Chapter 9

Forgiving

"She found you going through her personal belongings and you are upset that she isn't paying attention to you?" Hermione asked Harry a week later in the Great Hall. She was referring to Jenna who, ever since she had found Harry going through her diary, had turned most of her attention to Ron and barely even looked at Harry anymore. Harry looked at his plate with a frown.

"Yes, I mean I promised I would make it up to her so why wouldn't she pay attention to me?" Harry asked even though he knew the answer.

"Harry, Harry, Harry" Hermione said shaking her head, "As a guy, you probably don't realize this, but you just can't read a girl's diary. It is where she keeps her secrets and thoughts. It isn't like Tom Riddles diary; Jenna doesn't want you to read hers. She obviously has important things in there. You can't just expect her to automatically forgive you for invading her privacy."

"I said I was sorry," Harry said, and then he frowned knowing this was not the best argument he could come up with.

He glanced jealously over at Ron who had Jenna's undivided attention.

Ron must have said something funny because Jenna's face broke out in a radiant smile and she started laughing. Ron laughed also with a foolish grin on his face not paying attention to Harry's jealous glares.

Harry looked away from them and back at Hermione who was frowning at him.

She shook her head and said, "Look, just sitting there isn't going to fix anything; if you want to be her friend or anything else for that matter you had better do something." She was obviously getting annoyed by Harry's complaining. He knew that, but he wasn't sure what to do to.

"Well what am I supposed to do? You're a girl what would you want me to do if I went through your diary?" Harry asked. He knew he was being self-centered right now, but she was his friend; and he couldn't understand why she wasn't helping him.

"Well if I found you going through my diary I would want you to stick your head under water and let me count to a million, you know, to make it even; but that's just me." Hermione said.

"Wow! What kind of stuff did you write in there?" Harry asked.

Hermione sighed, "I was joking Harry" she said, "I don't really know what you should do, it depends on what Jenna wants and how important her secrets are. Just please do something, those two are nauseating."

Then she stood up and walked away from the table. Harry looked at Jenna and his best friend, or at that moment his worst enemy, Ron. Then he followed Hermione out of the Great Hall.

On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, Harry passed many other house members who asked him questions about Quidditch.

"Harry, have you set the date for Quidditch try-outs?" One of them asked.

"Do you think I could make the team?"

"Are you still going to have Ginny on the team even though you guys broke up last year?"

Harry answered the same to each question, "I don't know but I'll get back to you."

Harry really hadn't given much thought to Quidditch yet; he knew he would have to set the try-out date soon if he wanted to have his team ready for the first practice.

When Harry walked in to the common room he noticed Jenna curled up in an armchair. She must have gone there while he was talking to everyone in the hallways. She was reading, totally unaware of what was going on around her.

He sat down across from her and looked at his hands, aimlessly folded; here was his chance.

He just looked at her for a few minutes working up the courage to speak. He remembered this feeling; he had felt almost the same way around Cho, except Jenna was different than her. She was mysterious and irresistible. But he couldn't take any chances; even thinking like that was dangerous knowing that Voldemort was alive, and would try to take away anything and anyone that he loved. Besides, he doubted that Jenna would let him even stand close to her let alone-. Well he didn't want to think about that right now so he put the subject to rest and focused on trying to talk to Jenna.

"Jenna can you please just talk to me, tell me what I have to do" he said hoping that this was the right way to go.

Jenna looked up from her book surprised.

"What do you mean?" She asked then looked down at her book again.

"What I mean is, you haven't been paying attention to me for a week and I want to know how I can fix that. I hate to think I did something to make you hate me."

Jenna sighed, she put down her book and looked at him, "Okay" she said, "If you want to make it up to me, meet me here tonight at 5:00, I don't have any classes which means you don't either."

"Okay." Harry said looking into her eyes to see if he could read anything from them; but as usual they told nothing, "Why?"

"You'll see," Jenna said. With that she got up and left leaving Harry to wonder why she wanted him there.

Harry arrived in the common room at exactly 5:00 and found Jenna sitting in the armchair waiting for him. She had heard the portrait open and after seeing Harry, she motioned to the chair across from her. He sat down and waited for her to speak.

"Harry" Jenna said at last, "Although this may seem strange to you I have a very good reason for what I want you to do."

"Okay" Harry said slowly, "What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to tell me everything that has happened with Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape while you have been at Hogwarts" Jenna said, her face serious.

Harry had to admit, this was strange. Why did she want to know that? Besides did they have time for 7 years worth of information?

"Well I don't know if I can remember everything" Harry said choosing his words carefully, for he didn't want to upset Jenna and ruin his chance at redemption by declining her request.

"Just tell me what you remember," Jenna said. So Harry did. He told her of all of the wisdom Dumbledore had shared with him, all of their exciting adventures. He talked about his relationship with Snape and how they both hated each other. Then he told her of his encounters with his arch-enemy Voldemort, the constant threats, and the near-death experiences he had faced.

Jenna sat beside him taking it all in. When he finished it was about 8:00. Jenna still had many more questions to ask him.

As she asked them, Harry answered as best as he could all of the time wondering why she wanted all of this information. Her favorite subject was the tri-wizard tournament, which she asked dozens of questions about. Most of them concerning Voldemort, but a few were about random things like how he faced the challenges such as the dragons.

Finally the questions stopped and they sat in silence. Harry watched Jenna; he could tell she was thinking about everything he had told her, sorting out all of the information. Harry asked himself the same question over and over again, why? Why did she want to know all of his?

He decided to ask her, "Why is this so important to you? How come you need to know this?"

"Well, I needed more information to prove my theory" Jenna replied.

"Your theory? What is your theory?" Harry asked.

"My theory is" Jenna said slowly, "That Dumbledore is not dead."