All characters are property of JK Rowling and I do not make a profit from this story.

Beta: Roman's Sundial

Chapter Eight: The New Inductee

Ginny Weasley - Present Day

November 4, 1999

"I am here from the Order of the Phoenix," Ginny said, standing in front of the guard at Nurmengard. Based on her brother's conversation, this guard was supposed to be a git, which, Ginny hoped, would be enough for her to trick him for some information. All she knew was that something had happened to George, Pius Thicknesse was up to something, and there's something important at Nurmengard. It was time for her to find out exactly what it was.

"Th-the order?" The guard stammered. "But someone already came! There's nothin' else ter see!"

"I believe that is up to us to decide if we are finished or not," Ginny replied confidently. "Now, take me there, please." She hoped that the guard wouldn't ask anymore questions as she didn't know where "there" was. Luckily, the guard stood up and took her to the back of the prison. They walked for several minutes until they arrived at the prison cemetery. The guard led her to an empty grave.

"We are fillin' it terday, ma'am," he told her.

"You may fill it when I am finished." Ginny crouched down and looked into the grave. She couldn't see anything at all; The Order must have already taken any evidence left behind. She did not see a headstone anywhere and knew she couldn't chance asking who it belonged to as it would blow her cover. She tried a different tactic. "Take me to this prisoner's old cell," she told the guard.

"His cell?" he repeated. "There ain't nothin' there!"

"I still wish to see it." The guard looked at her as if she were crazy and Ginny held her breath. Miraculously, the guard decided that he didn't want to argue with what he thought was an Order member, and so he led her back inside the prison. It was a short walk before he stopped in front of an empty cell. Just as he had told her outside, there really was nothing to see. "Tell me the history of this cell," Ginny told him. "Who were all the prisoners that stayed here?"

"The history?" asked the guard. "I don't know that far back. Grindelwald was here for years an' years wasn' he? Before that was a long time ago ma'am, I would have to check the records."

Grindelwald? "And nobody was here after Grindelwald?"

"No ma'am, just him. From here, he was buried when You-Know-Who killed 'em, and then one day he was gone. That's all I know." Ginny was deep in thought. So, the Order was dealing with Grindelwald. Could he really be alive? "Do you want me ter check the books?" the guard asked her.

Ginny looked up at him. "No, I'm done here, thank you." And with that, Ginny left Nurmengard with her new information and set off on her next task.

Harry Potter - Present Day

November 4, 1999

"Hello, Harry," came the soft voice from behind him. He was expecting her of course, but felt awkward nonetheless.

"Essa, how are you?" He asked her.

"I'm okay, how are you?"

"Brilliant, yeah," Harry replied. He looked down and scratched his head.

"This doesn't need to be awkward," she told him.

Harry smiled at her. "Yeah, you're right, we're friends. And as your friend, I could use your help." Essa nodded and listened. "Well, you know the Order of the Phoenix is still in place, and at one point you wanted to join."

"I still do."

"Fantastic," Harry replied. "There's a job that I could really use your help on. I can't explain until you're inducted and all proper procedures are put into place but there's really nobody else for the job."

Essa smiled again. "I would love to help, gives me something to do." Harry looked at Essa and noticed that she was looking at her feet. Yeah, he thought, this was awkward.

"Er, he's going through a lot right now, something happened to George." Essa looked up with concern.

"What happened, is he okay?"

"He's alive, but... well, I can explain once we get to headquarters." She nodded in response. There was an awkward silence brewing between the two.

"Is Ginny being inducted, too?" Essa finally spoke.

Harry shook his head. "That's probably never going to happen."

Essa smiled a little. "She's going to kill you," she told Harry.

"Yeah, I know," he laughed. "But I know what I'm doing." His thoughts went to his missing invisibility cloak and he frowned. He knew what he was doing but had no clue what she was up to.

"So, shall we go?" Essa asked him.

"Yeah, I'll do side along apparition, come on." Essa grabbed hold of Harry's arm and he apparated them right outside of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Currently though, all they could see was number 11 and 13; number 12 ceased to exist. "Before we go," Harry told her, "once you're in, there's really no turning back and I won't lie to you, it's dangerous."

She smiled at him. "I'm not Ginny, you don't need to protect me." Harry didn't know how to respond. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.

"Read it and destroy it," he told her. He watched her read the parchment then pull out her wand.

"Incendio," she chanted, burning the piece of paper. At once, a house appeared in between houses 11 and 13, a large number 12 plastered on the door. "Wow," Essa breathed silently. The pair entered the house together and closed the front door behind them.

"Welcome to headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Essa!"

Ron Weasley - Present Day

November 4, 1999

Ron sat in the drawing room of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, silently arguing with himself. The members of the Order were arriving for the weekly meeting and they slowly started to gather around him. His thoughts, however, were on Christmas. It was a few weeks away and he needed to wrap up his shopping. (Or better yet, start it). Shopping for Harry and his family was easy, but he wasn't sure if he should get Jessica anything. He made sure she knew he wasn't into that serious relationship thing, just casual, so did that mean he could skip out on the gift? And what about Hermione? Before they ever hooked up, they were best friends, so should he get her a gift? He tried to recall if he had gotten her one last year. No, he did not, how could he, after she cheated on him with Malfoy? But she had gotten him something. As the room continued to fill up, all the chatter brought him out of his thoughts. He looked around and noticed that nearly everyone was present, and the only person who was missing was Harry.

"Kingsley," Minerva McGonagall said to the man on Ron's right. "Potter needs you in the hallway, he has a new member for you to induct."

"New member?" Ron asked. "Who?"

"Perhaps you should ask Mr. Potter," McGonagall told him. Ron got up and looked into the hall; There was no mistaking that long white-blonde hair.

"Harry!" Ron started to yell. Harry came hurrying into the room and backed Ron up into a corner.

"Ron, listen to me," he started at once before Ron could say anything. "I need a spy in France and nobody here has a good enough reason to be there. I can't ask Fleur, because she's pregnant. I need Essa. Please try to understand, it's for the good of the Order, we must defeat Grindelwald!"

Ron scolded at Harry. "Some friend you are," he said as he brushed past him, purposely bumping hard into Harry's shoulder. The meeting started a few moments later with Essa present in the room, being briefed on what was going on. Ron stared at her, but she made a good habit of not looking at him at all.

"So we need you to tail Thicknesse," Harry was telling her. "He keeps throwing the tail off in France, and we think it's because he knows none of us have a purpose in being there, so he reckons he's being followed. But you have family there so you won't be out of place, and I don't think he would suspect you to be working with us."

Essa nodded. "No problem," she said.

"Anybody figure anything out about my brother yet?" Ron interrupted. He didn't care about tracking people in France, he cared about finding a solution to George's current situation. Nobody answered. He watched everyone divert their eyes or start to fidget. "Anybody?" He asked again, louder.

"Ron, we've exhausted all of our sources at this point," Helen started to say.

"Can't have, we are missing something." Ron shouted.

"So George is frozen?" Essa asked.

"Not literally, he's basically lifeless at the moment," Hermione told her.

"Could he be frozen though?" Essa asked.

Ron looked up at her. "My brother isn't melting," he said sarcastically. He didn't have time for such stupid conversations.

"I just mean that maybe his vital organs are frozen, like his heart and lungs, that's why he's lifeless but not dead," she explained.

"If he was frozen, that would give us so much more to work with!" Hermione said eagerly. "We need a sample of his blood, to test it. Essa may be on to something!" At once, McGonagall grabbed a vial and hurried upstairs to where George was laying, with Molly right behind her. Everyone was silently waiting for their return. About ten minutes later, McGonagall returned holding the vial above her head, with a teary-eyed Molly beside her.

"Nothing!" McGonagall said. "He has no blood, it's empty!"

Ginny Weasley - The Past

June 24, 1999

Ginny walked up towards the destroyed house in Godric's Hollow. She didn't flinch as she watched it shift, removing the muggle-repellant charms as there was a witch standing in front of it. Although the muggle world now knew about the wizarding world, many things were still kept a secret. Ginny had been here before with Harry when he took her to visit his parents at the grave yard. The emotional visit had then led them to the house where Harry was born and his family was destroyed. Ginny had only been here once before, however; Harry liked to keep his Godric's Hollow visits private and Ginny respected that. It was his time to spend with his parents privately. Harry however had been acting strange lately. The week before he had gone to Gringott's to visit his vault and came back a very different person. Ginny couldn't figure out what he could have possibly found in his vault to upset him, but since then he had been at Godric's Hollow everyday. She had first apparated near the cemetery, but after paying a visit to Mr. And Mrs. Potter's graves, she discovered that Harry was not there. That only left one other place. She frowned when she arrived at the Potter's old home; She was certain Harry would have been here. Suddenly, movement in the top floor's window had caught her attention. When looking at the house, the entire upper wing on the right hand side was destroyed beyond repair. Where there should have been a wall and a corner beam, there was an enormous hole. The window frame hung from its original place by a mere thin piece of aluminum and the roof had caved in to the room. Looking into the hole, nothing could be seen except for debris, but Ginny knew from the stories that it would have been Harry's nursery, and the place where his mother had lost her life. The left side of the house, however, was intact and there was definitely someone moving inside of it. Taking a deep breath and readying her wand, Ginny silently entered the house. She slipped in through the front door and looked around. To her right was nothing but debris; it looked as if the blast that occurred upstairs all those years ago had affected the bottom floor as well. To her left was what seemed to be a drawing room, although now it was covered in so many layers of dust it could have been a lavatory for all she knew. In front of her was a staircase that lead upstairs, as well as a long hallway that lead to the back of the house's main floor. She heard more noise coming from upstairs. The stairs seemed to be sturdy enough and so once again she drew in a deep breath and made her way up to the top. The stairs slightly turned as she ascended and ended near the blasted room. A large hole in the ground stopped her from silently walking across the room and she therefore had to leap to the opposite side, outside of the room where the intruder was. Instantly there was a wand in her face.

"Ginny?"

"Harry!" Ginny said, instantly relaxing and lowering her wand.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"Looking for you! What are you doing here? This isn't safe!"

"It's stable," Harry responded.

"No, it isn't!" She said urgently, "we should leave!"

"It hasn't collapsed yet," Harry told her, "and I've casted some reinforcement spells to ensure that it doesn't."

"You've been here before?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Several times."

"Why?"

"Because, Ginny," Harry hesitated. "This was my home. This was the only place I was ever with my parents. Voldemort may have destroyed my room, but my parents' house still stands, as do all of their belongings. This is all I have left and I want to know everything I can about them." Ginny said nothing, she couldn't even begin to imagine what it must feel like for Harry and she, too, would want to know as much as possible if it were her.

"What room is this?" she asked him.

"My parent's bedroom, I think," he told her. "There's a bed and I don't think it's a guest room because there are clothes in the closet. They're filthy, of course, and mostly torn to shreds thanks to rodents, but I think this is my Dad's old Quidditch robes, look!" Harry grabbed a dirty cloak out of what Ginny supposed was the closet and showed him. It was completely grey and black from dirt and dust, but sure enough, she could make out the Gryffindor logo as well as the name "POTTER" along the back.

"He was chaser, wasn't he?" Ginny asked him.

"Yeah," Harry smiled. He looked out towards what would have been his room. "That's where my Mum died," he said, "and where the curse backfired."

"The room is destroyed," she said. "How on earth did Hagrid get you out?"

"Don't know, but Sirius was here too. I reckon he brought me out."

Ginny grabbed his hand. "We should go."

"You go, I'll be back soon, I need to do this, Ginny." She smiled in agreement. Harry had lost so much in this house, and who was she to take this from him, when it really was all he had?

"Okay, be safe." He walked her to the front door to ensure she got out safely. She started to walk away but then turned to look at him. "What did you find in your vault to make you come searching for more?" she asked him.

Harry smiled in response. "I'll show you one day."

Author's notes: I received a few reviews and a few private messages about Harry and Ginny's relationship. I am glad that people are picking up on the fact that Harry is different. This is post-war and what he went through has in fact changed him very much. (You'll see the progression through "past" scenes) there is also a reason that he is treating Ginny the way that he is and that will be addressed. But don't worry, we all know how strong our Ginny is, she's not going to put up with it!