care of everything in the morning. Thank you for telling me." Dobby looked at her doubtfully, but left the room regardless. Ginny crawled back under her covers, fuming. "Don't you worry Dobby; when I'm done with Harry he'll be lucky if he ever leaves the house again."

Ginny didn't ever go back to sleep that night. She was dressed and downstairs an hour before any of the guys. They didn't have morning practice, so they were all taking advantage of the opportunity to have a bit of a lie in. Ginny took it as an opportunity to plan her attack.

"Merlin, Ginny, you look like hell," MJ said as he walked into the dining room with Wesley. Ginny glared at them, and they both nervously sat down without saying another word. The rest of the team made their way into the dining room, not speaking once they noticed the tension. Harry was the last one to arrive. As soon as he sat down Ginny stood up.

"You three," she pointed to Tank, Jacob, and Harry, "other room, right now." They nervously followed her into the living room and sat down together on the couch while she paced in front of them.

"Is there something wrong, Ginny?" Tank asked politely.

Ginny smiled and turned her focus to Tank and Jacob, completely ignoring Harry. "Mind telling me where you were sleeping last night, Tank?"

"That's my fault actually," Jacob spoke up. "You see, it was obvious that Harry wasn't getting enough sleep and he kept saying that I snored. So I figured he was a very light sleeper and my snoring was keeping him up at night. So I talked to Tank about it and he agreed to switch rooms with Harry for the sake of the team."

Ginny snorted. "Do you remember Hogwarts, Jacob?" He nodded. "How many boys lived in your dorm with you?"

"Four."

Ginny smiled at him sweetly. "Did you know that there were five boys living in Harry's dorm at school? Did you know that two of them were notoriously loud snorers?" Jacob flushed and shook his head. "Did you think that Harry just didn't get any sleep while he was at school for seven years?"

"Come on, Ginny," Tank said calmly. "He was just trying to look out for the team."

Ginny felt temporarily guilty for embarrassing Jacob, but a quick glance at the smirk on Harry's face and she was ready to yell again. "Tank, did it ever occur to you that I had a reason for wanting the living arrangements the way I did? That I told Harry he couldn't live by himself for a reason? Regardless of all that, did it ever occur to you to talk to me about the change in living arrangements? For someone who is supposed to be the captain of this team you weren't acting very responsibly!"

"You're right. Even though I still think that the change in living arrangements was in the best interest of the team, I should have talked to you about it first. I'm curious as to how you found out, though," Tank said.

Ginny sighed. "I'm sorry I yelled, but the house elves kind of freaked out when they noticed the change in living arrangements and woke me up in the middle of the night. I just hope that if you ever have a concern like this in the future you'll come to me before you act." Jacob and Tank nodded and Ginny noticed Harry was fighting not to laugh. "Then go finish your breakfast." They quickly hurried out of the room leaving Ginny alone with Harry.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about switching rooms, too," Harry said, not sounding like he meant it a bit.

"Oh, if only that were it, Harry," Ginny said calmly. "Would you like to tell me where you were last night?"

"In Tank's room sleeping?" Harry asked.

"Try again."

"In my flat sleeping?"

"I knew you thought you were above the rest of us as far as rules were concerned, but this really takes the cake. Why did you still feel the need to leave after you got your own room like you so desperately wanted?" Ginny asked.

"I don't sleep well in strange places? I wasn't thinking?" Harry suggested nonchalantly.

His attitude was the last straw for Ginny. "Harry James Potter!" she blew up. "Your bed was empty and you left no note! I was up half the night consoling the house elf that discovered you were missing. You owe all of the house elves an apology, by the way. They searched the entire property for three hours trying to find you!" Ginny took a deep breath to calm her emotions. "How did you get off the property?"

"Sirius's old motorbike," Harry said, his face red as he fought to hold in his laughter.

Ginny, however, was not amused. "That flying thing? Someone could have seen you! You could have gotten the entire Ministry in a world of trouble! I don't know what you were thinking!" At her last comment Harry couldn't hold in his laughter any longer. Ginny put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot impatiently. "What, might I ask, is so funny?"

Harry slid off the couch and onto the floor he was laughing so hard. When he finally managed to calm himself down he looked at Ginny with a grin. "I think I heard your brothers get that exact same speech from your mum when they came to pick me up from the Dursley's in your dad's car." Ginny felt her anger disappear and collapsed on the ground in a state between crying and laughing. "I swear you were channeling her just then!" Harry exclaimed. He noticed the tears that accompanied Ginny's laughter and became serious. "I miss her too, Gin. She was the only mum I ever knew."

Ginny's laughter stopped but the tears continued as she lay on the ground staring at the ceiling. "I wish she was still here."

"You have to know she's proud of you," Harry said softly.

"No, she's probably trying to figure out a way to come back and haunt us until we all get our acts together. She would have never let our family fall apart the way it has."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Dad never quite recovered when she died. He's functioning normally, but the spark is just gone from his eyes. Fred and George still talk to each other, obviously, but I think they're scared to come back to the Burrow because everything is just so serious there all the time. I think Charlie feels like he's living on borrowed time, so he keeps taking as many stupid risks as humanly possible."

"I heard about that last burn," Harry said absently. "Must have hurt like hell."

Ginny looked at him confused. "How'd you here about that?"

Harry shrugged. "I think I read about it in the paper or something."

Ginny looked doubtful but continued anyway. "Ron," Ginny sighed, "well, Ron still lives at home with Dad, but I don't think they ever really talk. He buries himself in his work at the Ministry, and doesn't talk to anyone who knew him while he was at school. To be honest, he makes a lifestyle of avoiding you. Actually, he'd probably be really peeved with me if he knew I was talking to you like this."

"Nah, he'd just come and kill me with his bare hands," Harry said bitterly. "What about your life?" he asked quietly.

"I was Head Girl at Hogwarts and I graduated with the best marks in my class, but I have no real friends anymore and the thought of living at home again scared me so badly I begged Ron to help me find a job," Ginny said softly.

"How is it that we all came out of the war such big losers?" Harry asked.

"Because we all forgot about what was important in life," Ginny replied softly. She sat up and looked at Harry. "Why didn't you try and fix things with Ron?"

"I did, but he just wanted things from me I couldn't give him," Harry answered sadly.

"He'd eventually accept you and Hermione if you'd just admit it to him," Ginny said.

Harry looked at her sharply. "It's comments like that that keep us from being friends again. The situation is in Ron's hands."

"I'll never understand you, Harry," Ginny said as she stood up from the ground. "The rest of the team was going to get to go home this weekend since everyone's spirits seem to be so low, but your punishment will be that you'll be under house arrest. You can keep Tank's room if it's so important to you, but if I ever catch you leaving the manor during the middle of the night again you'll be kicked off the team, no questions asked."

"But," Harry protested.

"End of conversation. Now go eat something and get some rest before practice. I don't want you falling asleep on the pitch again," Ginny said as she went back up to her room. "What are you still hiding, Harry?"

Ginny had just finished assuring Dobby that Harry was fine when the team came back in from practice. Unlike the two days before, they were all smiling and laughing. "So can I assume you all had your first official good practice?" she asked.

"You can," Jeff answered with a grin.

"I don't know what you said to those three this morning, but I think it definitely had an impact on their playing," MJ added.

"I don't remember what I said exactly, but I think it had something to do with threatening their lives," Ginny mused.

"All I know is that I don't want to be on the receiving end of that ever again," Jacob said as he shuddered involuntarily.

"If you thought that was impressive, you should have heard her mum in action," Harry said with a grin. "I think her howlers were the most feared thing at Hogwarts."

"Oh, I remember hearing Charlie getting one of those after he got detention for something," MJ said thoughtfully. "I had never seen him so afraid of anything."

"I heard about some of the ones that Fred and George received," Jacob said.

"Merlin, those two could get in trouble," Ginny commented. "But they were always brilliant; I think that's why Mum got so frustrated with them."

"Bill was brilliant, too," Tank said quietly.

"You never mentioned that you knew Bill," Ginny said, surprised.

"I didn't know how painful talking about him would be for you. We overlapped at school a little bit. He was still young when I left, but I always knew that he was meant to do great things," Tank replied. Ginny felt her eyes fill with tears.

"He did do great things; without him, Voldemort would still be here and I'd most likely be dead," Harry added gently.

"I know," Ginny said as she wiped her eyes.

"Okay, no offense, but this is getting a little depressing," Dustin said. 'What I want to know is why when Potter here was supposed to be getting yelled at we all heard laughing."

"Well, Harry was nice enough to mention the fact that he thought I was channeling my mum," Ginny answered.

"Well, the lecture was almost identical to one I'd already heard, even if it wasn't directed towards me the first time," Harry said.

"What happened?" Wesley asked.

"Well, you see, my aunt and uncle were mad at me because a house elf named Dobby ruined one of their dinner parties," Harry said with a grin. "But of course they said it was entirely my fault, so they locked me in my room, put bars on my window, and told me I wouldn't be allowed to go back to Hogwarts."

"They locked you in your room? For how long?" Jacob asked.

"I think two or three days that time," Harry replied thoughtfully. "They put a flap on my door to slide food in occasionally and let me out to use the loo every so often. Anyway a couple of days later I was in bed when I heard this noise coming from outside my window. Apparently, Ron had gotten worried when he hadn't heard from me all summer."

"Why didn't you write him all summer?" Jeff interrupted.

"I wasn't allowed to let my owl out of her cage. Besides, Dobby had been intercepting all my mail all summer long so I didn't think he had been writing me," Harry explained patiently. "Anyway, I got out of bed and I about passed out when I saw Ron, Fred, and George sitting in a flying car outside my window. They said they had come to rescue me. Fred and George picked the lock on my room so they could get all my stuff, and we barely made it out of there before my uncle could grab me and make me stay."

"Oh, I can just see Fred and George doing it now," MJ said laughing.

"Well, when we got back to their house they thought that they had made it back without their mum noticing they were missing, but boy were they wrong. Mrs. Weasley managed to yell at them while making me feel at home all at the same time." Harry grinned at Ginny. "Although I have to say that one of my favorite parts of that day happened once she had finally stopped yelling."

"We've already heard that part of the story, Harry," Ginny said as she rolled her eyes.

"And then," Harry continued anyway, "this cute little red haired thing appeared on the stairs, completely freaked out, and then ran back up to her bedroom. Her brothers assured me that she was normally very talkative, and I have to say that I eventually found out that they were right." Everyone started laughing again. "Apparently, she had a bit of a crush on me."

"Yes, before I found out what a big head he had," Ginny added sweetly. She didn't mind his teasing though; she was just happy to hear him talking and laughing with the other guys. "Why don't you all go get cleaned up for dinner. Even though they were up late last night, the house elves had prepared another wonderful meal."

After dinner everyone gathered in the living room. "So what's on the agenda for tonight, Ginny?" Tank asked.

"Well, I've got letters for all of you from home, and you can give me any letters you want sent out," Ginny said. "This press conference is after breakfast tomorrow, and then you're all excused until Sunday afternoon. Other than Harry, of course. He'll be staying here by himself."

"Sorry, mate," MJ said sympathetically.

"Oh, I'm sure I won't be by myself," Harry said with a shrug.

"Well, none of us will be here. I'm going home for Dad's birthday, so you're on your own," Ginny replied.

"Ginny, how long have you known me?" Harry asked.

"It feels like all my life," Ginny replied dramatically.

"And have you ever known of a time when the Ministry or the Order didn't have someone keeping guard over me?" Harry asked.

"Well, no…"

"I guarantee you that as soon as Minister Bones finds out I'm supposed to be here by myself this weekend, she'll have at least one person here to stay with me. I just hope for your sake that your punishment doesn't back fire and she makes you stay," Harry said with a grin. "Not that I really had anywhere to go, anyway."

"Which is why you've been leaving every night?" Ginny asked innocently.

Noticing the building tension, Dustin spoke up. "Didn't you say you had letters for us?"

"Right, of course," Ginny said. She passed out the many letters she had until she noticed that there was only one for Harry. She looked at it carefully before she handed it to him. Something about the handwriting seemed familiar, but it wasn't Hermione's small, tidy writing.

"Are you going to let me have my letter?" Harry asked patiently.

"Sorry," Ginny muttered. "Would it be too much for you to tell me who it was from?"

"Yep."

"Fine. Does anybody have news from home they'd like to share?" Ginny asked, turning her attention back to the rest of the group. She noticed that Tank was grinning broadly. "Tank, maybe…"

"Marissa's pregnant. I'm just glad that this is my last season of Quidditch," Tank said happily.

"WHAT?" Wesley, Jeff, Jacob, Dustin, and MJ all exclaimed.

"Did I forget to mention that I was deciding to go into early retirement after the cup?" Tank asked innocently.

"I don't remember you ever mentioning that," Dustin said angrily.

"Must have slipped my mind…" Tank said. "But I'm getting old, I can't keep up with the new younger players, and I want to spend time with my kids. I've made plenty of money to take off at least a year without working at all, and after that I'll figure something out that's a little safer and will let me be at home more."

"You know what this means, don't you?" MJ asked. "Losing is no longer an option. We have to make sure our brilliant captain goes out in style."

"Here, here!" Jeff called.

"Well that wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I asked for news from home, but it'll work," Ginny said with a grin. "Can anybody top that?"

"I don't think that's going to be topped," Wesley said.

"Alright, well then I think we've been bonding tonight without any formal structure," Ginny started.

"Yeah, Harry shared something with us without being threatened!" Jeff teased. Harry looked upset for a minute but then laughed with the rest of the team.

"As I was saying," Ginny began again, "You're on your own for the rest of the night. We'll be traveling by floo to the Ministry tomorrow, so get a good night's sleep." Ginny stopped and looked at Harry. "And under no circumstances is anyone to leave the manor. I'm going to assign a house elf to each of your rooms, so if there's anything you need at any point during the night all you'll have to do is ask. There isn't one reason why anyone should need to leave. Now, I'm going upstairs in about an hour, so if anyone has a letter they want sent out, you should give it to me before then."

An hour later, Ginny had at least one letter from the entire team. She went up to her bedroom and quickly looked for Harry's letter; she was dying to know who he was writing to. She groaned when she saw that the letter had been charmed so only owls could read the address. "Who is it that knows your secrets, Harry?"

A/N Well that's one more chapter down. I must say, I feel like I've come a long way from my first two stories. While I still enjoy the plots from those, they weren't written to the best of my capability. Thanks as always for all of your kind words, I'm struggling to prepare for exams right now, and working on this story and reading reviews is just about that highlight of my day. Coming up next: the press conference from hell!