A/n Harry Potter is not mine. Sigh and he never will be. He is the brilliant product of J.K. Rowling's genus of a mind.

A/n The Crystal Orb in these chapters was in the beginning, a crystal ball, which the Marauders "took" from the Divination Classroom when they were in school so they could bewitch it to suit their needs at will.

Chapter Nine

Phoenix Reborn

There was a moment of silence. Then the room erupted with a burst of noise.

"You mean to say that you are a fox too?" Squealed Hermione.

"Umm, no, actually I am not a fox."

"But did you not say that?"

"No! I mean, no, I said Fawkes. You know Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix. Fawkes is inside this ball. I wonder how he does it…?"

"You mean to say…

"What? You mean your form is that of a… it is a phoenix? "

"But that just cannot be right!"

"But… but no one has ever had the form of a magical creature. At least not since Godric Gryffindor had the form of a Griffin! There must be something wrong with that thing!"

"Hermione, this ball never lies. It showed Harry's dad as Prongs, it showed Sirius as the black dog we all know… knew so well. And Peter… yes, it even showed Peter as the rat he truly was. I never really got over that if truth were told. Too bad we did not realize it sooner." Moony sighed deeply before continuing. "Yes, Harry's animagus form is that of a phoenix. And we really need to go and see Dumbledore before it is too late."

"Why? Why could something go wrong?"

"Yes." Moony somberly replied. "Everything can, and will go wrong if the wrong person or persons find out about this too soon. And that is why we need to speak to Dumbledore… before the deatheaters find out, and take that bit of significant information to Voldemort. I am sure that he would find this bit of information… quite interesting."

It was because of this that Lupin left shortly to get news of the days events to Dumbledore. And soon after that, professors Lupin and Dumbledore were making plans for the upcoming school year. Neither noticed the slim form of Harry Potter leaving the enclosed surroundings of the stuffy room for the cool breeze outside.

And it was because of all that, that Ginny found herself sitting outside in the enlarged backyard of Number twelve Grimmauld Place, while Professor Lupin and Professor Dumbledore were having furious conversation in the sitting room in the second floor. Ginny sighed to herself. How she wished she had one of her brothers' extendable ears, but they had gone back to their joke shop. And as Ginny was sitting miserably by a little brook, when someone else come up behind her, and sat down she did not notice.

At a slight movement behind me, I perked up slightly.

"Ron? Is that you? You can come out, I know you are back there."

No answer.

"This is not funny Ron."

A quiet voice answered my impatient question.

"I am not Ron."

"Harry? But, I thought that surly you would be inside with Dumbledore and…" I trailed off.

"You thought that they would include me in their discussion? Well they did tell me that there would be a class on becoming animagi, for fifth years and up which would include the four of us. Only a few others who will be chosen later will be able to get in as well. I think it was something about having the strength or the stamina to transform, or something like that."

Here Harry gave a weary sigh and fell silent again.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever.

Just as I was about to pick up my courage and speak again, Harry spoke up.

"How do you do it? With Sirius being gone and everything?"

I was puzzled. The great Harry Potter wanted my input about something Important… wait a moment! When exactly had he become the great Harry Potter again? And what about Dean? I mean we were dating, were we not? Of course, we had never been on a proper date… but all the same.

"It comes and goes. One moment you may feel happy, but then in the blink of an eye, it could feel like nothing is ever going to be better. That happened a lot to me during my first year when I had been writing in my diary, Tom's diary…"

I stopped suddenly. I had never talked about it. I had been trying to get over that ever since it had happened.

"I am over that. I have been over that for over three years."

I thought this rather franticly to myself, all a long conveniently forgetting the fact that I still, even now would wake up in a middle of an unpleasant memory… a horrid dream.

"How did you get over all that Ginny? I mean, he was far from kind. I remember many things that he spoke to me about you… terrible things."

I looked up. I had not realized that he had heard all that from the ghostly image of Tom Riddle.

"What did he say? Did you believe it?"

Harry was staring off into space when he answered.

"He told me that the sky was green and the grass was blue."

I waited for him to say something else. When he did not, I went to thinking. Did what he said mean that he did not believe what Tom had told him about me? About all the cruel things he had made me do when I was a trusting eleven year old? Had Harry not believed anything of what he had been told about me during his second year, and my first? I needed to find out, and find out soon.

"So you did not believe what he had told you…?"

"Not a word."

"Thank you Harry. That really meant a lot to me, you know."

"Yeah." Harry went silent before adding something else.

"I know what it feels like to be possessed, unfortunately. It must have been terrible to be possessed for long periods at a time. Even I could not stand being possessed for even a couple of minutes."

I looked up.

"When were you possessed? I mean…" I trailed off.

"Last June, when we were at the Ministry of Magic. After Dumbledore dueled him by the fountain. Then he left… taking that… that evil woman with him. She killed Sirius."

"Sorry for bringing that up Harry."

"No, that is all right."

There was silence for a while. Then Harry spoke up, his voice full of grief.

"Why did that all have to happen? I should have known that the vision he sent me would be a fake. And then he would not have died. And it was all because of me."

"No it was not!"

"And I even got you hurt. You broke your ankle. And those brains attacked Ron. Hermione got cursed really badly. Neville got his wand and nose broken… all because of me. All because I just had to go play the hero and… and rescue everyone when they never needed rescuing."

Harry was speaking bitterly at the end.

"No Harry! That is not true!"

"We wanted to come with you. You did not force us to come along with yourself. And If I had been in your place I probably would have done the same thing."

"It was still my fault that all that happened Ginny."

"No it was not! It was Kreacher fault. It was Tom's fault. The horrible woman's fault! But not your fault Harry."

Quietly I added something more. "It is never your fault when he does this to you, Harry, never your fault."

Harry simply sighed.

"But Harry Tom will have to die sometime. I mean, with all the aurors after him, he will surly be killed sooner or later. So do not worry about that. Everything will come out all right, and then you can live normally."

"I never will be normal. I want to be normal, but it just will not happen. You do not understand this… no one can."

"But… but… I can if I am told what is going on. Then maybe I can be of some use. Maybe I could be the one who gets rid of Tom. After what he has done…"

"No!"

"What Harry?"

"I mean no. I am sorry, but no one will be able to get rid of Voldemort that easily. Not you, or any of the aurors out there."

Then quietly, so I almost could not hear him, he added something more. Something, which made my blood run cold.

"No one can kill him but me. There is no other way."

"But Harry! Surly there must be another way! Surly someone else can do that. Why you? Has he not caused enough problems for you? Has he not caused you enough grief?"

Harry buried his face in his hands and gave a dried sob.

My heart squeezed at the sight of him. I just wanted to put my arms around him and reassure him that every thing was going to be all right. Without thinking about the origins of that thought I crawled over to where he sat. I noticed that his shoulders were shaking, but still he did not cry. I do not think that I have ever seen him do so. Not in the years in which I knew him.

Sitting up straight again, Harry looked at me with his pain filled eyes. He then said something which I had least expected. He said something, which would give me a bigger cause to despise the Dursleys more than ever before. He apologized for crying, although he had never actually shed a single tear.

"Sorry. I should not cry but I cannot help it sometimes. Please do not tell Ron about this. Ok?"

"Harry it is alright to cry sometimes. It is a way of expressing your grief where words cannot work. Did the Dursleys not allow you to do that?"

Harry nodded dumbly. Suddenly he gave a shuddering sob, and the next thing I knew, he was in my arms. I was startled at first, before wrapping my arms around him. I tried to transfer every bit of comfort to him, which I could come up with. I wanted him to know how much he was truly loved.

We were like that for several minutes, when Harry suddenly pulled away.

Startled, I looked up. I was stunned to see the beginnings of a smile on his face. Then Harry spoke up.

Thank you Ginny. Now I need to tell you something. I have been putting it off for a long time. I think I am ready to talk about it now.