Big important chapter this one and I am very anxious on how you all will recive it, so please, please review! I'm updating a bit earlier today and I hope you all will reward me with lots of reviews! Thankyou on to the chapter!

Harry blinked the bright morning sunlight out of his eyes; it took him a moment to realize he was in the hospital wing. He lay there looking up to the vaulted ceiling and tried to remember how he'd ended up here in the first place.

Harry recalled working with Bill in Occlumency and how it hadn't been one of his best days. He had kept pushing Bill to work with him and he must have finally collapsed.

Harry swung his legs over the hospital bed and searched for any familiar faces. He hesitantly tested his ability to stand. He felt perfectly normal, aside from being a bit confused. He lifted the pajama sleeve to look at his watch, but his wrist was bare. Harry spotted it on the bedside table, and quickly snatched it up. It was six in the morning; everyone must be heading to breakfast.

He found his folded robes lying on a nearby worktable. Harry quickly ducked behind the folding screen to change. After that task was complete he took one last hurried glance around the room and bolted.

Walking into the Great Hall he immediately looked up at the teachers' table, Madam Pomfrey was giving him a beady stare, but she didn't appear ready to pounce on him for having left her infirmary. Harry ducked his head and took his seat next to Hermione.

She was in no mood to give him any peace, "Harry what happened? Are you all right? We went to the infirmary to stay with you, but Madam Pomphery wouldn't let us in, she said you were 'without need of out assistance'."

"I'm fine, don't even see why I was there in the first place. No one was there when I woke up." Hermione didn't appear to be buying it and neither did Ron for that matter. "I just passed out in Occlumency, now can I eat or are we going to talk about this all morning?" They begrudgingly went back to their food. As Harry put his fork to his plate of eggs and hashers he hesitated. The thought of Kreacher preparing his food, made him squirm.

He knew he was being irrational, but the things that swine could do to him if it got a hold of his meals. Harry looked up at the head table, where Dumbledore was chatting merrily with Professor Sprout and enjoying some strawberry yogurt. His faith in the old man was nearly shot, but he certainly couldn't starve himself for the rest of the term, he had summer for that.

With one last look at the headmaster Harry dug into his morning meal.

"I got a special treat comin' up fer ye all," Hagrid boomed clapping his large hands together. "Ye've been very efficient in all the studyin' we've been doin' on dragons, and I rekon it's about time we got some practical use out of em."

Most of the class sat on their logs around the fire in a horrified trance. Ron's head was in his hands and he was groaning something that sounded a lot like "My hand, my poor, poor hand."

Harry looked up at Hagrid who had started speaking again. "Now yer got to understand Dragons are fascinatin creatures, but they aren't to be meddled with, without the proper understandin." Harry found that an ironic comment, considering Hagrid had been the one who had tried to keep Norbert as a pet.

"We'll be havin' trained professionals with us, to keep an eye on things, after yer Christmas 'oliday. So we best be learnin safety procedure. Now everyone pull out yer dragon hide gloves."

After lunch he had Transfiguration and Charms. In Transfiguration they had finally finished the unit on transfiguring large objects and were now going to move onto human transfiguration.

"You must start small and work your way up in this practice, otherwise you will find yourself much less whole than when you started out." Mcgonagall preached. "It's vital that you understand the risks that come with human transfiguration and how to avoid them.

"There is quite a difference in becoming an Anamagi and human transfiguration. When you turn into an animal, you become the creature in all aspects, inside and out. When you alter yourself with human transfiguration, it is nothing but a rouse or cover up. You are still yourself behind the facade."

"I want to start small today. We will begin with your fingers, and attempting to turn them into needles. To do this you first need the incantation and then you must picture your fingers transforming into the needles.

"The incantation is adfectio aetas. It is the same incantation used in all human transfiguration, but during this you must apply the thought of changing the particular part of your body into a certain object. You may begin."

Hermione already had her wand in hand and was getting straight to work. She had been more enthusiastic than usual about starting this new unit. But he supposed they all were in a sense, this was one step closer to anamagi and that was something Harry felt obligated to learn.

Harry pulled his wand out and pictured his finger in his minds eye. It was a lot like recalling a memory to form a patronus, he could do this. He saw his index finger dissolve almost, more like melt on to the table and reform into a flesh shaped needle that would slowly turn silver.

Harry reviewed this image in his mind once again, and prepared his wand to say the incantation. "Adfectio aetas." He watched as he pictured the transformation in his mind come to life before him, and slowly forms a perfect silver needle.

Harry held up his hand, it felt peculiar, he had no movement above his finger joint, and all he could do was wave it. Hermione and Ron were staring at him. Hermione, with her own flesh colored needle, and Ron with his melted finger dripping on the table. He had been the first to completely transform, that was new.

"Well done Mr. Potter," said Mcgonnagll striding over to their table, "it looks like you've tapped into the gene passed down from your father. He was quite skilled in this area as well." Harry nodded his thanks, and watched as his professor changed his shiny needle back into a finger.

"That was brilliant, Harry!" said Ron. "If Malfoy ever tries anything, you can just turn your finger into a needle and poke him to death." Harry laughed, and Hermione glared. They were in Charms at the moment and working charming portraits to come to life.

"Harry would never do that, Ron," snapped Hermione, "It would be very irresponsible."

"Oh," Ron drawled, "and like it wasn't irresponsible when you gave him a good whack in the face." Hermione blushed and looked down at her portrait. "Not that I didn't love it of course." Hermione looked back up at Ron and turned even redder rouge. Harry noticed the back of Ron's neck turn several shades of pink, and the both of them simultaneously looked down at their frames. Harry glanced at his friends, well that was new.

Harry stared up at the dark canopy of his four-poster bed, his eyes wide open. There could be any number of reasons why he couldn't fall asleep. It could be that the numbing spell had finally worn off on the welts that were scattered across his back. It could be that he didn't want to visit the land of his nightly terrors.

The real thing that was bothering him was something much more trivial. Harry had a nagging feeling he'd forgotten something. With his life being as hectic as it was, he immediately turned to the idea that it was something of paramount importance.

Harry searched his brain for anything that could have been out of place in his grand scheme of life. He failed to determine anything. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I'm waiting for something evil to happen. Not everything I forget can be a life or death situation.

It only took him a few moments to remember what it was once he started thinking on a smaller scale. He had a Defense essay due tomorrow. Harry reeled for a moment in his success and then found himself abruptly jumping out of bed. He grabbed his Defense books and bag, and trotted down the boy's stairway into the common room.

He set his texts on a nearby table and went to stoke the fire. When he had the warm flames burning once again, Harry settled on the floor. He looked at his watch. It was already forty five minutes past midnight and he hadn't even started his paper.

Harry heaved a sigh and dipped his quill in the ink well. An hour later he had one page done and another to go. He looked at his abysmal parchment filled with scratch outs and black drips. He may be the best in practical defense, but when it came to theory, well Hermione was better suited for that sort of thing.

Harry's head jerked when he heard the sound of padding feet coming down the girl's stairs. As though he had beckoned her from his mind, Harry watched as Hermione clutched to her robe and came to sit next to him.

"Harry what are you doing?" She was squinting down at him in the dim light of the fire.

"I remembered we had that Defense essay due tomorrow, thought I'd try and get it finished." Hermione looked down at his paper, her brain was no doubt full of corrections that he needed to make, but she didn't seem interested in that tonight.

She squinted at him again, as though he were some great puzzle that needed to be understood. "Harry some things are more important than getting essays in on time."

Harry chuckled, "That's new coming from you."

Hermione wasn't smiling; she was looking at him through worried eyes. "I'm serious Harry. You need to get some sleep. Your wearing yourself thin."

Harry scoffed, "I don't thi-"

"I know you've had a lot on your mind recently," she was looking into the dimming fire now, "what with all that happened last term. You've lost someone very dear to you."

"Hermione, just stop it!" he snapped. "This has nothing to do with that. I just forgot about an essay, that's all. I can take care of myself."

Hermione glanced back down at him, "Maybe you can, Harry, but I'll always be here to make sure you do."

Harry blinked, ashamed of snapping at her, "Thanks." She nodded at him. He went back to his essay, and Hermione never left his side.

The next day Potions was nothing but a nightmare. Though Hermione's support was greatly appreciated, it didn't make him any less exhausted for being up most of the night. Having Double Potions the next morning certainly didn't help matters.

Whenever he would look up at the instruction board, he'd have to blink the sleep out of his eyes, making it difficult to put the correct ingredients where they needed to go. Snape was there every step of the way, vanishing his potion the second he made a mistake, leaving him unable to rectify it and less and less time to finish.

Defense gave Harry a little time for a breather. They were finishing up on Patronus's so he had to do little more than supervise. All of the class had managed to produce silver like vapor; about half had fully formed animals.

Though Bill had decided to end the unit fairly soon, they needed to move onto other things. Harry had no objection to this considering if any of the students were somehow attacked, they could at least defend themselves against a single dementor.

In Occlumency Harry was very aware Bill was going easy on him, but had no intention of pointing it out. He may be stubborn but he wasn't stupid, and he was just too exhausted to argue. Plus, Harry had become very adept at blocking Bill, so there wasn't much urgency to push himself.

Bill seemed to be thinking along different lines. He was preparing to enter Harry's mind again when he slammed his wand on his desk.

"Harry, this is ridiculous!" Bill turned around to face him. "Look at yourself you're exhausted, this is unacceptable. You're going to run out of steam, and then where will you be? I know how important learning how to Occlude is to you, but how are you going reach your goal if you can't even function." Harry stared at Bill, a little jostled that he was being reprimanded.

Bill started up again, "I know that you've already advanced beyond my level in this, and I have no doubt that you could block your mind against any intrusions Voldermort may try on you, but," Bill stopped apparently choosing his words carefully. "Professor Dumbledore has requested I move you onto legilimency-"

Harry's head whipped up in surprise, "What? Well that's great isn't it?"

Bill raised his voice and continued, "But I am refusing to do so."

Harry moved from surprise to shock, "Why? You can't do that-"

Bill continued speaking, ignoring Harry's last comment. "Until you can pull yourself together enough to handle the responsibility."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, "I'm ready now."

"No! Your not," Bill's expression softened and he leaned against his desk "You have to understand that legilimency is not something to be fooled with. You have to be prepared both mentally and physically. And at the present time you're not."

Bill looked into his eyes and it seemed his resolve wavered. "If you can promise me that you will try your hardest to get the rest you need and then and only then, when you come up to scratch, we can proceed. Do we have a deal?"

Harry looked at his feet and smiled slightly, "So this is sort of like blackmail, huh?" Bill smiled at him. Harry looked up at his professor, "Okay." Bill beamed at him and got up from his desk.

He grasped Harry's hands in his own, "Brilliant. Now lets go get some dinner," and he led Harry out of the classroom.

Transfiguration was an amusing affair the next day. The rest of the class was still working on transfiguring their finger into a needle, but Professor McGonagall had given Harry and Hermione permission to move onto their whole hand.

Harry particularly enjoyed the moment when Ron had completed the transformation, but had turned his finger into the wrong object. He had repeatedly turned his pointer into a pen instead of a pin, by no fault of his own of course.

Ron took a seat next to Harry at lunch, after just getting back from having McGonagall turn his pen back into a finger.

"She said that wasn't necessarily a bad thing though," Ron told him and Hermione. "She said transforming into a pen, rather than a pin was much more advanced." Dean was howling with laughter.

Harry looked up as Seamus took his seat next to Dean. "Where's the Mrs., Finnegan?" Dean asked, "Trouble in Paradise?" Seamus chucked a spoonful of mashed potatoes at his friend.

"There better not be," Ron muttered. Harry noticed Ginny at the other end of the table. She stood up looking rather flustered, and started heading towards the exit. She brushed past him on her way out, and Harry felt something slip into his hands.

He waited until Dean and Seamus had left, and Ron and Hermione were distracted by their usual bickering before unfolding the note.

Dear Harry,

Would you please meet me in your Dorm, during study hall?

Thanks,

Ginny

Harry looked up, to be sure no one was watching, and quickly stuffed the note in his pocket.

History of Magic, Harry decided, was the spawn of Satan. It was designed purely to destroy his already somewhat miserable existence and make him relive it, thoroughly.

Harry's head was lying on the table in misery when Professor Binns entered the room through the chalkboard. He was trying not to shoot Hermione a death glare when she pulled out her blank parchment.

He was sure Ron had glared at Hermione over his head. Harry could feel most of the class staring at him up until the point where Binns cleared his throat for attention.

"Lily Evans Potter's only sibling was Petunia Evans Dursley. It was this aunt that Harry Potter was left with fifteen years ago. Petunia was married to Vernon Dursley and they had one son, Dudley, when Harry was left with them. Dudley was only a few weeks older than his cousin.

"The loving family took Harry Potter under their wing," the Ghost was forced to stop his mantra by three pupils in the back of the room, for the Harry, Ron, and Hermione had snorted simultaneously at Binns's last comment.

The Professor looked up at Harry, "Do you have a question Mr. Potter?"

Harry looked at his teacher snidely, "More of a suggestion actually. If you're going to study my life, try and get your facts straight."

Binns studied him with a vacant stare, "Would you care to enlighten us?"

Harry rolled his eyes and looked out the window, "No, I don't think I would." Professor Binns nodded and continued.

When Study Hall began Harry was already in his room, Ginny had not yet arrived. It was just as well; he needed to fix a cut that had split open in Transfiguration anyway. Harry moved to his trunk and leaned inside rummaging for some clean bandages.

Just as his hand grasped what he was searching for the door opened. Ginny walked in timidly, and shut the door firmly behind her.

"Hi," she was looking down at her feet.

"Hi," Harry dropped the bandages, shut the lid of his trunk and got to his feet. "What's up?"

"Um…" He watched Ginny as she swallowed. She was fiddling with the sleeve of her robes. She went to sit on Ron's bed, still looking at her shoes. Harry felt this was not going to be a friendly chat.

"What is it?" He took a seat on the bed across from her.

Harry watched as Ginny took a deep breath, and seemed to be steeling herself to say something. "Okay, I have something I needed to tell someone, anyone, really, and I, uh, I chose you." She took another breath. "I, um, I don't know why, I just did, and I just had a feeling and-"

"Gin, you're rambling," Harry stopped her. She looked up at him startled. He didn't know if it was because of what he'd said or the nickname he had just used.

Ginny looked back at her feet, "Well, maybe I could just show you, but you have to promise," her rich brown eyes looked directly into his own, "promise, that you won't tell a soul. Especially not Ron, or any of my brothers, or mother, or father, or a teacher for that matter."

"Ginny!" She gave him an apologetic half smile. Then it was gone.

"First, you have to promise," Harry found he couldn't break his gaze away from hers "Do you?"

"Okay," he said against his better judgment "I promise." Ginny went back to fiddling with her cloak sleeve. They both just sat there for a moment.

Ginny took a deep breath and shrugged off her cloak. She was wearing a white shell underneath, but that was not what Harry was looking at. Ginny had a dark bruise splattered along her upper back. Harry stood from his bed, and moved towards her.

"Merlin, what happened," he gasped.

Ginny's breath was hitching now, "It, It was Seamus."

Harry pulled back, as though someone had dealt him a sharp blow to the stomach. "What?" He was in shock, never had he been more astounded in his life. Tears were silently falling down Ginny's face now.

"It didn't start out like this at first, it was all really great, but then, I don't know what, but he changed, and he would just get into a rage and…" she trailed off.

"Come here," Harry guided her to his bed, where she sat down wearily. He went to his trunk, and grabbed the bandages he had pulled out for himself, earlier. He also rummaged for his healing book.

Harry took his seat behind her. He gently applied the gauze to a few cuts and reached for his wand in his robes. "This will numb the pain," Ginny nodded her consent, "torpeo."

Ginny turned to face him, "Thank you," she whispered. Harry didn't know where the sudden urge came from, but he put his arm around her and pulled her close. He could feel Ginny's chest hitching in his arms.

"You sure are handy in first aid," she sniffled.

Harry shut his eyes, a pang of guilt coming to him. "Don't even think on it."