A/N: Thank you to all those that have been reviewing. I'm open to suggestions to the story so please R/R.

Disclaimer: I wish I could be as good as JK Rowling but I'm not. This is her stuff and not to mention the influence that this story took from various fanfics.

Chapter 17
Hogsmeade

The Hogwarts team took the tie fairly well and after the explanation of what happened with the question about Sirius and Pettigrew during the Trivia part of the competition most of the school also took the news well. This was not the attitude shared amongst most of the Slytherins for they taunted the other houses saying that Hogwarts deserved not to win with the team of losers that were assembled.

The small group of Slytherins that were brave enough to not follow Malfoy later approached Harry about being in the DA after hearing rumors of what happened at the end of last year. They were not sure that the group was reformed but thought they might as well give it a try. There were only about five of them that were brave enough to defy Malfoy but this wasn't done out in the open. Amongst them was a Slytherin named Blaise Zambini. Blaise was the leader of the small group but they did not have enough knowledge, strength, and numbers to be openly against Voldemort in Slytherin House so they quietly went to meetings and passed information to Harry concerning anything about the Deatheaters.

Blaise was Harry's personal spy that nobody knew about including Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Dumbledore. Harry decided that if there was somebody close to him that might be spying on him than it was time for him to spy on other people as well. They Slytherins that joined the DA went through rigorous tests to verify their intentions and loyalty that the other members were not forced to endure. There was little objection from the Slytherins because of the known relationship of their house to the rest of the school. They all passed and received the same watches that were worn by the rest of the DA.

During DA meetings the Slytherins mostly practiced amongst themselves because they were not openly accepted by the rest of the group yet. Harry occasionally joined them to help practice with them which they were happy about and others would be sent in once in a while to help like Hermione, Ginny, or Kayla. Harry sent them in knowing that the three of them could take care of themselves and was able to overlook the prejudices held by the other houses.

Time went by and the same routine set in for Harry with classes, the DA, personal training, practices with Kayla, and preparation for the next challenge which was quidditch. It was the end of October which bought with it the Halloween feast and memories of the past for Harry.

The Great Hall was crowded with students and teachers. There didn't seem to be a care in the world with all the laughter and joyful conversations between friends. The castle and to a larger extent the Great Hall was decorated with floating pumpkins, orange dimly lit candles, muggle themes of witches and wizards, scare crows, and lots of food. The feast was well underway when Dumbledore stood up after McGonagall tapped her goblet with her knife to draw the school's attention to the Head Table.

Dumbledore said, "I hope that everybody is having a good time tonight. I have one announcement to make before we call it an evening."

This was followed by many noticeable groans from students that didn't want the feast to end. The Headmaster waited for it to end than continued on saying, "I take it that you are having a good time but I believe that after this announcement many of you will want to leave and start planning. As everybody knows two years ago we had a Yule Ball that was a major success. Last year we weren't able to have many fun and leisure activities due to certain circumstances."

Everybody knew that Dumbledore was talking about Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic's interference in Hogwarts last year which resulted in nothing but headache and a growing dislike of the Minister and the Ministry of Magic. Dumbledore continued to say, "To make up for last year's event and hopefully to start an annual tradition at Hogwarts. I have the honor of announcing on behalf of the staff that this year we will be having a ball."

At those words, there were only two attitudes in the Great Hall and they were divided along gender lines. The girls started to whisper excitedly with one another while the boys were groaning and not looking forward to getting dressed up or the harder task of asking somebody to the ball.

Dumbledore raised his hands to quiet the students. He than said, "This will be a formal ball where it will the responsibility of the gentlemen to ask the ladies. Dress robes will be required and only fourth years and up will be able to attend."

This resulted in more groans from the guys with the addition of some from the third years and below for being excluded in it. He continued on by saying, "The ball will take place at the end of November and if you have any more questions than please feel free to ask your Head of House about it." There was a short pause than he said, "Now since that is done will prefects please lead their houses back to the dormitories."

The excited talks concerning the Ball continued into the night. Harry was among the last people to enter the Gryffindor Common Room. He came into a room that was full of noise as a few girls were giving him some awkward looks that he was not comfortable with. His friends that came in at the same time as he did also noticed this but wanted to laugh at Harry's discomfort. They were stopped from even making the slightest comment of taunting Harry about all the looks he was getting from a stare by Ginny. Ginny did not like for a second what was going on and pulled Harry away to their own Common Room before the girls that were advancing on him made it any where near him.

The next morning had Harry waking up as usual far earlier than any of the other students. He continued with his usual physical fitness and came up to his trunk to get ready. Harry and his friends made their way down to the Great Hall together for breakfast. They were talking happily to each other with the guys talking about quidditch as usual while the girls were talking about the ball and what to wear and how to do their make-up. They were interrupted by a tall Asian dark haired girl.

She tapped Harry on the shoulder and he turned around to see Cho Chang, the girl that Harry had wanted to take to the ball two years ago and had dated last year. The entire group turned to her with Ginny with a mixture of discomfort, fear, and loathing at what the girl was about to do. Cho asked Harry, "Harry, can I talk to you alone for a minute?"

Cho backed up as Harry stood up and he said, "Sure, just lead the way."

Cho lead Harry out of the Great Hall and pulled him to the side just when the morning posts were arriving. She asked him, "I wanted to ask you if you were going to go to the ball?"

Harry told her politely, "I'm hoping to go to the ball but I've already asked somebody."

Cho's face fell a little when he said that, she said, "I guess I should have asked you earlier. I know that things between us did not end on a good note last year but I hope that we could continue to be friends. May I ask who it is that you asked to the ball?"

Harry thought about it for a second than said, "I don't want to tell people who I asked yet. Actually, I'm still waiting for an answer from her. I already attract enough attention as it is so I try not to make others feel uncomfortable because they already get hassled enough just for being around me. I hope that you understand."

With a hopeful expression, she asked, "I understand Harry. I know that I shouldn't say this but if she does not want to go than would you be willing to go with me?"

Harry smiled at her and said, "If she says no to my request than I would be honored to go with you but it wouldn't be fair to you to have you wait for an answer from the person that I asked."

She smiled than said, "That's fine with me. I don't mind waiting but I guess I'll go with whoever asks me when it comes down to two weeks before the ball. Hopefully, I'll get my answer from you by then."

Harry nodded than said, "I hope that I hear from her soon also. But I thought that you were going out with Michael Corner."

Cho's smile disappeared when she said, "We did go out at the end of last year but all he saw me for was a trophy so that didn't last too long."

They were interrupted by Hermione, Neville, Ron, and Kayla coming out of the Great Hall. Hermione approached them and said, "Sorry to interrupt guys but we have five minutes to get to our first class."

Harry and Cho gave each other their good-byes and walked off to their own respective classes. Harry's group made it to their class and Ron asked, "What did she want mate?"

Harry told him, "I'll tell you about it later. Class is about to start." With that remark, he received looks of approval from Hermione and Kayla with Ron feeling a bit put out and anxious about what Cho wanted.

Later in the day, on their way to lunch, they ran into Ginny who was walking with Colin and Luna. They were also on their way to the Great Hall for lunch. They approached Ginny, Luna, and Colin just when Colin asked Ginny, "So are you going to accept?"

Ron asked her, "What is Ginny going to accept?"

Colin was about to say something but Ginny blurted out with, "Nothing, it's just something I have to figure out."

Ron was thinking about anything that he might know of that would pose a question to Ginny than he said, "It's that letter isn't it. It's from your admirer. I knew it."

Ginny just shook her head and gave Colin a disapproving look. Colin took that as his cue to leave and ran off to find his brother to join him for lunch. She turned to Ron and said, "Yes, Ron it has to do with the admirer." She paused than quickly said, "And no, I'm not going to tell you what the letter said."

Ron wanted to say something else but Hermione interrupted him and the two of them had another row over Ginny's right to privacy. The fact that Ginny had shown Hermione and Kayla the letter during breakfast did not go over well with Ron either. Everybody else just fell a few steps back to let the arguing couple lead the way to the Great Hall plus avoid being dragged into the fight.

The fighting couple managed to end their bickering with lunch. Once Ron saw the food on the table he stopped arguing and piled it onto his plate. Hermione just shook her head than proceeded to fix herself a plate to eat. Everybody was enjoying their lunch with the occasional chat about nothing in particular when Harry leaned over to Ginny and whispered, "What is this about a letter earlier today?"

Ginny reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of parchment and discreetly handed it to Harry under the table while whispering, "It arrived this morning when you were dragged away by Cho." Ginny didn't seem too happy about using Cho's name but Harry just let it drop.

Harry slid back from the bench a little so he could have some room to read the letter in his lap. He looked around and noticed that Ron was still piling the food into his mouth so he took this opportunity to read the letter.

Ginny,

I hope that you are as excited about the announcement of the ball as I am. I know that you still don't know my identity but you now know that Harry knows me. Will you do me the honor of being my date to the ball? It would mean the world to me and I will reveal myself to you at the ball. If you are unsure if you can trust me or not just ask Harry. He will be able to tell you about me without revealing my identity. When you have your answer than please let Harry know and he will relay the message to me.

FireFlight

After reading the letter, Harry folded the parchment back up and handed it over to Ginny. He seemed hesitant at first but asked her, "Gin, do you have an answer?"

Ron's attention was brought back to what was going on between Harry and Ginny after Harry asked the question. Ron asked, "What answer?"

Harry was about to say something when Ginny interrupted with a straight face and said, "Harry wanted to know if I would give him a lock of my hair so he can add it to some polyjuice potion so he can see what it is like to be a girl."

Ron, Kayla, Neville, Hermione, and even Luna dropped their forks with their eyes going wide asked, "What?"

Harry decided to play along and said, "Well, Ginny and me were having this debate over if it was more difficult being a girl or a guy so we thought about using some polyjuice potion to test out who was right." He paused a moment than went on to say, "Plus I wanted to see what the female body was really like and I believe that your sister is a perfect example."

Ginny's eyes went a little wide when he added the last part but recovered quickly enough so nobody noticed except for Harry who felt her tense just slightly at what he was saying.

Harry continued on saying, "If you look at your sister, I think that you would agree that she has everything in the right place at just the right proportions." Ginny went a little red but kept her mouth shut because she knew that he was messing with Ron. What she didn't know was that Harry was getting ready to pull everybody into the little game that Ginny started.

Harry then said, "Well, at least that's what I believe but everybody's opinion is different. I guess Hermione rubbed off on me a bit because I wanted to make it a bit more scientific." He turned to Hermione, Kayla, and Luna to ask, "I was wondering if I would be able to get some hair samples from you ladies also. Considering everybody is a bit different I was wondering if I could take the potion to compare between you three and Ginny."

Luna was the first to catch on because Hermione and Kayla was still in shock about the question that he just asked. Luna pulled out a strand of her long hair and said in her usual airy voice, "Here Harry. I think that would be a good idea. Of course, I would like to turn into you also just to see what its like to be a guy. Just think of how many people would like to be Harry Potter for a day."

Harry picked up on her playful undertone that nobody else noticed and said, "You know Luna, if you want to be me for a day than you need more than just one strand of hair. I'll get you a few than that way we can switch one day. Would you like for me to brew the potion for you also?"

Luna said, "I would like to assist if you don't mind. That way I can see how to brew the potion myself."

Harry nodded to her than turned to Kayla and asked, "Kayla, what about you? Do you want to participate? I know that Hermione will."

Hermione spluttered at first than said, "Harry, you are not going to be turning into a girl. That's just not right."

Harry turned to Hermione than said, "If you don't want me to turn into you than can I look at you naked than?"

Hermione turned red and Ron stood up in the Great Hall and yelled, "Nobody is going to see Hermione naked except for me!"

This attracted the attention of everybody in the Great Hall as everybody went silent looking at the small group of Gryffindors. Harry decided to push it further and stood up to say, "Are you saying that you saw Hermione naked? How come you get to see her naked but not me?"

Hermione stood up and yelled, "Nobody saw me naked and will see me naked!"

Harry convincingly made people think that he was mad and yelled, "That's not fair! I let you see me naked but why won't you let me see you?"

Hermione's eyes went wide again as Ron yelled, "When did she see you naked?"

Hermione yelled back, "I haven't seen anybody naked!"

Harry yelled out, "Fine, so I haven't seen her nude and she hasn't seen me nude!" He started to laugh at his friends obvious discomfort of being stared at while listening to them talk about each other about being naked.

Ginny decided to turn the tables on Harry for embarrassing her with the comments about her body so she stood up, looked around at everybody, and yelled out, "Who wants to see Harry Potter naked?"

Harry immediately stopped laughing, turned red, got down from the bench, and made his way out of the Great Hall due to all of the girls' lustful gaze at him. Most of the Great Hall was frozen and barely registered Harry's retreat then all of a sudden a few girls got up and made to hastily follow. This knocked a few people back to their senses as Ginny, Kayla, Luna, Neville, Ron, and Hermione rushed after him. They made it to him when he got to the doors of the Great Hall.

Ginny knocked Harry unto the floor and whispered to him, "You should never mess with a Weasley when it comes to pranking."

Harry smiled, leaned up to her, and whispered so only she could hear, "Who said that I was playing around. I meant what I said." He slowly slid away from her as Ginny went as red as her hair and frozen still.

After making his way out from under Ginny, he stood up to see a sea of people making their way towards him that were lead by girls. His eyes went wide as the people came closer. His friends were circling around him to prepare to shield him when he said, "I should have known better than to make fun of all of you."

His friends looked at each other as if they were silently agreeing with something than Hermione said, "You know Harry. I think that we'll leave you to handle this. Plus, we don't want to get in the way of all of those girls that want to sneak a peak of the Boy-Who-Lived."

The rest of them nodded and backed away from him. Harry shook his head and said, "You all are wrong for this. If those girls take me than there's no telling what they will do."

Kayla smirked at him and said, "Well, look at it this way. You get a bit more insight on how some girls work."

Ron yelled out, "Hurry up, Harry's about to run!"

Harry turned and started to run while being chased by a mob of girls. His friends just broke down and laughed as the girls were making it passed him. They laughed even harder every time a guy would be rushing after Harry.

Later on that week, it was time for the Hogsmeade weekend. The night before the weekend started, Harry received a letter from Mr. Slate who was now his attorney and handled all of his miscellaneous affairs. He wrote Harry updating Harry on the status of all of the projects that Harry had Mr. Slate work on.

The Wizarding Educational Program that was designed to reduce and eliminate stereotypical and prejudicial behavior was well underway under all of Europe and started to branch out over into Asia and North America. It turned out that the program was well received in most areas which prompted other programs of similar nature to be started by other wealthy wizarding families. The fund set aside to help families that have been affected by Voldemort and his Death Eaters was gaining wide acceptance by almost everybody in the wizarding world. This fund was draining the fastest but it was also the largest and fastest to grow in endowments as other charities and fundraising programs were started throughout the world to help this program continue and grow. To Harry the most important program that he cared about was the orphanages.

As it turned out, four orphanages has been set-up through The Marauder's Orphans Program that were located in York, London, Manchester, and with the main facility operating in Hogsmeade. The orphanage in York was known as The Moony Center, the London site was known as The Padfoot Center, the Manchester site was known as The Lily Center, and the facility at Hogsmeade was known as The Prongs Center. Each orphanage were operating with fully well equipped staffs that included a team of effective and dedicated teachers that always challenged and promoted the children so much that many of them were beyond the levels of their peers who were not in the orphanages. There were two counselors at each site to help the children deal with the trauma of what they went through and help them make new friends. There were financial advisors, a director, two medical witches or wizards, a recreational advisor to keep the children occupied with leisure activities, and a small allowance program was set up so the kids can buy little things that they may want. All of the necessities like clothing and supplies were already given to the children and replaced as they grew or were damaged.

Harry wanted to learn more about the orphanages in particular so he wrote Mr. Slate asking him to setup half a day for him to meet the staff and kids at The Prongs Center. He also requested if a few of the representatives from the other three orphanages would send a representative there also to learn more about the other three sites. The meeting was setup for the morning of the Hogsmeade visit shortly after when the students were allowed to go into town. This gave him an early meeting and time to enjoy the town for the rest of the day. His friends later found out and they all agreed to go to the meeting together and meet Mr. Slate on their way to the orphanage.

Harry really wanted to go all by himself so it wouldn't seem as intimidating as a group that showed up looking like a mob but talked about it as a way to get away from the subject of the Ball but more specifically who Harry was going to take. It seemed like all of his friends became more persistent as time passed with who was going with who and the biggest question at Hogwarts was who did Harry ask that was such a big secret.

The morning of the Hogsmeade weekend started off like any other weekend with the exception that the student woke a little earlier than usual with excited expressions and talking about being able to leave the castle. The younger students didn't share the same excited sentiment as the older students because they couldn't leave the castle. After eating breakfast which Harry discreetly muttered the poison revealing charm which became habitual because he got into the habit of performing the charm discreetly before every meal. The group made their way to The Prongs Center after meeting and greeting Mr. Slate near Three Broomsticks.

The Prongs Center was located just off of the main street in Hogsmeade and closer to the residential area of the town than it was to Hogwarts. The Orphanage from the outside was three stories tall and was all white. There was a spacious front lawn that was encased by a simple black metal fence that didn't really seem like it had a purpose other than to make the area look nicer. There was a large two story tall entrance way that covered a large double French style doors to the entrance of the building. The entrance way were supported by two white columns with the words, "The Prongs Center" written in blue on columns going down vertically with the words, "The Marauder's Orphanage" also in blue written horizontally across the top of the entrance way.

The group which consisted of Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Kayla, Luna, Neville, and Mr. Slate made there way through the large front doors which were not locked. Upon entering the building they were greeted by a tall blond lady dressed in formal dress robes saying, "Good Morning everybody." She saw Mr. Slate and walked over to him and shook his hand as the two of them greeted each other. Mr. Slate than introduced everybody and they learned that she was Ms. Linda Grant who was the director of all four orphanages.

There were the occasionally child that walked around but it didn't seem like many of them had woken up yet. Ms. Grant escorted the group into a large meeting room on the first floor which was located in the back of the offices which were directly to their right. In the meeting room, there were three representatives from each orphanage along with most of the staff from the Prongs Center. The only staff members those were not present at the Prongs Center were on duty taking care of the kids. The other three orphanages sent their director who talked about the general management and information of their respective orphanage. One of the financial advisors from each orphanage was also sent to discuss fiscal issues and any problems that they may have. The last person that the other three orphanages sent was one of the counselors that voiced the children's concerns and possible ways to better help the children.

The meeting lasted about two hours where many issues were discussed and recommendations were given. A few of the major issues discussed were what to do if the fighting were to get out of hand and the orphanages would be filled passed their current capacity, ways to help the children better handle what lead them to be brought to an orphanage, methods for preparing students to either go to a wizarding school or muggle school when they became of age, and any special needs that the orphanages needed to address or prepare for so they can better handle any foreseeable problems. Some of the issues that were settled were that if the orphanages were to reach 75 in capacity than they would try to redistribute to other orphanages but if the other orphanages were facing the same problem than plans would be made to open another orphanage. They would also bring in tutors for the summer months to help any student who wishes to continue their studies over the break. With the threat of the war escalating, they also planned for evacuation of the children if the city that they were in were attacked by disbursing them among the other centers or sending them to the Ministry of Magic, and St. Mungos. New programs that were to be added to each site were one social event per quarter of a year for all of the orphanages to get together so the children can meet each other with each orphanage taking turns hosting the event. All in all, everybody was pleased with the outcomes of what was settled. The staff was happy that Harry and his friends were genuinely concerned and wanted to take an active part in helping the kids while Harry's group was happy that all of the staff members seemed to share the same sentiment.

After they left the meeting, Ms. Grant led the group on a tour of the Prongs Center while the other staff members returned to work or went back to the other orphanages. Ms. Grant's tour revealed that the Prongs Center currently hosted twenty five children with the facility designed to operate for one hundred children if necessary. This did not include approximately five children that were attending Hogwarts at the time using the scholarship program that Harry had set up earlier. The center had four floors in total which included a basement. The top two floors were dormitories which housed four kids to a room divided by gender with the exception of siblings who were allowed to share the same room in the beginning of their arrival but needed to be separated to open up to other children. The dormitories each had four queen size beds with a dresser on one side and a desk on the other side. Each dormitory also have a shared bathroom. The first floor housed the private offices for the teachers on the left rear side of the building. The right rear side of the building housed a dining facility and kitchen similar to the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The front-right of the building are the administrative offices. The left-front of the building is a communal area that has large sofas facing a large fireplace. There are large stairs on both the right and left side of the building dividing the teacher's offices, dining area, administrative offices, and communal area. The second floor houses the classrooms and meeting rooms with the exception of the rear right section of the building which houses a large library. The basement is a large recreational area many different relaxing areas for smaller gatherings with toys and games for the kids to play with.

When the group made it down to the basement, it seemed like all of the children were awake and were down there playing in groups with an adult watching over them. Most of the kids didn't seem like there was a care in the world and were joyfully playing with no discernable division between the kids. The group decided to go and play with the kids for a little while.

A/N: Thank you to my reviewers and keep it up. Now to address my reviewers since my last post.

JPx: Thank you for the review and you are right there is a conspiracy going on but the question now is how many conspiracies are running around.

Rivenn: Thank you and sorry it took so long to update. I hope this update was quick enough.

Dancerrdw: Thank you for the support.

IamSiriusgrl: Thank you and I think that this chapter supported one of your guesses.

Sirius009: Thank you.

Lonsome-love: Thank you and you have some pretty good guesses there. I'm sure that you're firmly entrenched in one of those guesses now since another clue was given.

Bandgsecurtiyaw: Thank you

Glitzy-Star: Thank you and I am honored to have your longest review. Don't worry, I will finish this story and already have the chapters with all of the answers written.

N6uos: Sorry that you don't like the story anymore but oh well, can't please everybody.

Yorkvillebird: Thank you and I was tempted to have the whole team walk out also but didn't want the team quitting the competition.

Shadowssongs: Thank you and yes the updates will come quicker during spring break.