Disclaimer: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (haah… yes I do… and his alter-ego Professor Caelestis). I also ooooooown (I love this word!) Venice, Jordan, and Nico. :Grin:

Author's Note: This is a short chapter. I just needed to confront Arion a tad and introduce la Black Orb. :grin:.

CHAPTER THREE WITH A FEW MINOR ADJUSTMENTS… it wasn't well edited last time, I think this version rolls along a little smoother.

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Chapter Three: Discoveries

At forty past midnight Ginny slipped out of bed and threw on a housecoat. The day had been a long, confusing, strenuous one. She wasn't even going to begin thinking about why the hell Arion had turned up at number 12 Grimmauld Place. Still, she had made Remus promise to meet her at their signature 'twelve and two thirds': the time that she, Remus, and Sirius had always originally met at back in the day. It was to become increasingly difficult to make this vigil now that Arion had moved into the house and was undoubtedly stalking her. :Sniff: She had yet to ask him what the hell was going on and maybe throw a few hexes in there along the way… difficult though, as every occupant in the house had taken a great liking to him. 'Mum included', she thought, slightly sickened. If Remus was also a fan, she would have to resort to drastic measures.

The most perturbing of the lot; however, had been Harry. He'd walked into the room behind Charlie, Ron, and the twins who had bungled in and shook Arion's hand in turn, and just stared at him. Something about Arion just made people like him apparently. Harry had quietly scrutinized him from the back of the kitchen before taking his hand in a firm grip while Ginny looked on with not a little horror. Things had taken a rather sharp hike on the perplexometer.

She remained in the kitchen to listen in on Dumbledore's welcoming speech. It went something along the lines of… They were privileged and honoured to be acquainted with Professor Caelestis who was a fully qualified auror :blah: who had recently moved from Rome to Britain :blah blah: and had a good eye on the Death Eater movements there :blaaaaah:. He would be teaching Defence at Hogwarts and offered valuable services to the Order as well as the safety of the students :blah?:. Harry, who normally took most of what Dumbledore said with a grain of salt (who could blame him after Sirius's death and the prophecy?) had surprisingly approved of Arion without a second thought.

Ginny found this most unsettling as it had taken her a good long time to get used to him in Lohengrin, albeit, he acted as though very large and very prickly cactus had worked its way up you-know-where. Which is why while Harry had exchanged polite but warm hellos, she had stood there trying very hard not to gape/gasp/splutter/cry/yell. What could she do? Confront him in front of the entire Order? She didn't even know if Dumbledore knew the truth about Arion though she had a fairly good idea.

These thoughts bombarded her as she made her way down to the back Drawing Room, a room that no one really knew about as it was so far out of the way. She crept down the stairs and behind the kitchen corridor. A side panel in the wall shifted to allow her into the servants' corridors of the house. The back Drawing Room was possibly an old retreat for the servants of the Black household… In any case, it was private, safe, and offered great access to the House Elfs' kitchen. The room was surprisingly deserted. Normally Remus would have been there already, stoking a fire in the fireplace while hot mugs of hot cocoa sat on the little coffee table. Well… it wouldn't hurt to return the favour she thought as she moved about to do the same. She had just returned from the Kitchen with two steaming cups of cocoa and a platter of pastries when she heard the door click open quietly and smiled.

"Late, Remus? Well, well, well that isn't like you –" she spun around and found herself staring at someone who was decidedly not Remus.

Arion stood before her clothed in t-shirt and shorts. :gah: Her eyes bugged a little and she looked away before catching a small smirk flit across his face. Damn it, he just had to be so gorgeous. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, annoyed to be surprised. "I have to meet someone." she said, eyeing the door. Sweet Merlin, Remus better get here soon. Raising an eyebrow (Ginny bristled at this… still, he was the only one who could raise an eyebrow at her), he gestured to the cocoa and food.

"Anyone significant?"

"A good friend."

"Oh, so he'll understand if I joined you. You know, to get to know my new 'student'." He said, smirking.

"No, he would tell you to leave if I said you were bothering me."

"Am I bothering you Ginevra?" he said with a hurt air. "And all I wanted to do was to mingle with the commoners!"

"Arion, leave." she sighed. "I don't even know what you're doing here! You can't really think you can just walk into all the aspects of my life without telling me about it, can you?" she asked.

"I suspect you have some questions." He said nonchalantly, changing the subject completely.

"Yes, naturally I do. But they're nothing we can't talk about later, so if you will… I have someone coming to meet me very soon… please." She gestured towards the door.

"He won't be along for some time."

"And I'm sure you know exactly who it is I'm meeting?" she insinuated, an edge creeping into her voice.

"Of course I do." Ginny scowled.

"Arion just leave!" she snapped. He contemplated her for a moment before striding up to her so closely there was hardly an inch between them. Ginny swallowed a tiny gasp and gazed staunchly back at him. She'd have to be cursed thrice over before she let him of all people see her unnerved… again.

"Keep in mind that while I come here mortal like every other person here, I'm still Seraph no matter what you like to think. You might not speak to me as a teacher, fine, but you will speak to me sometime, Ginevra." She sniffed. "Because you need me here. With you. You know it. And when you finally decide that your stubbornness is going to be our death, you'll come to me, and I'll be sure to roll out the welcoming wagon as warmly as you have." Ooooh, he smelled nice. Mentally smacking herself, she snapped out of her stupor.

"Of course." she said, staccato.

Arion looked her once over, a rather searing gaze and Ginny immediately felt belittled. "I'll see you, Ginevra." And with that, Arion left Ginny standing there suddenly lacking the warmth that he gave off. He smelled… he smelled like everything between summer dew and the Forbidden forest. Everything was so natural, damn it… the Forbidden Forest wasn't supposed to smell sexy!

"Argh!" Ginny willed her mind to clear. Where on earth was Remus?

Growing wearing, she left the Drawing Room to check up on the Order in the kitchen. As it were, the House Elf corridors were completely invisible to the unsuspecting magical or Muggle eye making it very convenient for Ginny to listen in and watch their conversation hardly two meters away from them. Ah, and there was Remus. Ginny frowned, he seemed angry. It wasn't that Remus was never angry, he was simply very subdued. The man had an excellent capacity of hiding emotions. So did Sirius. Ginny sighed.

She was about to creep back to the Drawing Room when a very harsh string of words caught her attention. :Whoa: That couldn't be Remus standing, glaring at the entire Order… Arion not included, with rather animalistic glimmer in his eyes.

"What are you trying to do? The entire lot of you!" came a growl, "Do you know what Sirius thought of this? He. Hated. It. Do you not understand?" he continued, voice hiking. "Harry is one boy. That's one boy against legions upon legions of evil. I know, I've seen it. Sirius saw it. The same evil that makes Harry half the person he ought to be. I've watched him every day since he's returned from Hogwarts. I don't know how the rest of you miss it, but he's not happy. There's been a whole lot of effort going on trying to get him to open up, eat more, laugh, prepare for the inevitable. Is that what you think he needs?", Remus asked, words laced with irony. "You think he'll be able to do it forever. :Haah:" he chuckled grimly. "I want you all to back off of him. He must have the summer off to recuperate, no Molly - " he said, cutting the latter off, "He hasn't gotten a day's worth of rest whatsoever. He's done nothing but stress. Have any of you ever considered the fact that he's never said 'no'? Think about that. If I asked you to give up your life to fight a war that you had no choice to be part of, would you do it?" He stood, "I'm going to bed now. The rest of you can mull over this all you want, I don't care. But you will give him the next month and a half off… I want to see results." And with that, Remus stalked out of the kitchen. Ginny scrambled back to the Drawing Room and threw herself into one of the couches just as the other door to the room opened. Think fast, Gin.

"Halo there, Remus. Hot chocolate? Scone?" she asked. "Where've you been?"

"Fight a losing battle with a bunch of idiots."

"The Order?"

"The very same."

"Well?"

"If Sirius were here, it'd be different." Ginny stiffened, Sirius.

"Yes, yes it would be." Considering for a moment, Ginny turned to Remus, "Remus? Do you think, that maybe we should just call it a night? I've had a long day, you've had a long day." Remus nodded.

"Fine. We'll do tomorrow night then. Get a bit of sleep in. I feel horrid." He had stood to go to his room when Ginny jumped up smacking a hand to her head.

"Oh! Remus, wait! I almost forgot!" Ginny reached into the pocket of her house coat and drew out some balled up socks. Remus looked at the socks and Ginny in turn before taking it. "Don't ask me, I haven't the slightest clue what it is, but I found it last night while I was packing." Remus regarded the socks warily before cautiously unwrapping it. The glassy ball fell out. In soft light of the fire, Ginny and Remus could both make out that the orb was black due to what looked like wisps of smoke floating about inside it. Light still jarred when it passed through the object. They both stood there observing the little ball. It was rather small but quite heavy.

"I don't suppose you know when you came in possession of it?" asked Remus, finally. Ginny shook her head… well she definitely didn't have it when she was packing her things on the second to last day of Hogwarts. She hadn't checked over her things when she'd gotten back to The Burrow. Actually, she had quite frankly tipped the trunk on its side and spilled all of its contents into her wardrobe quite unceremoniously… She hadn't planned on seeing the things again until the start of the next school year.

Somewhere a grandfather clocked chimed one o'clock in the morning. Remus had his wand out muttering something that Ginny couldn't hear. Ginny quietly looked on, she hadn't planned to figure the thing out by herself by any means, understanding the thing at one in the morning was slightly painful but it just nagged at her that she could swear that it looked familiar somehow.

Finally, Remus handed it back to her… "Well, if you want my opinion, I would keep it under a tight watch. Note any changes in its state." he offered. Ginny nodded and began wrapping it up in the socks again when Remus caught one in his hand and looked it over. "I don't suppose these are yours?" he asked, fingering the soft material.

"No… they're far too big. I just found the thing inside them." Remus looked pensive for a moment.

"These are familiar."

"The socks?"

"Yes." He closed his eyes as if to probe his memory. "Pity that… I was hoping to get in a good night's sleep at some point. Now, this will nag at me until I end up remembering. Superb." Remus chuckled.

"Well, I'll just keep an eye on it, then?" asked Ginny. "If you remember who's they are, you'll tell me?"

"Yes, yes, of course."

"Well then…" she paused, this could be prime time to ask a very important question. "So, how about we finish this hot cocoa and then really head up to bed? Oh, by the by, that new teacher… Caelestis…"

"Ah yes… him." Ginny rejoiced internally… answers, excellent. "He's a peculiar one. Professor Dumbledore refuses to tell me where he came from so he probably just erupted from the heavens." Ginny smiled softly at how close to the truth this was. "I think he's a genuine article though. Not many aurors out there today are of any use. Professor Dumbledore may be spot on with this one."

"Well, I suppose he's a trustworthy guy then?"

"I don't think he's harmful. He isn't saying something, but whenever he does, it won't be something horrid." Remus grinned at Ginny, "Animalistic instinct." he said by means of an explanation. Ginny heaved a huge sigh. Well… if someone like Remus trusted Arion…

"All right then. So I won't grill the poor fellow. He seems a bit young to be a professor though."

"Are you saying that I'm old?" Remus shot back.

"No, I'm saying that he's ungodly young." True, Arion didn't look a day over twenty five.

"He's twenty four." Remus said, confirming her suspicions. "I'd say he was a decent bloke. Give him a try; if he's rubbish at teaching Defence, you've got a tutor here at your disposal." Ginny grinned. The two of them drained the last of their hot cocoa before putting the fire out. Remus shuffled towards the door and held it open for her.

"Ah, so chivalry's not quite dead in Britain yet?" Ginny teased.

"Of course not, you imp. Now, off to bed with you." Remus ruffled her hair affectionately. This was why she loved Remus and Sirius so much. They knew where the line was, they just knew when to be affectionate. Ginny grinned and hugged him goodnight before traipsing down the corridor towards the stairs.

Remus watched her retreating figure and heaved a sigh. She had grown into such a lovely young woman. It really wasn't fair, this blasted war. Ginny and Harry… Ron and Hermione, all of them… they would never have a normal childhood. He heaved a huge sigh… not that he did by any lengths. Somehow, though, deep inside, Remus couldn't help but feel that these young men and women wouldn't ever want to be normal. They took whatever came at them as if it were perfectly natural. If they weren't the answer to this growing madness, he didn't know what was.

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Notes:

Arion: Is he evil? Is he good? Why's he being so shady? Why's he rubbing Ginny the wrong way? Does he like Ginny? How do you hope for Ginny to open up to a teacher figure? Eh? EH? … lol that's a funny joke… really. Let's read and find out Arion's true nature. I'll tell you this though, I like the guy.

Socks: Fluffy, thick, large socks… who on earth could those belong to? Not like the description has really narrowed down the search field… Trust me, it belongs to someone who's very much in this fic and we'll be hearing from him quite frequently.

Remus: After Sirius, Remus may be considered his lawful guardian and he's worried for Harry. The boy is caught up in figuring out how to save the world while living a life… can you blame him? The Order isn't helping either.

That was a rather short and maybe confusing chapter. I know Arion is being an ass, so is Ginny, in fact. She's being very difficult, waging a bloody war over nothing. She has mixed feelings over Arion. She doesn't know whether or not to trust him… give her some time. Once Hogwarts gets back, it'll all fall into place. Summer is always a little here and there.