Chapter 16: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Ginny slept in Harry's room every night for the next week, and her nightmares showed no signs of stopping, she came into Harry's room without knocking now, he had started going to sleep on the couch so she could come in and climb into his bed without waking him. He felt slightly guilty about the situation in general; they were hiding this from everyone but Hermione, although Harry sometimes wondered if Draco knew, then there was the fact that Ginny had a boyfriend, that weren't doing anything but Harry doubted Dean would approve of the arrangement, and worst of all, Harry liked having her in his room every night, it didn't matter that she was only there because of her nightmares, he looked forward to her coming, to waking up to see her still sleeping peacefully. Harry worried some about what Ron would say if he found out but, not enough to tell Ginny not to come any more.

On Thursday night at dinner Ginny, asked the other members of Merlin House for their attention, "As you all, know I am Quidditch captain, so I was just wondering, who actually wants to be on the team, because pretty much the entire house is guaranteed a spot. McGonagall did say though, that we can still compete as long as we have at least one chaser, one beater, a seeker, and a keeper."

"Count me out, Gin, I do not fly for anything."

"I definitely want to play," Ron's statement was punctuated by a shower of mashed potatoes, causing every on else to wrinkle their noses in disgust.

"Yeah, sign me up, Gin," Harry said, thankfully he had no food in his mouth when he spoke.

"I would like to give it a try, I'm a pretty good flyer, although I have never tried Quidditch," Luna said.

"I was planning to try out, for the Hufflepuff team."

"I told you this summer I wanted to play."

"I would really like to play," Draco commented meekly.

"Well, that settles it then, everyone but Hermione wants to play. I have reserved the pitch for Saturday, so we will all try out several positions and see what works out best. I know we have at least two excellent seekers, Tuesday, what position did you want, just to get an idea of what we have to work with?"

"Well, Hufflepuff needed a new chaser so I was planning on trying for that, but I really want to be a beater."

"Luna?"

"Beater, definitely a beater that always looked fun when your brothers were playing there."

"How about you, Nev?"

"Chaser, I wouldn't have a chance as seeker, and I don't want to be a beater."

"Okay, well, I'll work out a couple of different line ups and we'll see what works, I guess mostly, it comes down to who is a better chaser, Harry or Draco."

Harry was surprised to hear Ginny, call Malfoy by his first name, the others had warmed up to him a little but, they didn't seem ready to be on a first name basis. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Dean approaching, he stiffed slightly hoping no one else noticed. Dean glanced at Harry, meaningfully, before speaking, "Hey, Gin, I know that I can't eat with you here, but I thought maybe Saturday we could have a picnic lunch out by the lake."

"I'm sorry, Dean, that's when our Quidditch try-outs are, I can't make it," she said sincerely.

"There are only eight people in your house, and Hermione doesn't fly, besides your really good, I'm sure, Harry will give you a spot, you can miss tryouts."

"I am the Quidditch captain, not Harry, so no I can't miss, and while only seven people want to be on the team, I don't know which position to put everyone in."

"Then move tryouts, you never have time for me."

The members of Merlin House sucked in their breath at once, with another group you would have thought someone had said 'Voldemort,' Dean seemed to be the only one who did not understand how wrong he had been to make that statement. Tuesday and Luna who were sitting on either side of Ginny, slowly began inching away, fearful of being caught in her path. "Dean Thomas, you are NOT the focal point of my life, I will not move our Quidditch trials to suit YOUR schedule, I can't believe you would suggest such a thing!"

"What, am I supposed to do I never see you, you spend more time with Harry than me why don't you go date him!"

"Harry, is my friend, are you suggesting that I drop my friends and spend time with only you, cuz that ain't happenin', mister."

"Fine," Dean said as he turned on his heal and stalked off.

Ginny sat in her chair muttering under her breath, she noticed that her housemates were unusually quiet, as though they were afraid of setting her off again. This suited her well, though because she needed time to think about her relationship with Dean and where exactly it was going. Of course, she wouldn't have started dating him at all if Harry had been the least bit interested in her, but he showed no signs of thinking of her as anything other than a friend. She felt a little guilty when she thought about his friendship, she had stopped having nightmares, several days ago, but she just really liked having him wake her every morning, he would never take advantage of someone else's trust like that.

The others left Ginny alone for the rest of the evening, she for her part seemed to be happy to be left alone. The one thing about the confrontation at dinner, that no one could understand, was why it put Harry in such a bad mood. They all, except for the Weasley siblings, knew how Harry felt about Ginny, so why should he be mad that she was fighting with her boyfriend. He had disappeared into the training room hours ago and no one had dared to go in after him, not after the way he had yelled at Hermione, when she started badgering him about the grading criteria for the essay he had assigned. She had peaked into the training room about an hour after Harry went in, and informed everyone that he was working out, before returning to her studies.

Harry felt guilty about having yelled at Hermione, shit, it seemed like all he ever did anymore was feel guilty. He felt guilty about keeping secrets, felt guilty about his happiness that Ginny was staying in his room, he felt guilty about yelling at Hermione, which he had only done because he felt guilty about Ginny's fight with Dean. Okay so they had actually done anything, and Ginny didn't have feelings like that for him but, Dean already thought that Harry and Ginny were spending to much time together, imagine if he knew the truth. He pushed him self even harder, running at an alarming pace on the treadmill trying to drive his thoughts out of his head.

After three hours of waiting in the common room for Harry to join them again, the others were becoming rather edgy. Finally unable to stand it anymore, Draco rose from his chair, "That's enough of this crap, if he keeps this up he'll kill himself," and he walked pointedly walked to toward the doors of the training room. Tuesday, and Luna looked up at Ron and Hermione apprehensively.

From the couch nearest the fire Neville said quietly, "There is no way they are both gonna come out of there alive."

"You feel like getting in the middle of it to stop, either of them? Malfoy's ruthless and I have never seen Harry half this mad, and that's really saying something."

"Ron, that's not funny." Hermione sounded alarmingly like Mrs. Weasley.

"I think a good fight is exactly what Harry needs right now." They all turned to look at Tuesday a little shocked. She blushed but continued, "I mean, I haven't really known Harry that long, and I don't know exactly what has him so riled up, but he needs to blow off some steam somehow, and I think Draco is more likely than the rest of us to fight back, not to mention let whatever Harry says to him roll off his back."

"I think you could have a point, I would normally not have a problem telling Harry to knock it off, I've done it before, but tonight…." Hermione let her voice trail off; she had almost added that she could see why he was the one who was going to defeat Voldemort. Luna, Neville and Ron nodded, silently finished her sentence in their heads.

Malfoy strode into the Gymnasium; slamming the heavy mahogany door behind him he quickly cast an imperturbable charm on the room. Harry stared at him awestruck, and then Draco started shouting, "What the hell is wrong with you, Potter? You have the entire fucking house on edge! Do us all a favor and tell the girl your head over heels in love with her already."

"Sod off, you don't understand any of it anyway," Harry growled.

"Maybe you should start wearing your glasses again, because you're bloody blind."

"Bullocks."

"I don't know how they ever made you a Professor, because you are the stupidest person I ever met! You are the only person in the entire school who doesn't seem to know that Ginny Weasley would drop Dean in a second if she thought she had a chance with you!"

"Oh, I doubt that's true, you don't understand people do you? And even if she would do you think that I could let her do that to him, we're supposed to be friends."

"So you are going to prevent what would be the best thing that ever happened to you because it could hurt someone who you aren't even good friends with! God, you're thicker than the Weasleys."

"Where, the bloody hell, do you get off, insulting the Weasleys!"

"I was insulting you, half-wit, and the only reason I called Ron and Ginny thick is because they are the only ones who haven't realized how you feel about her! Did you know that the Ravenclaws have started a pool on when you and Ginny get together?"

"Well, that isn't happening, even if Dean wasn't an issue I still couldn't date Ginny!"

"Why not are the Weasley brothers so formidable a force that the boy-who-lived can't face them, if that's the case why don't we send them out now and let them beat Voldemort! I always figured it would be you, but if they scare you maybe I was wrong."

"I am not afraid of the Weasleys! You know nothing about my life or my relationship with their family, so shove it."

"What is there to know! You never had a real family and they adopted you, big damn deal! I never had a real family, and I grew up with my parents, they left me to be raised by a house elf. So stop feeling so sorry for yourself, you aren't the only one with a shit childhood!"

Harry gaped at Malfoy, unsure how to react, "What was his name?" He asked all of his anger gone.

"What?" Draco asked, looking bewildered.

"What was the name of the house elf that raised you?"

"Dobby, but I fail to see why that matters I know there is no way you bought him."

"Do you miss him?"

"Yeah, I suppose so, does this have a point?"

"I know where he is."

"So I still won't be able see him, will I, so it hardly matters."

"You can see him if you want, just say the word."

"Not now, it's late and your friends are probably worried about you, Ron probably thinks I'm trying to kill you."

"I'd imagine that if that is what you wanted you could just kill me in my sleep."

"Your right, but I see no reason to kill you," he said honestly.

"What makes you say that I'll be the one to defeat Voldemort?"

"Dunno, just seemed to make sense, you almost killed him once without trying, so I figured that if you made up your mind to kill him then you would."

Harry nodded unsure how to proceed, "Right, well, let's go back out to the common room."

"Sure, but seriously I really do think that you should consider telling Ginny the truth." They headed out to the common room, Malfoy removing the spell on the room as they went. "While your thinking about that, you might think about killing that bastard Voldemort," He said quietly, his voice full of malice.

Everyone looked up when they came walking out of the training room, they all seemed to be relieved to see that Harry was okay, but Ron seemed slightly disappointed that Malfoy was still alive. Hermione was the first to speak, "Did you have a good work out, Harry?" She raised one eyebrow questioningly, as if hoping to find out more.

"Yeah, not bad," Harry answered shortly mostly to annoy her.

"That's good then. Can I borrow Hedwig; I want to send a letter to Remus."

"Yeah go ahead, night everyone, and thanks Draco, I'll keep that in mind." He walked across the room to his apartment. He showered and lay down, he wasn't ready to sleep yet, and he figured he had at an hour before Ginny came in he lay there thinking about what Draco had said, maybe he was right. Maybe Harry should tell Ginny, and hope for the best maybe if she did like him they could just say to hell with Dean. No, he thought miserably, they couldn't, he was Harry's friend, and Harry doubted the he could do that to anyone regardless of what he thought of them.

He must have dozed off, because he woke up suddenly when he heard the door open. He turned his head to smile at Ginny, "Hey you, come on in." They said their good nights and Harry soon knew she was asleep from the evenness of her breathing. He just lay there listening, Malfoy's words running through his mind like a broken record, 'she would drop Dean for the chance to be with you.' He had to know how she really felt, he sat-up planning to wake her and ask but as he sat up he caught a glimpse of her emotions band, it was not full of purple as it had been the first night that she joined him, even when she had slept that night it had remained. He hadn't bothered to look after that night, but what he saw now was shocking. He had observed people together since they discover what each color meant, and had found that love of family or friends was represented by a dull gold, while love for a significant other was a bright gold, and the gold representing the love between soul mates was so brilliant it was almost difficult to behold. The gold light he saw around Ginny was the brightest that he had ever seen, and with this there was a ring of purist white.

Harry knew in that instant that he could not tell Ginny how he felt and even though he loved her more than he could say he could not let her be hurt because they were together, he would let her go, let her stay with Dean even if it broke his heart. He lay back down on the couch and went to sleep.

Harry woke Ginny as usual the next morning, so she could get back to her room unnoticed, he could not help taking a quick look to see what she was feeling, worried he had only dreamed the colors that had been there the night before, he hadn't, they were still there, only now that she was awake they were slightly pink. He watched her walk out, and as she crossed his threshold he noticed a short burst of brown.

When Harry went into the common room, he found Hermione sitting in front of the fire with Crookshanks in her lap, she did not look up at him, "Good morning Harry, tell me why does your aura have so many colors today?"

"How can you know that without even looking at me? And to answer your question, Ginny."

"I can sense the auras, and read them without actually looking at the colors, can't you?" He shook his head. "oh, well tell me what has Ginny done to cause the light blue? I can understand the green, gold, and yellow, but what has you so confused?"

"I looked at her aura last night, while she was sleeping and it was white and gold the brightest gold I have ever seen. I though that maybe she was just dreaming but, I looked again this morning and it was the same, and then when she walked out there was a flash of brown." He dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

"Well, I had hoped you wouldn't think to do that, but now that you have what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I can't do anything really; I would never forgive myself if I did anything to break them up, and besides it would be too dangerous for me to date anyone, what with the prophecy and all."

"Harry, promise me something, you don't have to do anything, don't tell her if you think that's right, but if she should find out how you feel, let her decide what she wants to do, she knows all about that and she is capable of making her own decision."

"I'll promise you that if you promise me something, you won't do anything to let her know how I feel."

"I promise, Harry."