When Nightmares Are A Good Thing

by Rhiane Raine

Harry's summer begins with horrible thoughts and nightmares from the events of his fifth year that plague him. Harry decides to do all that he can to prepare himself but what happens when he discovers unknown blood relations?

24. New Resolves

When Nightmares Are a Good Thing

By Rhiane Raine

Chapter 24: New Resolves

Now with a new resolve and a clean bill of health, Harry was back in his groove of training his mind and body for whatever he was going up against. Whatever was coming, he felt it was best to be prepared. Dumbledore's advice about not living his life to fit the prophecy was not forgotten nor ignored. In fact, Harry decided that his training wasn't solely about facing Voldemort or surviving death eater attacks. The truth was, Harry was bored with letting things happen to him. All his life he had simply been there while others made his decisions for him, his reaction- provided he gave one- mattered not. Now Harry felt was time to take his life into his own hands. The nagging voice of his subconscious frequently tried to remind him that he might not live much longer and that was the real reason that why he was trying so much harder. Every time this thought occurred to him, Harry only worked that much harder to distract himself from the topic.

His nightmares seemed to have slowed down a bit for the meantime, allowing Harry to reset his sleeping habits. Now he awoke early in the morning and went to the drawing room for his workout before the others in the house even stirred. Then he would clean up and wait in his room, reading and studying until he could troop off to the kitchen for breakfast with Ron. He, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny would disappear to the drawing room to read and study a bit more before lunch. The rest of the afternoon was their own. This unspoken agreement between the four of them meant a lot to Harry, especially since none of his friends had questioned his dedication. After knowing the prophecy, they most likely had guessed the reasoning behind Harry's motives and thought it best not to comment but to lend their support instead. In either case, Harry was grateful.

It was only a few day after Harry and Dumbledore's encounter when Fred and George came to visit for the afternoon. It was past lunch and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had decided to continue on with their study session. Harry had discretely placed a warning charm on the door to foreworn him should anyone approach. When the spell warned him that they had visitors Harry glanced up at the door to see the twins leaning against the door frame, sharing a look of disgust on their identical faces.

"Do my eyes deceive me, brother?" said one of them.

""I should most certainly hope so!" said the other in a horrified whisper.

"Studying during the summer holidays! I could die of shame!-"

"Were it not for the fact that we're sure that you're doing this against your own will..."

"Yes," Fred or George agreed. "Please tell us Mom coerced you into this."

The twins got on their knees and took Ginny's hands in their own as if begging her to tell them that this was a punishment for something she had done shortly before their arrival.

Ginny giggled as she took her hand back from their grasps but offered no answers other than to close her book and put it aside. Though he had been spending an increased amount of time in her presence, this was the first time Harry had ever really listened to her laugh. It was a sweet, calming sort of giggle that made him smile despite himself. He too put away his book and budged up so that Fred and George could take a seat on the couch.

"Actually, there are some very interesting spells in here," Harry answered mischievously.

The twins perked up at that and began sharing the latest progress of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes. Eventually, Hermione joined in the conversation by asking the twins a question on the recipe for one of their new experimental potions that they were intending to cause a person's hair to become opposite of what it normally was. Harry bitterly wondered if it would be strong enough to cause his black hair to lie flat.

"Now, I can see that you four are in need of some honest to goodness fun-"

"Seeing as you all had resorted to reading books to pass the time-"

"Which is why," the other twin continued. "We are going to play a game."

"A game? What kind of a game?" Hermione skeptically asked, eyeing her book almost longingly.

"Well, we being the cool, suave, party machines that we are-" said the twin which Harry suspected to be George.

"Are going to introduce you to a new game we have only recently thought up but in order to play it requires the use of a pensieve."

"What on earth do we need a pensieve for?" Ron exclaimed. "Those things are supposed to be expensive right? How can you require it to play a game? "

"No, Ron. Not expensive, rare." Hermione sighed exasperatedly at Ron's ignorance. "There are only about ten known pensieves in existence at the moment. It's hard to come by a powerful enough witch or wizard who can create one let alone have the right knowledge or emotions to do it properly-"

"-Wait," Harry held up a hand to hold off his friends from spouting all the information she had ever learned on where the others were located. "What do you mean? Pensieves have to be specially made?"

"Yes, making a pensieve requires a large amount of concentration for the spells and enchantments placed on it to work. See, theoretically, anyone could make one except the charms needed to trap and store memories there for viewing and all that are very hard, I've read. Very few can manage to even understand how, let alone create one. I imagine that it is very draining on one's magic and emotions…"

Ginny sat up in her chair. "What do mean about emotions? What's that got to do with casting spells?"

"Well," Hermione continued, "The witch or wizard needs to care about the person the pensieve is intended for. See, emotion is part of how the spells and charms work. They sort of feed off of emotion essentially in order to store them."

At seeing the confused looks amongst her friends, Hermione must have realized that she hadn't cleared up anything so she tried again to explain in a better way.

"When you use a pensieve, you store memories in them, right? Well, when you watch memories you tend to feel emotions, right? That's the main component in memories, emotion. It's how the pensieve works and also why it works. Think of the emotion the maker puts into the pensieve kind of like a battery."

"Blimey, mate, Dumbledore must like you if he put enough emotion into making a pensieve that's strong enough for you to use," Ron said, his eyebrows raised high.

"Yeah," he replied a little breathless. "maybe."

"So have you even tried it yet?" asked Fred.

"Um, no, actually."

"Well come on, then!" urged George. "Run along and get it, we haven't got all day. You lot need a good bit of fun!"

Shaking his head in apprehension at the twin's idea of fun, Harry stood up to leave the room. He could see Hermione biting her lip out the corner of his eye.

"Wait!"

Harry stopped and turned around.

"It's not dangerous is it? It's only that it would be a real waste if Harry's pensieve got ruined on an account of foolishness." Hermione asked the twins.

"Us?"

"Foolish?"

"HA! We've never been foolish, especially not where rare artifacts are concerned," said Fred who winked at Hermione.

With that, Harry turned and left after nodding a look Hermione's way to let her know that he'd take care of it. When he retrieved the pensieve from his room he placed all of the unbreakable charms on it that he knew before carrying it back to the drawing room where he closed the door and placed a slightly weak silencing barrier. It would not do for just anyone to hear what might be occurring but he also didn't want the room to seem too quiet.

"You're really going to let them play with your pensieve?" Hermione asked Harry immediately after he re-entered the room.

Harry looked over to where Fred and George were. Both were smiling but Harry could that they weren't going to play a prank or anything, just have some fun.

"I trust them not to break it. They said we would use it, not play with it. Besides, I'm right here with it so they can't really do anything I'd disapprove of like playing catch with it or something stupid. I'm actually kind of eager to try it out."

"Right, then. Let's get cracking!"

"To understand how to play, you have to know that this is only a protocol of the actual game that Fred and I were trying to invent. See, we were thinking on what our next product should be-"

"-since we had already decided to broaden our stores variety of goods, we thought maybe we'd come up with something that was just fun rather than a jokesters item."

"Yes," George continued. "So we asked ourselves what was something fun that we could expand on-"

"You know, to help people relax a bit in these dark times."

"The answer to that was talking."

"But talking wasn't interesting enough so we decided that story telling was fun, yet boring enough that there was plenty of room for improvement." Fred grinned.

"But you see, we ran into a few snags. We had problems developing a way for our plan to succeed. As of right now, we can still play our game, but it requires a pensieve until we work the bugs out of our temporary product."

"Okay," Ginny smiled sitting up in her seat keenly as Harry set his pensieve in the middle of a small table that was in the center of most of the furniture.

Ron hefted his large overstuffed chair closer to the circle. Then, seeing Hermione trying to do the same, made a big show of picking the chair up completely off of the floor in order to put it next to his own near the table.

Rather than sitting crammed on the couch with Fred, George, and Ginny, Harry picked up his hard backed chair that often doubled as a punching bag and carried it to the circle.

"So!" Ron rubbed his hands together more nervous that impatient. "How do we play?"

"Well, Fred answered. "To begin with I'm going to give everyone… two cards. These cards are called "The Trump Card". We each get two based on how many of us are playing and on how long we will most likely play. These cards can be used at any time that you think another person is lying."

"Why would we lie?" Hermione frowned, obviously not liking the prospect of any type of game that condoned lying.

Both the twins shrugged. They looked at each other mischievously. One of them smirked at her and said coolly, " 'prolly to keep your dignity intact."

"My-"

"SO! The basic idea of the game is to not to embarrass yourself. See, we start by having one person ask another person a question. The person being question can tell the truth or lie. After the answer, the group votes on truth or lie." Here, George paused to wait for Fred to pull a tin of something out of his pocket. "We have taken a leaf out of Dumbledore's book and developed "Truth Drops". They're a perfect blend of lemon drops and a mild truth serum, good to insure the taker to answer only one question truthfully. After the group votes, we give the person who answered the question one of these. The question asker gets to ask that person if they told the truth or if they lied. If the majority vote was correct, then the question asker gets to pick a memory of their choosing for the group to see. At anytime, any one person can use their trump card to overrule any of the usual play in order to see the memory relating to the question. Only catch is, the trump card has to be played before we vote."

"Also, despite whoever played the trump card, the original question asker still gets to pick the memory that the question answerer has to show. Got it?"

They spent a few more moments asking questions and becoming familiar with the rules. Well, Ron, Ginny and Harry did anyway. Hermione seemed more preoccupied with inquiring about the composition of the truth drops. After a while they were ready to begin and Harry was feeling more nervous by the minute.

"Alright!" Fred clapped his hands together. "Who would like to ask the first question?"

"Well, brother, I think that we should allow young Harry that honor as we are getting to borrow his pensieve for the game."

"Too right, George. Harry? Name your first victim!"

"Err…I guess I'll pick…um…Ron."

Ron snapped his head up to look at Harry worriedly. Despite his own apprehension, Harry grinned. He wasn't the only one who was unsure of what his friends were fixing to learn about.

"Okay, Ron. Let's, see. When you put the sorting hat on your head, did it really only suggest Gryffindor?"

"Of course it only suggested Gryffindor!" Ron cried indignantly.

"Lie."

"Lie."

"LIE!"

"Definitely a lie."

There was a round of laughter at how they had all immediately voted the same way.

One of the twins reached over to offer Ron a small round yellow candy. The gangly red head examined it between his fingers for a few moments, only eating it after Ginny threatened to "help" him chew it.

"Did you lie?"

"Yes," came Ron answer.

"HA!" Ginny yelled. "Now we get to see your sorting! Right, Harry?"

Ron looked pale, gulping nervously as the twins urged him towards the pensieve. Harry told him how he reckoned the pensieve worked. Cautiously, Ron lifted his wand up to his temple and squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that his nose and brow wrinkled.

A shimmering stand that looked very delicate was extracted from Ron head and was dropped clumsily into the basin.

Grinning, Fred and George immediately hovered a hand over the pensieve and said, "On three…"

"One, two…three!"

All at once, the six of them prodded a finger at Ron's memory. After the disorientating swirling of colors and the sensation of feeling as if they had all performed somersaults, they all stood in the Great Hall. Though it wasn't nearly as clear as any of the other memories Harry had been in, it was still distinguishable. The corners of the room appeared to have a worn fuzzy look about them, much the way an old photograph would. The others, who had never been inside someone else's memory before, were gawking around at the past. Harry, instead of being floored by the amazingness of the pensieve, was in awe at the sight of his younger self. He had immediately located himself and Ron, standing in line next to each other while awaiting their sorting. When had he ever been so small? So scrawny and… sickly? His clothes, despite the fact that Madame Maulkin had specially sized them to him, seemed to swallow him, though perhaps not as much as Dudley's cast-offs had. His younger self was wearing an expression of what could only be identified as nerves and a little bit of fear. Thinking back Harry remembered feeling very apprehensive about which house he would be placed in.

The voice of his Head of House announcing the sorting rules caught Harry's attention as the first of his year mates were sorted. Just as Harry remembered, the sorting seemed to fly by. Soon, they had watched all the way through to the "G's". Harry heard Hermione's breath catch as the past version of McGonagall stated; "Granger, Hermione!" and the little girl ran eagerly to the stool.

"Were my teeth really that large?" present day Hermione asked the group as she walked up next to where her younger self was sitting down on the stool. Present Hermione's hand was in front of her face feeling at her teeth. Harry couldn't help grinning at Hermione's very uncharacteristic display of vanity.

The six of them watched Hermione's facial expressions as the hat was placed on her hat. It was then that they realized that they wouldn't be able to hear what the hat actually said as it had spoken inside of Hermione's head. The matter was solved as Hermione narrated what was being said and thought.

"Yes, yes. You are a smart one, Miss Granger. You will be an asset to the house you are placed in, but which one shall it be? Hmmm, you most certainly have a strong desire to attest your knowledge as well as learn but you most certainly seem to have enough bravery within you to stand up for yourself. Yes, I wonder which house is best. In Ravenclaw you could learn all that you wish and not be questioned. Should you like to belong there, Miss Granger?"

"I want to be sorted correctly!" Hermione explained that she had thought to the hat. "Put me where I should be, not where I want to be."

"Gryffindor!" The hat shouted instantly after Hermione had finished "thinking" her thoughts to the hat. A second later, a happy looking Hermione slid off of the stool and went to join her classmates at the Gryffindor table.

The twins shook their heads at Hermione who was beaming at having had enough personality and character to have been considered for two of the well thought about houses.

While waiting for Harry and Ron's sorting, they made idle comments on how so and so had changed over the years or, in one case, how a certain potion's professor's hair had not changed. They stopped abruptly when Harry's name was called out.

"Potter, Harry!"

An eleven year old Harry practically stumbled up to the chair as he glanced around at the people around him who had suddenly quieted down and began whispering "Harry Potter!" to each other. The present time Harry scowled as he saw once again all the elbowing and pointing that went on as he had put the hat on his head. Now it was Harry's turn to narrate to the group what the hat was saying to him.

"Hmm. Difficult. Very Difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you?"

Harry watched himself, gripping the edge of the stool, his lips moving just barely as he muttered to the hat.

"What are you saying, Harry? Ginny asked as she walked up closer to Harry, clearly hoping to hear what it was that he had been saying.

"Not Slytherin, not Slytherin," Harry repeated out loud along with his past self.

Though he couldn't tell, he could almost feel Ron raising his eyebrows.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" He related to his friends. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on you way to greatness, no doubt about that- no? Well, if you're sure- better be GRYFFINDOR!"

"Wow," Hermione said, her hand on his shoulder. "I think I understand how the sorting hat works."

"What?" Ron sputtered at her. The thought that someone could actually figure out the workings of a mad old hat must have been beyond him, Harry too couldn't help but look at her a bit skeptically.

"What? I'm not entirely certain, but…well, let me hear Ron's sorting first."

Ron was now only four or five more people away from being sorted.

"Man, this is weird," Ron muttered to Harry who nodded in agreement.

"Look at us now, Harry." Hermione said, pointing at the Gryffindor table.

She pointed to the Gryffindor table where a smug Hermione was already whispering to Percy and pointing to the bewitched ceiling. Not far from her sat Harry's younger self- staring up at the high table, still being pounded on the back by the over-enthusiastic Weasley twins, just entering their third year but looking every bit as mischievous.

"Weasley, Ronald!"

Though Ron's sorting wasn't long at all, it seemed to be the most interesting as a green faced Ron dreadingly trudged up to the stool and hat.

"Weasley, eh? Hmm. You seem like a Hufflepuff to me…" Ron translated what the hat had been saying to him. For himself he explained that what he said was, "Yeah, I guess I'll have to stick it out in Hufflepuff then."

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the next instant.

Looks of puzzlement crossed all of their faces except for Hermione as they were all gently pushed from the fading memory.

"See?" Hermione excitedly asked. "None of us were actually intended to enter the house that the hat suggests. I think when it is less than one hundred percent sure, it tosses out one of the possible house choices and determines where to put the student by the reaction. Harry, obviously did not want to go to Slytherin. He refused any of the power that he would have been given access to which in itself is a Gryffindor quality. So, the hat put him there. When the hat suggested Hufflepuff, Ron decided he would just have to accept the teasing that he would be given from his brothers and so the hat put him in Gryffindor. His courage to make it work in Hufflepuff is something that only a Gryffindor would do."

"And it put you there for the same reason as Harry. You wanted your sorting to be honest rather than just accept all the knowledge and study aides that being in Ravenclaw would have allowed you." Ginny said, having caught on.

"How did you know that I was worried about being teased if I got placed into Hufflepuff?" Ron demanded.

"It's obvious, Ron. Anyway, it's your turn now."

"Alright," Ron rubbed his chin. "Let's see…I pick Hermione."

The game continued in that fashion for a while with memories of each of them being shown. The only problem was that rather than play by the game rules they seemed much more interested in taking turns bullying each other into showing memories. Not ones to follow rules, Fred and George started just getting their victims to simply show them a memory that interested them.

"Okay, so Ginny, the memory I want most to see," George laughed, "Is how you got out of trouble with Mum that time that she caught you trying to fly Bill's broom in the house."

A hearty round of laughter rang at the idea of a young Ginny trying to maneuver a broom inside the Burrow.

"Alright," Ginny said with a smile that seemed mischievous to Harry.

Several minuets later they came out of the pensieve laughing as much as they had going in.

"That was brilliant, dear sister!" Fred praised.

"Yes," George agreed. "Who would have thought that the youngest Weasley would have been smart enough at age four to not only steal her eldest brother's broom, but to fly it… in the house!"

"Yeah, and to think to tell Mum that it was her fault that you felt you could get away with it!" Ron pitched in.

"Well, it was. She told me that the only time I would ever be allowed to fly was in familiar surroundings and while in her presence! It's not my fault she didn't notice me zooming around the kitchen until after I'd broke that vase. She really should have been more observant. I could have flown right out the window and she never would have known."

"Yes, well I do believe that's part of the reason you didn't get punished was because that cut on your finger scared her half to death. Honestly, flying directly into a vase full of flowers!" Hermione scolded but the value of it was lost by the smile on her face.

Ginny laughed for a while longer but then sobered a bit. "I pick you, Harry, but I need you to show me a memory that you probably won't want to."

Instantly Harry knew what she was about to ask. The lost look in her eyes was the same as the night that he had rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I- I need to see for myself what happened while I was…lying there."

"What are you two talking about?" Ron asked exasperated at being kept in the dark.

"Ginny wants to see my recollections of the night we went into the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said his green eyes not leaving Ginny's brown ones.

"WHAT?" The twins exclaimed.

"Do it, Harry." Ginny said. Her face was full of sincererity and resolve. It really was something she needed to know, needed to see. Harry completely understood. If it had happened to him he would feel the same way. If someone had memories of the night his parents died, Harry would want to see what had happened. He knew the need that she felt. Without a sigh or a doubt, Harry pulled the pensieve towards him and closed his eyes. He thought very clearly on all the events that had taken place that night, from sneaking away from Lockhart in the hall all the way to leaving Dumbledore's office, weary and injured. He deposited the very long, dark, silver strand into the basin. When he looked up at Ginny she had moved over to his side. She was clutching Ron's hand and looked a bit nervous.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Gin Gin?" Fred or George said in a surprisingly gentle voice.

"I have to," Ginny said simply as she reached a hand towards the pensieve.

Soon the rest of them had reached out and they all touched the surface. The dropping of his stomach told Harry to open his eyes. There he was, watching as twelve year old versions of himself and Ron convinced Lockhart to allow them to go on to the next lesson alone.

"Whoa!" Ron said as he stood next to himself. "I've grown a bit, you think?"

His rhetorical question went unanswered as they all had move to along with the past versions of themselves.

"Where are you two going?"

"What time of the day is this?"

"Did you two just persuade a teacher to slough off his guarding duties?"

"Yes," Harry said rather hotly. "We had to get rid of Lockhart so that we could go talk to Myrtle! This is the afternoon of the day that we went into the chamber."

They followed behind themselves until McGonagall approached them.

"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?" she barked.

Harry watched the grin slid right off of his twelve-year old face as he realized they'd been caught.

"We were- we were-" Ron stammered. "We were going to- to go and see-"

"Hermione," said Harry.

"But I was petrified! It does no good to talk to a petrified person! Surely McGonagall's not stupid enough to fall for that!" Hermione exclaimed. Harry caught Ron grinning at him for they both knew what happened next in this adventure.

"Of course," she said. The glimmer of a tear was still in her beady eye, just as Harry remembered it.

Hermione's jaw dropped.

"HA! Nice one, Harry."

"Yes, worthy of Weasley merit!"

"…Tell Madame Pomfrey I have given my permission."

"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."

"I dunno 'bout that anymore. You've gotten pretty good over the years." Ron insisted as they followed themselves to the Hospital Wing.

"There's just no point in talking to a petrified person," Madame Pomfrey said, making Hermione smile.

"So that's how you two learned about what was in the chamber!" said a twin moments after Harry and Ron had pried the piece of paper out of Hermione's hand.

"Yeah, you got it from Hermione. I'll have to remember that trick, might come in handy someday." said the other.

"Ron, this is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk- a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue…"

The trip down the corridor to the staffroom was taxing for the others but for Harry it felt good to be able to run in the wide open corridor. He felt…free again, almost like he felt when he was in the air on his broom.

The group of them skidded to a halt when Harry and Ron's past selves reached the staffroom.

Standing outside the wardrobe the group of them heard the same dialogue that Harry and Ron had eavesdropped on when they were twelve. Ginny Weasley had been "snatched" by the monster. Hermione and the twins issued snorts when they heard Lockhart's declaration of going to get ready.

"Yeah, right! We already know what he's going to go do."

"Yeah, leave!"

"Coward," Hermione said causing Ron to give her small smile that went completely unnoticed.

It wasn't until they had followed themselves down the piping that lead into the chamber that things started getting interesting for Harry to watch. His earlier awe at his size at a younger age had returned stronger as he watched his twelve year old self troop through the cave-like undergrounds with a determined expression on his face. It was strangely eerie to be looking at himself much like the others around him did but he couldn't deny that his twelve year old looked brave as he stepped over the fifty foot snake skin. Harry knew better, though. He knew exactly what he had been thinking and how he had felt. The worry that he wouldn't reach Ginny in time was still fresh on his mind even after three years.

"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through- it'll take ages…"

"Wait there. Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on… If I'm not back in an hour…"

Harry swallowed as the group of them followed his younger version to where Ginny was going to be.

"I'll give you all a fair warning. This might be a bit disturbing to watch. It was for me when I witnessed it anyway."

"Thanks mate," Ron said, meaning it. He grimly nodded before following the twins and Hermione into the main chamber that twelve year old Harry, visible shaking, had just opened by parsletongue.

It was as he remembered it. Dark, damp, and very dim. There she was. A small eleven year old Ginny Weasley lay on the wet stone ground, her bright red hair spread over various puddles of murky floor, staining the youthful innocence that she seemed to emit.

A small, soft hand slipped into his own as he gazed at the unconscious Ginny. Harry looked to his side to see Ginny standing there gripping his had as she too looked upon herself, lying there helpless.

"Ginny," Ron whispered as he knelt down next to his memory sister. His hand touched nothing as he tried to stroke Ginny's pale cheek.

"Ginny!" Harry heard himself say as he sprinted to where she lay. "Ginny- don't be dead- please don't be dead-. Ginny please wake up." He had said this after flinging his wand aside and was shaking the youngest Weasley in hopes of her waking.

At the same time that Harry heard himself begging Ginny to be alive in an oddly wavering voice, Ginny's grip on his hand doubled and her other hand found it's was to his forearm so that his entire left arm was being used by Ginny. Not that he minded at all. Instead of feeling irritated, Harry found a foreign comfort in having Ginny there by his side as they both faced down an old demon that had been weighing in on them for some time now.

The rest of the memory flew by. Harry watched in a daze, the shocked exclamations of Hermione, Ron, Fred, George and Ginny stinging his ears. Just as he remembered, he saw himself fend off the basilisk wearing the sorting hat. He heard rather than saw Ron wince as the Sorting Hat dropped Gryffindor's sword on top of his head. Ginny's grip on his forearm was deathlike as the battle for their lives carried on. When his twelve year old self had finally managed to drive the sword into the roof of the snake's mouth, Ginny wrung his arm so tight that he couldn't hold back a gasp of pain. Luckily, it went unheard as the others had just gasped at the sight of the basilisk fang piercing his arm.

"Oh, Harry…." Ginny whispered as she took a tentative step towards where the past Harry had fallen, good hand yanking the fang out of his forearm.

The silence in the room was startling to Harry as they all watched Tom Riddle tell Harry he only had a few more moments to live. The rest of the memory went by in an inky blur. He had brushed by death many times before but there was something about watching himself almost die that made him feel sick. His face was pale and dirty with grim from the chamber. If he hadn't known that he had already lived through this, he would have guessed that he was a goner. Just when he didn't think he could take standing there, looking at his past self, pale with exertion and poison, Fawkes saved the day. Though Ginny was still clutching his hand, her fingers had loosened around his arm. Harry looked at where their hands were intertwined. Ginny sighed softly. She released his hand but not his arm. Instead, she pushed up the sleeve of his shirt in order to look at the soft scar that remained from the horrifying events she had just seen. A finger traced along it, a ripple of slight shivers forming in its wake. Harry lifted his eyes to find her watching him closely, a few tears trickling down her freckled cheeks in the darkness. Harry stared at her face for some time before he raised an arm to wipe them away. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, when he was pulled from the memory.

Silence was all that could be heard from the drawing room for at least five minutes. Hermione too had cried at some point for there was a dried trail along her cheeks as well. Ron was close at her elbow, Harry noticed, as they stood around the pensieve still a bit dazed from the intensity of the memory. Hadn't they known that he had almost died in that memory? Hadn't they heard all about the basilisk attacking him? They most certainly had known that Ginny had almost died as well. What was it that had shocked them? The biggest question on his mind was why he was so weirded out by it all. Ginny was the only one who should be this disturbed. He especially needed to get a grip on himself.

Before anyone could even come close to being ready to talk about what they had seen, footsteps sounded in the hallway. Hermione hastily swiped the back of her hand over her face to remove the evidence of her tears. The twins shook their heads a bit to shake off the shock while Ron cleared his throat.

"You lot need to come to the table for dinner, and I mean now!" Mrs. Weasley shouted through the door.

Obediently, they all rose silently and made their way to the basement kitchen.

It was a very unusual dinner that night at Grimmauld Place. It seemed the adults knew that something was wrong between all of the teens, but nothing was said or done apart from Molly placing a hand over Ginny's forehead and claiming that she looked very pale.

It was agonizing for Harry to sit at the table and watch all the Order members exchange looks of concern while his friends picked at their plates, heads down and not a trace of their normal appetites. When it was clear that Mrs. Weasley could not force any of them to eat another bite, she dismissed them all with a look of concern. Fred and George apparated back to their flat after giving Ginny a crushing hug, a firm handshake with Harry, and a wave to the rest of those gathered.

"That was rather odd behavior from them, wasn't it?" Tonks asked out loud. Mrs. Weasley shot her a look that Harry took to mean that they were all acting out of the normal but did not challenge it. Instead he trudged up the stairs to his room where he intended to reflect on the memory so that he could get a full night's rest as he would definitely be up early the next morning in the drawing room, working out his feeling by aid of his punching bag.