A/N: Thank you to all those that have been reviewing. I'm open to suggestions to the story so please R/R. This is another one of those chapters to set the foundation for the story later on so this is not an exciting chapter. Thanks to my betas Shadowssongs, Rivenn, haydenrocks14, and IamSiriusgrl.

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 25
Harry and Ginny

Ginny stayed in Harry's room that night but they didn't sleep in the bed together. After much persistence, Harry managed to convince Ginny to take the bed while Harry slept on the small sofa that he transfigured from the desk chair in the room. Harry woke up early as usual but didn't go through his normal work out routine. Instead, he went down and made some breakfast for both him and Ginny because he knew that she would wake up soon expecting to do some exercises.

When Harry had finished making enough breakfast to feed five people, he carried it up to his room where he found Ginny was just coming out from the shower. Harry said, "Here Ginny, I made some breakfast for the two of us. I don't think we're going to practice today."

Ginny went over to the desk where Harry placed the tray of food and said, "Thank you Harry. In all honesty, I didn't feel like working out either. I was hoping to just stay in here or go back to Potter Mansion. I don't really want to face anybody else today especially since what went on last night." She paused a moment then asked, "Why did you allow the Order to continue to use Grimmauld Place?"

Harry replied, "This way I can keep them nearby and leave the house elves to spy on them like how they have been spying on me."

Ginny nodded and knew that it was a good idea to know what your enemies were up to. She said, "Let's just hope that they don't catch on."

Harry nodded and the two of them ate breakfast in relative silence until Harry asked, "Gin, are you sure you want to side with me against your family?"

Ginny felt a little hurt about his doubt but asked, "Do you not want to be with me anymore?"

Harry replied, "It's not that. I just don't want to come between you and your family that's all. I know that they will be much happier if you just went with them and left me."

Ginny replied, "I'm where I want to be Harry. I love my family and nothing will ever take that away just like I know that they love me and always will love me. We have our differences but I will not abandon them for you and will not abandon you for them. I also know that even though you had a row with my family last night that if they needed help then you will not hesitate to go help them just like I know that they will do the same for you. Believe it or not Harry, but I still think that they see you as a Weasley. Well, maybe not Ron because he's too obsessed with being right, he knows how to hold a grudge and don't expect him to come around anytime soon."

Harry replied, "You're right Ginny. I will not hesitate to come help them if they needed me to and I'm glad that you're here with me. One of my worst fears is to be abandoned; I guess that's why those dreams about my parents and Sirius calling me to them had such a big effect on me. On the other hand, I don't want those around me to be hurt so I have to either be selfish or selfless."

Ginny took his hand and said, "There's nothing wrong with being a little selfish now and then. After all, you have to take care of yourself. There has to be a fine balance between the two and you have to find out what it is but I'll be here to help. I won't abandon you Harry. I promise you. I love you too much to stand by and just watch."

Harry gave her a kiss on the lips then said, "I understand Gin. I love you also and will not abandon you either. I also want to make sure that you're safe and I am now pretty sure that you're in the top three of Voldemort's hit list now since you're my girlfriend. You've join Dumbledore and me on the short list that nobody wants to be on."

Ginny sat in his lap as Harry wrapped his hands around her waist with her hands over his hands while the two of them stared out of the window together. She said, "I know of the risks that came with being your girlfriend and willingly accept them. Just like you said last night, you know that I can take care of myself plus I know that I have you to help me."

Harry sighed then said, "That's something I've been thinking about for a while now and after what happened last night I think that I need to do it. Gin, you know that I've been doing some advanced training which required me reading many books that would either be considered dark or at least considered not good."

Ginny nodded and asked, "What are you leading to Harry?"

Harry replied, "I was reading a book on rare rituals in the Potter library a few days ago and one of the books was about passing on knowledge. It usually is meant to pass down knowledge to those who can't read and write but need to develop those skills quickly or to deaf mutes so they can learn to survive. I was thinking about performing this ritual with you so I can pass everything that I have learned down to you. There is some good and bad to this ritual. Which do you want to hear first?"

Ginny said, "Let's try the bad news that way it won't seem so bad once the good news comes. At least that's what I'm hoping for."

Harry nodded then said, "One of the bad side effects of the ritual is all knowledge goes both ways. Meaning, you will know everything that I have known ever since I was born which includes every secret that I hold and haven't told anybody. In return, I will know everything about you which also includes your secrets. This can only be performed once and takes a few hours to accomplish. After we're done, for about 24 hours we will have no magical abilities so we'll be defenseless for awhile and not to mention the splitting headache that we're going to have for those 24 hours while our brains sort though everything that we learned from each other."

Ginny said, "Well, it doesn't seem too bad. We can always do it at Potter Mansion at least for that time period we know that we'll be safe. I can handle a headache for 24 hours because I've gone through worse. I'm a little nervous about all of my secrets being open to you but I know that you won't abuse the knowledge and if you do I can always use yours against you. So what's the good news?"

Harry said, "I agree that it doesn't seem so bad right now but who knows what kind of memories you are hiding and I really don't want you to have to see the horrors that I've already seenin my life. It will probably help me deal with things better though if you were there to help me. The good news is minus the lack of intensive physical training that I've gone through so far and the difference in our raw magical abilities; we will be equivalent to each other when it comes to magic. We will also get a better understanding of each other's lives but most importantly, I think that this will bring us closer together as a couple."

Ginny nodded then said, "What does the ritual require and how long does it take?"

Harry said, "All that is required is the two of us, a black room, a single candle, and our wands. It will take about sixteen hours because it's about one hour per year from what I was able to figure out from the texts."

Ginny said, "That doesn't seem too bad but a little tiring. When do you want to do this?"

Harry replied, "I was thinking we do it either today or tomorrow. It would be better if we did this as soon as possible just in case something happens but more importantly over the break because we don't want to be left defenseless at school."

Ginny asked, "Can we start after lunch then? Until then, I just want to sit here with you."

Harry nodded and the two of them stayed like that until lunch time. They did come down for lunch and ran into Ron, Hermione, Luna, and Neville but didn't say anything to them. When they did run into Kayla, they told her that the two of them would be going back to Potter Mansion for a day and won't return until the day after. They later explained what they were going to do after Kayla pushed them and agreed that they should do it soon. Kayla decided to spend the time when Harry and Ginny were not around reading some more books on spying because she had a feeling there was going to be a lot of it coming the new semester.

After lunch, Harry used his permanent portkey to take him and Ginny back to Potter Mansion. Harry told her about the vault and what he found in the vault because there was no point in him hiding anything from her anymore because in six hours she was going to find out about it anyway. She was put out at first with him hiding secrets like this but understood that he wanted to have some things up his sleeve should anything happen.

The two of them went into Harry's training room and called for complete darkness in the room. Harry drew a circle on the ground in white chalk that had a blue square inside of it. At one point of the square there was a lion that represented strength that was drawn in yellow, another point had an owl that was drawn in brown to represent wisdom, the corner opposite the owl had a grey dog that stood for loyalty, and in the last corner there was a gold eagle which represented justice. At the center of the square was a simple white candle that was left unlit. The two of them sat down inside of the square.

Harry said, "Take your wand out and place it in front of you with one end pointing at the candle and the other end pointing at you. I'll say the chants and when the ceremony is over you will see the candle in the middle light up. Do you have any questions?"

She shook her head and Harry closed his eyes and started chanting in an unknown language to Ginny but all Harry was doing was saying Latin words in reverse. When he stopped chanting, a three dimensional hologram of the four animals rose from their pictures and floated around the two of them. Their respective wands floated into the air and a silver mist formed between Harry's forehead which went to the wand. At the other tip of his wand, the mist went to the tip of the candle. From the candle the mist went to Ginny's wand and from Ginny's wand to her forehead.

The two of them could feel the information from the other person's life shooting through their heads at an extremely rapid pace. They could also feel themselves fill up with knowledge that they did not know about before but couldn't really distinguish what that knowledge was. The two sat there in silence for sixteen hours as their bodies slowly started to stiffen but neither wanted the ritual to end so they remained uncomfortable the entire time.

At the end of the ceremony, a small yellow flame started to light up as the wands slowly fell to the ground. The yellow flame slowly turned into orange and from there slowly turned to red. The red flame also had red sparkles erupt from it and it slowly turned into a blue flame with blue sparkles. In the end, the blue flame became a white flame with no sparkles but specks of glitter floating around the two of them that filled the entire room. The white flame gave one large burst then Harry and Ginny fainted.

About an hour later the two of them started to come to their senses but with a severe headache that they could barely stand. The only comfort in the headache was that they went through that ceremony for each other. Harry asked Ginny, "Gin, are you ok?"

Ginny was trying to massage her temples while saying, "I'm fine just the headache was worse than expected. I'll manage though, what about you?"

Harry was also trying to get rid of the headache my massaging his head said, "I'm fine. The headache was worse than expected for me also. Maybe if we can get some sleep the time will go by quicker. Let's go to your room and we'll stay there."

Harry and Ginny made their way to the room that she had been staying in over the break. The house elves assisted them because they could barely move because their bodies were so stiff from not moving for so long. Without even thinking about it, the two of them got into bed together and slipped under the covers with Harry lying with a protective arm around Ginny while they cuddled and slowly fell off to sleep. During their sleep they were dreaming about all the knowledge and events in the other person's lives but at a slower more manageable rate. Their minds seem to be diverting all of its attention to processing everything that it took on. What the two of them didn't realize was they both slept for about eighteen hours.

By the time they woke up their headache had died down a great deal and it was much more manageable now. They went down and had lunch considering they slept through the night and breakfast. From this experience Harry was amazed at what the youngest Weasley has gone through and understood why her brothers never wanted to get her mad. Ginny on the other hand felt both happy and sad. She felt all the emotions and saw everything he went through at the Dursleys prior to Hogwarts and all the pain he felt at Hogwarts. She was also happy when she saw all the memories of Harry planning stuff while he was the admirer and all the knowledge that she learned. The knowledge that Harry gave to Ginny was enough for her to pass every test through Auror training if she chose to take that path in life and make nothing but 'O's' on all of her examinations including the OWLs and NEWTs.

They decided to stay another day at Potter Mansion to recover and sent word to Kayla about their plans. Harry and Ginny spent the time playing around with all the magic that she just learned and started some training for her to use all the knowledge that she learned. She had little difficulty doing everything and the only thing that really slowed her down was that she was not in the same physical shape as Harry was in but she promised that she would fix that soon enough by physically training with him and since she learned everything for the OWLs already then she would be spending more time with Harry and practicing.

That evening Harry and Ginny were having a nice romantic dinner out on the back porch. Harry reached into his shirt and pulled out the phoenix necklace that he got from his family vault and took off his left wand holster with the rose wand still in it. He gave it to her while saying, "Gin, I want you to take these. The necklace will help to protect you in a fight and we'll get some battle robes for you tomorrow. Here is also one of my back up wands. Wear it on your arm and when you need it just flick your wrist and it will shoot out to your hand as quickly as you can grasp it. The wand gives you two times more strength in your spells with a higher accuracy and when your wand and my rose wand, which is the brother wand to this one, are combined then it will have a bigger effect."

Ginny shook her head and said, "Harry, these belong in your family. I think that you should keep it."

Harry said, "No, I want you to have these. It will help to protect you like it did for me in the past. You need a back up wand and I already have one. There really is no need for me to carry three wands around."

Ginny sighed then said, "Alright Harry. Thank you, I'll take good care of it."

Harry smiled and said, "No problem, how about tomorrow we go to Diagon Alley and get you some matching battle robes."

Ginny nodded and had a pleasant conversation through the rest of their dinner and into the night. The next morning, Harry and Ginny started their day out at 5:30 in the morning with an intense work out to help Ginny to get used to the exercise routine quickly. After that, they went and took separate showers and had a nice breakfast together. When they cleaned up after breakfast, Harry decided to have three house elves on duty at a time and one resting so he could have 24 hour surveillance of Grimmauld Place and still allow the elves to do something relaxing each day. Harry used his portkey to get to the portkey area outside of the Leaky Cauldron and Ginny used hers to follow Harry so she can set her portkey to get back to Potter Mansion in case of an emergency.

The two of them walked hand in hand quickly through the Leaky Cauldron and out the back to Diagon Alley. When they reached Diagon Alley, the two went to the trunk shop to get Ginny a trunk similar to Harry's and to all the stores to stock her trunk with like Harry's trunk. Ginny's battle robes were going to take longer so they went to Gringotts so Harry could get some more money.

When they reached Harry's personal vault, the two went in and Harry gave Ginny a bag while saying, "Gin, I want you to carry some also."

Ginny said, "Harry, you've already gotten me so much today already. You really don't have to do this. I don't care about clothes or toys or money."

Harry replied, "I know. I'm not trying to pay you off or anything. I just thought that it would be good that you should have money to use at your discretion. Besides, I've already instructed the Goblins to allow you access to my vault whenever you need to."

Ginny replied, "Harry this really isn't necessary, it's as if we're a married couple already."

Harry said, "You're right. We're not married and probably not until you finish school but I really only think of that as a formality because to me, you're the only person that I intendto be with."

Ginny blushed at first because of Harry talking about getting married to her then smiled and said, "You know Mr. Potter, you are definitely getting better with words as everyday passes. I feel the same way and I know that this seems so quick but I feel that you're my one and only as well.

They gave each other a long kiss and after gathering the necessary gold to continue to have fun, or to spend while at Hogsmeade weekends. They still had a little bit more time before Ginny's robes would be ready so they decided to share an ice cream together. That's when Ginny noticed some awkward behavior from a few people around them like a person across the street reading a newspaper upside down while peeking over it at them or a couple that seemed to like to roll a stroller in circles close to where they were sitting. Ginny nudged Harry and pointed subtly to the awkward behaviors.

Harry knew what she was trying to imply and said, "Yeah, they've been following us ever since we exited Gringotts. I guess somebody told the Order that we were here so they decided to play bodyguards again. I don't recognize those people but wouldn't be surprised if they were wearing glamour charms to conceal themselves."

Ginny nodded and said, "I think that you're right. All of that training you went through is really paying off for me. I thought that I recognized them as well when we were leaving Gringotts but I thought that I was just being paranoid." She looked down at her watch and said, "Harry, my robes should be ready."

Harry nodded and the two of them left the little ice cream parlor. They picked up Ginny's robes and went to a back room to place it in her trunk. The two of them walked out of the shop and noticed the same three people as before had changed locations and were now closer to Madame Malkin's.

The two of them decided to play a prank and walked up to the man that was still reading the newspaper upside down and stood on both sides of him. Harry asked, "Is there anything good in the Prophet today?"

The man just nodded as Harry said, "It's nice to know that you have a gift of reading things upside down and still understanding it. Oh can you tell your two accomplices over there that has been pushing around the stroller in enough circles that there are tracks in the street, that you all can go home now because Ginny and I are leaving."

The man said in a gruff voice, "Potter, what are you thinking, approaching somebody you don't know like that. For all you know I could be a Deatheater watching the two of you."

Harry knew from the way the man talked that it was Mad-Eye so he said, "Well, you might have a hard time taking us on if we're next to you considering both of our wands are on you right now." Harry poked the man in his waist with his wand while Ginny poked the other side of his waist.

Ginny said, "You can go now. Oh you might want to tell the other two to try to choose a better disguise because anybody can see that the two of them are acting suspicious especially since there is no baby inside of the stroller."

Moody shook his head and said, "I told those two that their disguise would not work but they wouldn't listen."

Harry said, "I'll let you get back to handling them because we're off."

Harry and Ginny were laughing at the look of disbelief on being found and disappointment at the two that were with him. The two of them walked off to the side and Harry took Ginny's hand as the two of them were taken back to Potter Mansion by way of Harry's portkey. They didn't want to use Ginny's anymore so she could get back whenever she wanted.

The two of them spent the rest of the day organizing Ginny's trunk. Ginny went with a similar color scheme as Harry's but with softer colors. Her library was also very extensive in all the fields that they could think of but didn't replicate any books that Harry had in his except for a few standard references and the school texts. All in all the day was very profitable for the merchants on Diagon Alley. The two spent their last night with some training and together in Ginny's trunk before they went to sleep innocently together in her bed. They had a silent agreement of no sex before marriage but liked the feeling of waking up to each other.

Ginny decided to follow Harry's lead and keep the trunk shrunken in her pocket at all times when not at Hogwarts or home during breaks. The two of them spent the morning working out together and had a large breakfast afterwards. After breakfast, the two of them appeared hand in hand in Harry's room at Grimmauld Place. They decided to go see how Kayla was doing and went looking for her.

They found her in the drawing room reading by herself with most of the people in the house gathered in the kitchen for breakfast. Kayla looked up and when she saw the two of them, a smile broke across her face. She placed her book away and said, "How are the two of you this morning? You two seemed much more relaxed and happier than when you left."

After Kayla finished giving each of them a hug, Ginny said, "We've been pretty good. Everything went as expected and we needed that little vacation. We're sorry for leaving you behind but we needed this. How have you been? What's been going on around here?"

Kayla sat back down across the couple and said, "Well, it has been as good as expected I guess. Oh Harry, my mom had to leave a little earlier than expected. Apparently, somebody reported that she wasn't supposed to be here and wanted to leave before more trouble came here. I think it was Dumbledore that said something but I don't have proof but that's not all that important. She said to owl her and that she was sorry for causing so much trouble."

Harry said, "I'll write her soon and I'm glad that you all told me or else I would be involved even more with the Order's lies."

Ginny said, "Yeah, although it wasn't a great event in people's lives. I'm glad that the truth came out."

Kayla said, "Me too, I like that the truth finally came out. It is a little crazy around here though ever since they found out that the two of you were no longer here but they knew where you went but couldn't get there. It's kind of funny really because they seem to have so little faith in the two of you."

Ginny asked, "What did they do?"

Kayla said, "The afternoon after you two left, Ginny's parents came up to talk to her but couldn't get into the room. Mrs. Weasley started to pound on the door and yell for over an hour. Everybody stood by to watch at first but then tried to hide from all of the yelling. I felt sorry for them so I decided to tell them what happened and all of the Weasleys were up in arms about Ginny running off with Harry doing who knows what."

Harry said, "Well, maybe it was just the heat of the moment. I'm sure they trust Ginny."

Kayla shook her head and said, "That's what I thought too but when that evening the two of you didn't come back, they were trying to blast the door down to your room. That's when Dobby showed up and warned everybody to not destroy your things Harry. You know Harry; you have some really loyal house elves."

Harry replied, "They are really good friends."

Kayla nodded then said, "You won't believe how unbelievably stubborn Snape is. He tried to make his way back into the house but was met by Dobby, Winky, and Rain. The three house elves raised their hands and Dumbledore tried to reason with the house elves but they stood their ground. Once Snape shot his first insult, Snape was shot out of the house just as the door closed. They also did a pretty good job of keeping Order members who were not staying here from going up the stairs. They didn't even let Dumbledore and McGonagall up the stairs."

Harry told Ginny, "Remind me to do something nice for Dobby, Winky, Ray, and Rain. They've been working pretty hard. Maybe I should just kick everybody out so everything would be much more peaceful."

Ginny nodded as Kayla said, "I'm actually glad that the two of you are back at least now I have somebody that I can talk to. Everybody has pretty much turned their backs on me and it has gotten to a point where I don't even eat with them. Remus and Tonks tried to smooth things out for me with everybody else but it just didn't go very far."

Harry asked, "How are Remus and Tonks doing?"

Kayla said, "They are doing fine I guess. They are a little troubled though because they don't know which side to choose. In general, the lines have been drawn it is either who's going to back up Harry or who's going to back up Dumbledore. Right now, Harry, I think that there is only Ginny and I but I think that maybe Remus and Tonks."

Harry said, "I can understand Remus and Tonks' dilemma. They've followed Dumbledore for so long that it is hard to admit that he was wrong. That's like asking Hagrid to say something bad about Dumbledore."

Ginny said, "What else has been going on?"

Kayla said, "Well, I listened in on a few Order meetings and apparently somebody leaked out the dispute between Harry and Dumbledore to Fudge. Fudge is really happy as far as I can tell. The two people that are probably strong enough to remove him from office are going at it with each other and not paying attention to what he's doing."

Harry asked, "I wonder who told?"

Kayla said, "At first, we thought that it was Percy but it wasn't. I think that there is a mole within the Order for the Ministry of Magic. There is just so many secrets running around that it's hard to keep track of."

Ginny asked, "You said that you don't eat with them anymore so have you eaten breakfast yet? We all can get something together. Harry and I have eaten already but we can get a light snack and join you so you can get something to eat and not be alone."

Kayla replied, "Thanks. I haven't eaten yet. I usually wait until they are done before I go in there. But I should warn you, when you get in there it will not be pretty considering you two were missing for a few days only to turn up a few days later walking together holding hands with smiling facings and having a shopping spree in Diagon Alley."

Harry replied, "Yeah, we knew about the Order finding out about us. We caught them and told them to go leave us alone."

Kayla nodded and said, "That must have been the reason why Mad-Eye and two people I don't know came back all upset yesterday. They were going on and on about how they had good disguises and Moody was thinking that he lost his touch because a couple of teenagers figured him out."

Harry said, "I think that Moody might have been putting on an act though. He's usually not that careless and didn't have to peak over the newspaper to see us considering his magical eye. I think he might have been warning us about being watched."

The other two thought about it and nodded their agreement that it was a possibility. Harry continued on to say, "If that is what happened then I think that they are trying to play another game of cat and mouse with us by making us think that a few members of the Order are siding with us; or they really are siding with us but don't want Dumbledore to know about it."

Ginny said, "If that is the case than we are going to have to keep a better eye out for what is going on around us. This maybe paranoia but maybe we should have a system of letting each other know who we really are because there is no telling what they will do to get us to give up information now."

Kayla said, "Let's come up with a secret handshake and a password. Whenever an occasion comes to shake hands then we can use the subtle handshake; and use the password whenever we are in doubt about who we are talking to."

Ginny said, "How about our password being St. Potter. That way nobody else around us would use it except for Malfoy so we don't have to worry about it. And the handshake could be like this."

She showed them a handshake where the hands locked like normal but two the two fingers closest to the thumb would go straight along the wrist. For Harry, she showed him a way for the two of them holding hands with a slight variation in how the fingers were locked and then immediately changed to the way they normally held hands; so it wouldn't look weird for the two of them considering they are a couple and would hold hands instead of shaking hands.

After that the three of them checked to make sure that nobody was listening and around with Harry using the x-ray capabilities of his glasses to check. There was nobody around and they went to the kitchen to get some breakfast for Kayla.