Disclaimer: While, yes, I get into trouble sometimes, frequently it has nothing to do with the governmental laws we so abide by everyday. Then, in contemplating my status with the law and the law's status with me, one would realize that I would do nothing with such harmful effects to myself as copying a fellow author's work of art. Now that that is settled, we can resume in reading my little story based of J.K. Rowling's wonderful masterpiece, and humbly accept that none of the characters, excluding a few, were made from my own mind or subconscious. Thank you.
Chapter 7: Moving On
"Do you think she'll be up soon?" A voice drifted into her head; it was familiar, yet so unknown.
"I dunno, I mean, she's been asleep for nearly a week now-" the voice trailed off.
Ginny was at a loss for the strength to roll over, even opening her eyes was beyond her capabilities. Her body was like lead weight in an ocean, sinking down, farther and farther into dreams that she was avoiding with every ounce of energy. She certainly hadn't been this tired before, and she wanted to get up, to see the people who were talking. Who were they? Where was she? What had happened? She had so many questions, none of which could be asked.
"Let's just stay here. I'll go get our books. What do you need for Potions?" Another voice entered Ginny's mind like a diver to water – she knew that voice; it was so fresh in her memory, yet so unknown, so very unrecognizable.
Sitting still, slowing her breathing to long, low, deep breaths, Ginny managed to get up enough energy to roll over and open her eyes. In the process, she groaned as aching muscles protested for more rest.
"Look!" the owner of the first voice she had heard was pointing at her, and now she recognized him easily as Harry, "she's awake!"
"Ginny? How are you?" Ron said loudly, swooping down on her and sweeping her into a tight hug.
"When you all realize that yes, I'm awake, and yes, I am still here, kindly acknowledge me. My brain is screaming 'more sleep, more sleep!'" She began to close her eyes, but they were brought open again as the door opened and Dumbledore strode in.
"Hello, Miss Weasley. I hear you had quite a trip." His eyes, although they looked gray to Ginny, were undoubtedly twinkling in the bright, florescent light of the hospital wing, making it clear to Ginny that Remus had told him all, all which he knew anyway – which wasn't very much.
"Yes Professor…" She looked at him wearily, trying to guess what he may be leading up to.
Over the next hour Ginny told them everything… well, almost everything. Dumbledore did a quick little vision spell, to return her the powers of color, which, believe it or not, made a huge difference.
"… So then we flew on that platform thing all the way back here. Except I dunno what happened near the end, because I was asleep," she concluded, feeling very tired again, despite her long sleep.
A week later, Ginny was entirely well, caught up on her sleep, and attending classes again. She had been hard at work during her time in the hospital wing, catching up in all of her subjects. O.W.L.s were not far off, and she was so far behind. It did help, however, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione plus Jenna were coming to visit her in the hospital wing after classes every day, therefore available for questions in any subject. Hermione was the main help, but Jenna brought her missed homework for each day and helped her finish the homework that she had been gone for previously, which most teachers were making her do – an evil thing, as it would take months of non-stop work to make everything up.
It was late, around 2:00 AM Ginny guessed, a few days after her return to classes. Everyone had long since gone to bed, but she was still holed up in the common room, determined to finish the Herbology essay she was working on (Describe, in detail, the four uses of Biting Tulips' roots). She already had a foot, only three more inches… three more inches… As she started to doze off, her big, chocolate-brown eyes getting lost in the dimming embers of the fire, she realized that nothing more would be accomplished tonight… er… this morning. She rolled up the parchment, stuffed it in the bag, and slumped upstairs. Easing open the squeaky door, Ginny tried her best not to wake her roommates from their deep, peaceful slumber. She quickly changed and slipped into bed; however, before she could close her eyes, they fell upon Jenna's sleeping form…
Ginny looked down to see the body of a young girl; she seemed to be about five-years-old and lay limp upon a wood floor, stained red with blood. The girl had short blond hair and would have been most adorable had she not been lifeless.
"Tia! Tiana! No! Tiana!" Ginny said, but it wasn't Ginny. 'No, she can't be dead; they can't have got her, they just can't have,' she heard herself think – but it wasn't her doing the thinking. Ginny looked up to see a figure in a long, black cloak standing over her. The figure let out a cold, cruel laugh. A laugh Ginny knew well – too well. The figure Apparated away with a sharp 'crack', leaving her there kneeling beside the body of the child. Ginny looked up, or, whoever was having the dream looked up. Her eyes locked on the eyes in a mirror, and they stared back into her own – and Ginny knew at once what was happening; she almost screamed.
Ginny threw her eyes open in shock. There, sleeping across the room from her, lay Jenna. Tossing and turning in her sleep, she was moaning, "Tiana, Tia! No!" Ginny didn't know what to do, but she understood now what had happened. She also understood why Jenna avoided the topic of Voldemort so much… she had suffered worse than anyone knew. Ginny only wondered why she had kept quiet. Then Ginny mulled over her own long-kept secret and understood why. Much at peace, Ginny closed her eyelids gently, letting sleep take her away.
"Ginny… Ginny, wake up!" Jenna's loud, somewhat obnoxious voice was more annoying than a foghorn at three o'clock AM, especially when it yelled in Ginny's ear that early in the morning.
"What?" Ginny groaned, rolling over to see the face of Jenna Moliby, which was quite red from yelling so much.
"Ginny, I know you're still getting back on the going-to-class schedule and everything here, but… and I'm sorry if this sounds rather rude, but class starts in three minutes!"
"What?" Ginny rolled out of bed and started getting dressed hurriedly as Jenna grabbed a few of books randomly, stuffing them in her bag.
"Honestly, Ginny, I was yelling for at least ten minutes, you were like a rock." Jenna panted, trying to help Ginny, but making it take longer as she kept knocking the books she really needed and such onto the floor. "Come on, Ginny, can you hurry up just a little bit? Class started…" she checked her watch, "almost two minutes ago!"
"Two minutes?" Ginny laughed hoarsely. "Since when do you care about being two minutes late?"
"Since never, that's not the thing – the problem is – we have Divination!"
"So? We'll slip in, she won't notice, and if she does…" Ginny shrugged, "Life goes on."
"Ginny!" Jenna started to protest, but changed her mind at the last second and said "Whatever, let's just go!" She shoved a plate of bacon and eggs into her hands. "Come on!" she added when her friend just stood there, snorting with laughter. "What's so funny?"
"Jenna… think about it. A friend would wake me up; a good friend would grab some breakfast for me, maybe a piece of toast or something. And you? You bring me bacon and eggs."
"I'm just a good friend!" Jenna defended herself, taking mock-offense in the statement.
"No – you're just an incredibly insane friend… not that there's much of a difference…" Ginny pondered aloud.
"Well, I would say 'thank you', but we have approximately," she checked her watch again, "negative five minutes to get to class, and it will take negative three times that to get there!"
"Ooh! Jenna, good maths!" Ginny was rather hyper… the roles, strangely reversed.
Ginny and Jenna hurried along the corridors. Jenna off in space somewhere daydreaming about…
"Aaron," Ginny said aloud,
"Where!" Jenna whirled around, sending Ginny into fits of giggles. "Why you little…" Jenna made to lunge at Ginny but stopped, smiling to herself. "How did you know what I was thinking about?"
"Jenna, think about who you're talking to. I know that look better than anyone else."
"Good point…" She nodded, still grinning. "But I think you know this look a little too well..." She looked unsure of how to say what she wanted to say.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Well… I'm not really sure how to say this, Ginny. I haven't brought it up since we last talked about it, but I think someone needs to." She sighed, obviously not wanting to say what she was trying to.
"Just tell me, already. We don't have all day."
"Well… remember that conversation we had before you…"
"Got abducted?" Ginny offered, smiling.
"Right… Remember the one, umm… after Divination."
"About Harry?"
"Exactly…"
"What about it?"
"Well, have you thought about it at all?" she asked, looking unsure of herself.
Ginny shrugged, "No, should I have? You were obviously not quite sane during that conversation. I have no reason to take it seriously."
"I was afraid you would take it like this." She sighed, looking at the floor, "I meant what I said, Ginny. He's never going to like you if you don't get the to the point that, no matter how wonderful he may truly be, he's just a normal person." She held up her hands, "Cute, yes. Nice, powerful, brave," she listed all the things she loved about him, "Yes. But he's your brother's best friend. And even if you do like him in that way, which nobody denies, you should still see him for that." She looked regretful that she had said so, but sighed, and at the same time seemed relieved it had been done. And without another word, she turned and jogged ahead, taking the staircase that led to the Divination ladder three stairs at a time.
They ended up being the predicted half hour late, and, as Ginny suspected, they were able to sneak in without much notice. Professor Trelawney had her back turned, demonstrating the proper posture to sit in while dictating a prophecy. Of course, all of this was entirely bogus, and Ginny knew that, so she didn't bother herself by listening. Ginny sat there, in a pouf on the very edge of the classroom, very near the door. She stared over the top of Luna Lovegood's head, out the window and over the tops of the trees. The sky was a dismal grey as she saw through the corner of her unfocused eye a snowy owl seep down out of the clouds and into the owlry…
'No… nobody will care…' Ginny was all of a sudden in a much different environment. She found that she was now on the other side of the room, and looking in a different direction. That was when she realized that, for another time, she was not herself. Ginny was now looking at herself as though in a mirror. The difference was – it wasn't a mirror. Ginny had no clue what to do, so she simply waited out the terrible ordeal, trying to block out the slightly-vague voice of Luna as she thought the most bizarre things Ginny had ever heard, much less thought. 'Daddy must visit, Crumple-horned Snorknack turning green. Also happened – 1147' her thoughts were like badly taken History notes, which had accidentally gotten mixed with Care of Magical Creatures ones. One word sentences, very choppy, it was a wonder this girl managed all 'Outstandings' on her more recent exams. How much longer would she have to bear this…
Just as she thought this, Ginny all of a sudden found herself back in her own body, thoughts once more possessed by only her. She had had no clue of what to do… until now. It had just come to her what her brother, Harry, and Hermione had been doing for years – when in doubt – go to Dumbledore!
Ginny, feeling rather embarrassed at just suddenly showing up at Dumbledore's office, was a little reluctant to go in and simply start talking, but once she began it was much easier to tell the details of the tale regarding her recent strange experiences.
"And… well, it just happened again…" she concluded, blushing slightly. Ginny had no clue on earth what to do next, so she simply sat and waited, silently willing the headmaster to say something. Finally, the silence was broken.
"And I suppose you came here today hoping I would be able to tell you what all of this meant?" he said, the gravity in his voice somewhat unsettling for her to hear. And although it was obviously not a question, she nodded precariously. "That I cannot do, but I have theories." He began, "When that Dementor began to administer The Kiss I suppose it began by taking the senses – touch, taste, sight, hear, and smell. As Remus, in werewolf form, interrupted the process, only a very small bit of this process was completed – therefore weakening those senses. Because of this, it may be that your incomplete senses were, should we say disconnected, for your body. So now, they can roam into the bodies of others and inhabit them." He looked very uncertain, and voiced this a moment later, securing Ginny's wonderings, but it still unnerved her quite a bit.
"So… is it like…" she was a bit scared to voice her next question aloud, and was saved from having to as he answered her easily.
"No, it's nothing like when Tom was inhabiting you, or how he inhabited Harry last year. For one, you have no control over this, and two, you can hear people's thoughts – both of which are not involved in Legilimency." Ginny breathed a sigh of relief, and thanked her headmaster quietly, making her way out of the bright, sunny office. "I assume you are catching up on your class work fine."
"Um… you could say that," Ginny said, not quite lying, but had that been a more direct statement, it would have been one of the bigger lies found in her history. In response Dumbledore simply nodded merrily, adding with a twinkle in his eye:
"I'm sure your brother and his friends would be glad to help you catch up if you asked them." He seemed amused, and frankly, the resident redhead couldn't see why.
"Erm… thanks, I'll do that," she replied warily, and if she was sure of anything, it was that that wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
The next few days passed relatively normally, leaving Ginny with a sense of comfort as she spent hours holed up in the common room, catching up on her loads of missed schoolwork as she watched Jenna and those who were commonly known as 'The Triplets' played chess. The Triplets were Katie, Emma, and their brother, Michael. They were all in Ginny's dorm, with the obvious exception of the latter stated, for apparent reasons. The odd thing was, they seemed to share a brain. So, despite the fact that Jenna was technically only playing against Katie, the others were watching, and could help her without ever making a sound. This fact had at first involved quite a bit of disagreement, but things had evened themselves out over time, and it was now taken just as a fact of life. Of course, it helped that none of them could play chess to save their lives…
"Check!" Katie cried out cheerfully, shaking her short, chocolate brown hair out behind her as she laughed cheerfully. Jenna just threw her friend a smile as she made her move,
"Check… mate!" she exclaimed, laughing at the look of shock that was now covering Katie's face, making it clear to everyone that she hadn't seen this coming. But she laughed her shock off, as she pulled out her wand, giving a little flick towards the board, looking surprised to see the pieces rearrange themselves, ready in position for another game.
"Wow! I've never been able to do that one before! Emma! Michael! Ellie! Jack!" Katie yelled out to all her resident relatives suddenly, "Jenna! Ginny! Sierra! Stephanie!" she continued yelling out the names of all her friends, and everyone in the common room until everyone's eardrums were bursting. For someone so small, she sure was loud.
A week had passed, and much to Ginny's relief, nothing out of the ordinary happened. She got told off four times, lost about sixty house points (all from Snape) and still managed to get three detentions. Things were getting back to normal. She was finally caught up in Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Divination, and Charms, and almost caught up in Herbology, Astronomy, and Transfiguration. Things had been going quite well for her until Thursday…
Ginny walked briskly down the corridor, determined to get to her dormitory before the transition came. The inhabitances had been becoming less frequent, but lasting longer. And, luckily for her, she had started to be able to feel them coming on, feeling her senses slowly emerge from her body. She was getting the feeling right then, and she wanted to get where nobody would panic. Of course, her friends knew about her situation, and could therefore cover for her; she just needed to get to the dormitory…
"Infernal Homework!" she said urgently, her amusement at Ron's password choice slightly worn off.
"No need to be huffy about it!" the Fat Lady said, sounding slightly put out as she swung herself open, allowing Ginny admittance to the common room. She broke into an urgent run but couldn't even make it to the staircase and collapsed onto the nearest armchair as her thoughts swirled…
Ginny would have sighed in relief as the feeling died down, not in her own body, but at least not still floating free in the air, subject to whatever came her way. She was going too fast, so she hadn't had time to see whom she was entering, but sincerely hoped it wasn't a Slytherin, specifically Malfoy. She knew she was in a N.E.W.T. Transfiguration class, as it said so on the board, but would have to wait to see who exactly she was…
"Mr. Potter, what are the three most common incantations used for like-species switches, and how many are there total?" Ginny expected to have the head of whoever she was in to spin around somewhat wildly, or so it felt to the one not controlling where it went, and to have the eyes behind which she remained rest on the familiar face of Harry James Potter. What she didn't expect was what happened.
'I know this! Hermione was just lecturing me on this exact thing last night… what was it?' Ginny was… and there was really only one word for the feeling she was experiencing for what was most likely the trillionth time, Ginny was intensely scared. She had been deliberately avoiding Harry for the past couple of weeks since her return, and now she was inhabiting him. Things couldn't get worse – or so she thought.
Ginny followed Harry all day through the rest of Transfiguration, double N.E.W.T. Potions, and N.E.W.T. Herbology. She was a silent observer while he did his homework, ate dinner, played chess with Ron, and for the rest of the day. He was exhausted; she could feel his fatigue as if it were the Crucatious Curse, burning a hole in her mind as she felt him struggle to keep his eyes open, finishing an essay. She was immensely relieved that night when he finally went to sleep… Which was around three o'clock in the morning. 6:30 came all too soon for both of them.
With another long day ahead, Ginny tried desperately to control her senses. She must have attempted everything from concentration to struggling to use physical force, or as much physical force possible under the circumstances. Today she followed him through both Herbology and Defense Against the Dark Arts, bringing them to lunch…
Ginny could taste the thankfully warm chicken noodle soup as it ran down Harry's throat as he carried on a nonsense conversation about current Chudley Cannons current league-standings, of course, talking to Ron. It wasn't that she didn't care about Quidditch; she just had more interesting things to ponder on. Her thoughts were just starting to refocus on her unsuspecting captor when she was jerked back to the ever-going conversation by a sudden thought that was more then meaningful to her waiting ears…
'I wonder where Ginny is? I haven't seen her in… must be about two days now… man I miss h- NO!' Ginny, like so many times before, would have sighed, but instead felt the heart that wasn't really hers swell with happiness…'I can't like Ginny. No! She's Ron's little sister, no!' Under normal circumstances she would have been crushed to know these thoughts. But she thought of Ron, and smiled to herself at how alike their two situations were, in drastically different ways.
Ginny listened as the boys' conversation turned back to Quidditch and this time, her thoughts stayed with them, eager for another mind-slip on Harry's part. However, much to her dismay, none came. Suddenly there was another rustling of feathers, and most of the Hall looked up to see a lone owl fluttering down from the make-shift sky miserably. At first she wondered why it was coming at lunch, after all, the mail had come at breakfast normally; however, as it approached she saw a black letter clutched in its beak. The sight of it nearly made her nauseous as she remembered the fateful day where such a letter came for her, but only nearly. She felt the combined breath get caught in Harry's lungs as it came to the Gryffindor table, right towards where the trio to most, quartet to our protagonist, was sitting. The owl fluttered by Harry and Ron, who were sitting across from one another, but the next person wasn't quite so lucky…
Hermione burst into tears before she even opened the letter, knowing what it contained she just buried her face in her hands and ran out of the hall. Ron instantly got up to follow her as Harry did the same. His mind was strangely blank as he walked urgently down the halls, heading for Gryffindor Tower where he knew she was headed by instinct. Several staircases ahead, Ron ran after Hermione in deep earnest.
Harry continued walking slowly, as if in shock that something like this happened. His thoughts were multiplying so fast that Ginny could barely catch one before the next was gone, like trying to listen to four different conversations at once. Finally they reached the portrait hole, through which the preceding two had disappeared,
"Infernal Homework," Harry said so quickly, in such a dark, hurt voice that Ginny barely heard it before the painting swung forward. As it opened it revealed a sight so unexpected, that Ginny was slightly unnerved. Hermione was sitting in one of the chairs by the fire, rocking back and forth in her tears. Ron was sitting down next to her, on the edge of the chair comforting her.
"Shh… it's ok Hermione…"
"No it's not!" she screeched, making both Harry and Ron wince at the ferocity in her tone, "How can it be ok when my parents are… are…" she broke down into sobs once again before finishing her statement, as if speaking it would make it final.
"That's right…" her brother's voice was strangely low and caught in his throat as he listened to his long-time best friend mourn her parents.
Ginny could feel Harry's urge to go over there, but also noticed that he resisted, and instead went quietly across the room and upstairs. Ginny silently praised him for having the insight that Hermione would want some time alone.
After several minutes it became clear to Ginny that the entire trio would be missing their afternoon classes (History of Magic and Divination), as all Harry was doing was lying on his back behind his four-poster bed, accomplishing nothing more than learning the ceiling tiles very well. His mind was racing, but Ginny ignored, having her own things to think of. She knew she should care more about Hermione's parents, but Harry had wondered where she was… ok, so it wasn't much to go on – but he hadn't voiced it, which definitely meant something – most likely the typical 'If I say it out loud people will wonder if I like her, which can't happen', seeing as, if he didn't actually like her, he would never have wondered about. Yes, Ginny was restored with a new hope and dwelled on this for several minutes before returning to listening to Harry's scrambled up thoughts.
Well… maybe, okay – I'll go down and see if Hermione's okay now… wait, no… five more minutes… he checked his watch for the eighth time in five minutes, Oh, what the heck… Harry rolled over onto his feet and made his way downstairs, slowing down considerably before opening the door,obviously afraid of what was on the other side – and frankly, Ginny couldn't say she blamed him. He took a deep breath, deciding whether to open the door normally, extra loudly, or slow and quiet. He decided on the former, and walked into the seemingly empty common room. Then she saw Ron and Hermione in the same chairs they were in before, playing a seemingly innocent game of chess.
"Checkmate," Ron's voice filtered across the common room, which seemed exceptionally empty while everyone else was in class. Ginny watched through Harry's eyes as Ron's rook moved forward and knocked over Hermione's queen, knocking her to the ground with a brutal crash and shatter. At this Hermione's eyes started tearing up again, the move obviously reminding her of her parents' fate. "Oh, Hermione…" Ron had a hint of exasperation, but kept his voice as calm as possible as he told her to stop crying. Harry was left standing there, unnoticed by his best friends. He cleared his throat, causing the other two to glance up, startled at his presence.
"Harry…" Hermione started, her voice sounding oddly choked.
"Hi," was all he responded, coming over to sit next to the chessboard, in a chair between the two. "Are you okay, Hermione?" he asked, testing, as if he was afraid she would burst into tears again.
"Y-Y-Yeah, I-I'm fine, j-just…" she couldn't finish her sentence, as, sobs started to break her temporary breach of calmness.
Harry made his way over to her and gave her what he hoped was a comforting hug. "I'm sorry…" he whispered as he retreated a few feet, to give her her own space. Ron seemed to have things under control, so Harry, not wanting to intrude on what could possibly be a very important moment of Ron and Hermione's future, made his way up the stairs.
Upon reaching the dormitory, Harry, yet again, flopped down on his four-poster and stared at the ceiling. As usual, the other four boys came up and got ready for bed silently as Harry pretended to be asleep. Harry lay in bed for hours, eventually drifting off to sleep.
'No! Not Harry! Take me instead! Not Harry-'The voices echoed inside Harry's head, as Ginny was dumbstruck to actually know his nightmares. Of course she knew Harry had the nightmares… but never had she seen them, nor had she thought they were this bad. She had a new sympathy for him as she thought about how horrible life until now must have been for him… not that she hadn't sympathized with him before, the memory of her first year was all too chilling to ever forget. But she now saw his life with a new angle, one of understanding, one that nobody alive could understand excepting the two mentioned. With the pictures still vivid in her mind, Ginny pondered all day.
By dinner that night Ginny was seriously wondering if she was stuck in Harry's mind forever; the sensation had never lasted this long before. She forced herself not to panic, as nothing would have been helped if she did. She had no means of communication with anybody no matter how hard she tried to make her thoughts loud, so maybe Harry's mind could hear hers or something. But in spite of everything she tried, nothing worked.
Hermione sat silently between Harry and Ron, her face stoic to any and all offerings of comfort. From what Ginny had observed, life as Harry's friend was fairly easy – become his friend, then, when he gives you 'the test' just 'pass' it. It went like this – She had concluded that Harry was insecure about the fact that people actually cared about him, didn't believe it at first, which was unremarkably understandable, looking at his past. He accepted you as his friend, and everything would be okay, but after awhile he would test you, get really mad at you over something, might be something small – a broomstick daresay. He wouldn't talk to you, and generally do nothing to initiate an apology. He had to make sure you really cared, cared enough not to betray him, or turn your back on him. A general Harry-fight lasted at least a month. But afterwards, you never fought again, for more then five minutes at least.
Harry shifted uncomfortably in the silence, unsure of what to do. Ron looked absorbed in his food, glancing unobtrusively at Hermione every few minutes, as if she were on the edge of another breakdown and he wanted to be prepared for when she did. Since when is Ron so tuned-in to her emotions? Harry wondered confusedly. He's never gone through anything of the sort… But Ginny could tell that he was glad his best mate had some of the sense most thought he certainly lacked.
Excusing himself half-heartedly, Harry grabbed his bag and left the Hall. Hermione was so clearly devastated, which was fine. But the blatant reminder of what he, too, was missing, made him more than a little jealous of the Weasley family once more. He didn't even have parents to miss. When Sirius died last year, he lost one of the most prominent adult figures he had.
Slowly becoming more and more discontent, Harry stalked through the hallways with growing speed. Ginny didn't know what he was doing. Upon reaching the dormitory Harry had rummaged through his trunk, and brought out his Invisibility Cloak. She knew about its existence, but had never been under one before. She watched in the mirror as where Harry had once been, now was nothing. She observed as he slowly made his way down into the common room, and picked through as it slowly filled with people. He stood for several minutes by the portrait hole, waiting for it to open. Finally it did, and as Ron and Hermione slipped through, talking about something that was inaudible above the noise of the other voices, Harry snuck past them.
Once in the hallway, there was more space, by a long shot, but Harry kept to the walls anyway (for safety precautions). He wandered for an hour, then two. He roamed, poking his head in random doors, stopping by a painting here, a statue there, just stopping and staring at random things as they passed. His mind was strangely blank, he wasn't thinking; he was relaxing – getting away from everything that had been going on. Then he finally came to a room that looked different from the rest.
The door was shimmering slightly, as if it had a glowing charm on it, which made it stand out in the dark, gloomy hall – perhaps being why Harry had noticed it in the first place. Harry quickly looked both ways, to make sure nobody was in the area, and checked the Marauder's Map to be doubly sure. When all was clear, when Filch and Mrs. Norris were safely roaming the dungeons and the other teachers were securely shut up in their respective offices, he edged the door open. There were no charms on it, no spells, no tickling sensation like that of a numb limb, which would have occurred on most occasions. It felt normal – like a door.
Harry edged it open a bit more, making the opening large enough to slip through, which he did a moment later. Once in it, eyes adjusted to the dimness, everything came into much clearer view. It was a classroom, albeit a strange one. There were no windows, no ceiling lights, nor any torches on the walls. It was dark, but lit just enough to see by. There were desks shoved over near the walls, and a mirror in one corner, nothing surrounding it.
Harry's breath caught in his throat as he walked briskly over to it, letting the Cloak slip off in the process. He stood in front of it, and stared into it, drinking up the sight before him. It was different then it used to be, Ginny had heard from Ron before she started at Hogwarts what Harry normally saw in it, 'not too far off', she thought. Harry was standing there, looking like he did now, but behind him were three figures, Lily, James, and Sirius. 'No surprises there,' Ginny pondered shortly.
Off to his left was Ron, Ron standing with Hermione, both smiling at each other as they looked at him out of the corners of their eyes. Over on the right, was her, not just her, of course, that would have been too much for one night – if she ever got back to her own body she would surely faint immediately – her, standing with all the other Weasleys, save for Percy, whom nobody seemed to want to converse with anymore. She was wondering what all his meant, when all of a sudden, a loud voice interrupted her thoughts, Harry's thoughts, not his voice of course… or was it? She couldn't really tell anymore; it was all merging together.
"How could you, Sirius? How could you, Just leave me like that? I needed you! How could you?" He was repeating himself over and over again, breaking down into sobs of anger all the time "How could I be so STUPID!" he finally yelled aloud. "I killed you! Why couldn't I have just remembered that stupid mirror when I needed to talk to you? You would have told me everything was fine! But no, I had to go and believe stupid old bloody Kreacher, and now, THANKS TO ME, YOU…" he trailed off as sobs broke into his voice once again.
Ginny saw all of it, an innocent in-stander, not quite a bystander, or at least, she wasn't until a moment later.
As Harry's rage mounted again, she felt her senses come free from his, she felt the strange feeling of her mind lifting away, disconnecting. Her vision went black and white; sound she heard was much clearer, much louder. And the last thing she saw before her mind zoomed off through the dark school was Harry's figure, angry, vengeful, and self-blaming.
Oh. My. God. This is an excellent chapter, Courts. It really is! Just... wow. Ha ha. Loved the whole Ginny/Harry thing, which was the main part of the chapter, really, but.. I do think Hermione's parents' death could be a little more focused on, personally. Unless it is in the next chapter, that is, but if it isn't, then... yes. It could use a little more detail. Over all, very, very scrumdidlidumptous! --Kat
Yeah, 'tiz addressed next chappy (among some other stuff… It's actually rather vague, but I've got a lot of editing to do next chapter, so I'll be putting more in). For awhile now, and as you've seen at the end of this chapter, it will be a lot've emotional responses to various things. It was fun to write, but I had to be pretty angsty. Anyway, I think I'll be posting it as is here, and I'll send it on to Annika from there. Thanks!
I agree; it's a great chapter. I'm highly impressed. You really squeezed a lot into a relatively short amount of pages. Things flowed really well, and I really felt drawn into the plot with Harry's thing.
I am a little concerned that the reaction Harry had to Hermione is a bit out of character for him, though. Yes, he's a bit of a selfish boy, but I wouldn't think he would be that inconsiderate to his best friend right after finding out her parents were murdered. If you've got an explanation as to why you did that, I'd love to hear it, and maybe it would make a bit more sense to me.
The ending bit, with the mirror and Sirius and the yelling and blaming was wonderful, though. That really seemed to hit Harry right on, in my opinion. Nicely done.
Yes, this chapter was a bit of a… Turning-point of sorts for everything. Characterization was defiantly a big focus of mine, as until now everyone has been quite out-of-character (particularly Ginny). Yeah, I'm not quite sure about the Harry-Hermione fight, particularly because I don't really have a good reason behind it all. The entire history of the mirror is… incredibly major to the entire plotline of history in this fic. It's all explained in the next chapter… but I'm afraid the few paragraphs loaded with information that Dumbledore's just explaining to Harry are incredibly boring. Do you have any tricks to spice this up a bit? I know that JKR usually has them figure everything out periodically, but I don't think that will work, because this is more background information, and stuff that won't be in books, because over the years it's been kept a secret. If you have an suggestions or recommendations, either now or later I would love some assistance. Thanks!
Um. Maybe have Dumbledore attempt to lead through the information. Like, ask guided questions that sort of get the answer without giving it all away? Does that make sense? Otherwise, it'll just have to be exposition, which is fine, because they won't be able to find out the information on their own.
Well, it's more of an explanation of history and such, like what would have happened they wouldn't know about. Normally this would be a great time to have like… something in class early on and then Hermione with her great knowledge of everything found in a book, but it's classified knowledge that nobody in the public will have known about, which is the problem I've run into…