(A/N: I own nothing. Except for that one id... nope, nothing at all. For the record, I am NOT JKR, as one of my reviews said I was... although I considered it a great compliment to be compared to her... No, I'm just a girl passing the time, thinking up stories about the HP world. Everything in said world is owned by JKR and... I just don't own it okay? Now, back to your irregularly scheduled chapter. More to come at the end!)

Chapter 21: Interruptions

Ron and Hermione looked as if they were discussing something important, when Ernie MacMillan opened the door to the compartment. "There you guys are. The Prefect meeting is about to start!"

Harry, who was about to start his training out of sheer boredom, shot a look at Hermione. She looked horrified that she had been so engrossed with her conversation that she had forgotten about her Prefect duties.

The two Prefects shot up. "We have to go Shade." Ron said apologetically. Hermione looked anxiously at Harry.

Harry raised an eyebrow. It sounded like they were asking permission… Harry grinned as he realized that their inner animals had affected them so much that they looked to him for guidance in every situation. Even though cats weren't normally pack animals, Hermione's long friendship with Harry and Ron, pack animals both, had changed her inner animal's feelings. She now looked to him as an Alpha just like the others.

"Go ahead. Me and Furball here will be fine." Harry smirked, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny's expression. He quickly moved to sit opposite from her.

The two other Marauders chuckled, and made their escape quickly, following Ernie out. As they closed the compartment door, Harry heard Ernie ask "Shade? Furball? What's going on?" Ron's voice floated back, "Just nicknames we gave each other over the summer."

"Furball, huh?" Ginny asked, deceptively calm.

Harry leaned back, enjoying baiting her. "Would you prefer Furry? Furball just rolls off the tongue easier."

Ginny got a wicked look in her eye. "I'm glad I roll off your tongue."

"Ginny!" Harry looked shocked.

The redhead grinned. "If you can't take it, don't dish it." She said, satisfied. That should teach him to take her seriously.

Harry paused, as if in thought. "Were we… flirting?" It was a new experience for Harry; last year's fiasco with Cho Chang made him think he was hopeless with anything girl related. He was quickly learning that Ginny Weasley was not Cho Chang.

Ginny made a show of buffing her fingernails against her shirt. "I was flirting, but I don't have the slightest idea about what you were doing." Slyly looking from the corner of her eye, she saw a small blush on Harry's cheeks. "Are you okay, Harry? You look a little… flushed." She couldn't help but show a small smirk.

Harry was a quick learner. "Sorry, it's getting a little hot in here. Maybe I should leave." It wasn't the best response, but he was still a little uncertain about this new game.

A single red eyebrow lifted upward. Ginny very blatantly looked Harry up and down, and smirked. "It's not that hot in here." Her voice was droll.

"Must be you, then." Harry replied quickly. He watched, satisfied, as Ginny's entire face turned red. While she was momentarily speechless, Harry pulled out a book from his bag, and started reading. The book was positioned as to hide his grinning face from the redhead sitting across from him.

Ginny sighed, and when Harry's eyes looked up, she bowed her head, acknowledging his victory. Following his example, she got one of her school books and started reading.

An hour later, Hermione and Ron burst into the compartment, looking frustrated and annoyed beyond measure. Harry and Ginny looked up from their books.

"Nice Prefect meeting?" Ginny questioned innocently.

"That slimy piece of…" Ron was cut off by Hermione's silencing charm. He didn't notice it until he tried to talk to Harry and realized that no sound was coming out of his mouth.

Hermione met Ron's glare measure for measure. "There is no use in getting Shade and Firefur all riled up. We will tell them what happened very calmly."

Ron slumped in defeat. Seeing his agreement, Hermione removed the spell.

Harry raised his eyebrow. "I take it Malfoy is still a Prefect?" He asked calmly, although his hand gripped his wand very tightly.

Two deep, frustrated sighs were his answer. "Yeah mate, he is. Don't know why Dumbledore kept him, though." Ron looked glum. "And the slimy git kept acting as if he'd been crowned King of England. He even tried to run the meeting himself!"

Hermione practically threw herself down next to Ginny, clearly frustrated. "We didn't get anything done thanks to Malfoy. For a whole hour! I hope that he gets sacked!"

Before anyone could say anything, the compartment door opened, and an unfortunately familiar blonde entered. "Oh, so this is where the stench is coming from. Hey Crabbe, Goyle, it was just as I thought! Two Mudbloods and two pieces of trash!"

Malfoy took one step into the compartment, reaching for his wand. Harry was faster, and didn't need a wand. Malfoy was now the proud owner of a broken nose.

"Malfoy, how are you? Nice day, isn't it?" Harry said pleasantly, a smile on his face as he rubbed his knuckles. When Malfoy reached for his wand again, Harry whirled and kicked Malfoy in the stomach. The blonde went flying back, out of the apartment.

Crabbe and Goyle moved forward, but Harry simply raised an eyebrow. "Although your looks are criminal enough, you haven't yet done anything wrong. Either move yourselves from this compartment, or I will be glad to make you move." The tone of his voice was ice cold. Crabbe and Goyle showed extreme intelligence in moving out of the way.

Harry stalked over to an agonizing Malfoy, and crouched down, staring the blonde in the eyes. "I'll be nice, and give you a few tips. First, don't be rude. I'll be upset, and that would cause a repeat of what I just did to you. Second, don't insult my friends. That tends to make me angry, and you don't want to see me angry. Last, don't insult my parents. That makes me pissed-off. You won't survive when I'm pissed-off. Follow those rules, and you just might live 'til the end of the year." He smiled when he saw the fear in Malfoy's eyes.

Then, he turned to Crabbe and Goyle. "You may take him and leave, now." Harry said in an obvious dismissal, and the two bodyguards got the message. They picked up a groaning Malfoy, and left farther down the train.

The raven-haired teen flexed his fingers, and walked calmly back to his compartment, seemingly ignoring the crowd that had gathered, as well as his friends' awe-struck expressions. Flopping down in his original seat, he inspected his hand, and frowned. "Damn, I think I might have a slight bruise coming on! Stupid bastards and their hard-headed skulls!"

"Language, Shade!" Hermione's instincts kicked in. After she said that, she blinked, shook her head quickly, and scowled at Harry. "Why, oh why, did you have to fight with Malfoy?"

Ron looked at Harry with something akin to hero-worship in his eyes. "Bloody hell, Shade, that was awesome! Could you teach me?"

Ginny also added in her two cents. "That's what I like in a man… always willing to protect his lady!" The youngest Weasley looked around in the silence that followed her words. "What?"

"I protect my Pack, plus I wanted to teach Malfoy a lesson, yes, I'll teach you, and I thought you liked a man's tongue, Ginny." Harry leaned back.

"What?" Came from three throats. Harry grinned mischievously. "I fought with Malfoy because I'm supposed to protect my Pack and its honor, and I wanted to teach Malfoy the dangers of being a jackass. Yes, I'll teach you Ron, I'll work a schedule out with you later. Ginny, I believe earlier you were enamored with tongues in a man. Has that changed?"

More silence followed. Then Ron looked at his sister and Harry, head darting back between the two. "Tongues? Harry, you'd better not have been corrupting my sister!"

Harry linked his hands behind his head, and smirked. "I'm not the one doing the corrupting. Ask Ginny about her tongue-fetish, though, not me." Once more, Ginny Weasley turned a bright shade of red. Harry couldn't resist one last parting shot. "What's a matter, Ginny? You look… flushed. Should I leave?"

Ginny, if possible, turned redder.

There had been three hours, forty-one minutes, and fifty-eight seconds of peace in the compartment, when the door slid open. Harry looked up, and smirked. "Why, hello Professor Dumbledore! What brings you to the Hogwarts Express?"

Before the Headmaster could open his mouth, Ginny spoke up. "I bet he's here about Fawkes. Are you going to tell us now?" She, and the other students in the compartment, looked eagerly at Harry for the story.

"I'm surprised you haven't told them yet, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

Harry shrugged, his eyes twinkling back. "Timing is everything, Headmaster. That... and I wanted to have sufficient shock value."

Dumbledore nodded, sagely. "True. Will you tell us now, Mr. Potter? I'd like to hear the story about what you did to Fawkes in your own words."

The raven-haired teen leaned back, and smirked. "Sure, although you might want to take a seat, Professor." Dumbledore sat down, and leaned forward, as if to better hear Harry's story.

Story/Flashback

Harry flamed back to the Chamber, where Fawkes was drunkenly swaying. "H-hello Harry! Whatsh you doin' hurr?"

"I'm sobering you up, you drunken excuse for a Phoenix. Can you even stand up?" Harry asked angrily. He really liked the Phoenix, but Fawkes could've endangered his friends. Besides, no one really knew how alcohol affected Phoenixes. Well, of course, no one had ever had the chance, before now.

Fawkes dipped his head, and looked in almost surprise at the sight of the rest of his body lying on the floor. "Well, would you lo-ok a' tha'?" He said, bemused.

A spark of mischief welled up in Harry. He swooped, grabbed Fawkes with his talons, and flamed away.

Pause

"Mr. Potter, what exactly were you at this time?" The others looked up in annoyance at the interruption. Harry sighed.

"To make a long story short, I can transform into a Phoenix."

Dumbledore looked fascinated. "May I hear the long story?"

"No." Harry said tersely. "Now, may I continue?" Dumbledore looked around, and seeing the irritated faces of the others, he sighed, and nodded his head.

Resume Story/Flashback

The two Phoenixes appeared in the sky over Hogwarts. Fawkes looked startled. He was even more so, when Harry looked at the lake with a glint in his eyes. Calling on his magic, Harry directed his focus to what he knew was a particularly deep spot.

Short seconds later, Fawkes was taking a swim in the Hogwarts lake, in a spot that had a very powerful Freezing Charm recently cast on it.

Harry went and hovered over Fawkes' point of entry. He waited patiently, and sure enough, a spluttering Fawkes made his way to the surface. "How are you now?" At the sputters, Harry sighed, and pushed the other down again. It took less time for Fawkes to rise. "I'll ask you again. How are you now?"

"I'm cold, wet, and I think that I'm about to throw up." Fawkes shook his head, and reached a talon up. Harry grinned, and took it, pulling the Phoenix from the water. "In other words, you're all right."

On the shore, Harry changed back into human form, and looked curiously over at Fawkes. The Phoenix had just finished puking up lake water, and whatever was left in his stomach. "So, how and why in the world did you get so drunk?"

Fawkes sighed. "Well, as to the how, I drank copious amounts of Firewhiskey in a miniscule amount of time. As to the why…"

Before he could explain why he got so drunk, they were joined by Hedwig. "I thought I saw a capsized Phoenix in the lake. Why was Fawkes trying to swim?"

Harry chuckled. "It was more of a forced dunking, Hedwig. Fawkes here got totally and completely smashed. This was my way of sobering him up."

Fawkes sighed, as Hedwig tried to smother her laughter at the sodden Phoenix. "As I was saying before we were rudely interrupted, Harry, this little owl is the reason I got sloshed."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Oh really? Do tell." Beside him, Hedwig started shaking.

"She didn't understand anything about humans, and I had to… err… give her The Talk."

Fawkes expected some laughter, but Harry's reaction was ridiculous. The teen looked at the owl, a smile forming on his face. Hedwig ruffled her feathers and her eyes were laughing. Then, Harry started howling with laughter, rolling on the ground. Hedwig wasn't far behind.

"Will either of you tell me what in the world is so funny?"

"Fawkes, my friend, you've been royally had!" Then, Harry started laughing again.

It took a few minutes before Harry had calmed down enough to tell Fawkes the truth, although he still sniggered while he was explaining. "Hedwig and I have always been close, even before mindspeech. Sometimes, I could even tell what she would say, if she were human. One day, during the summer after third year, Hedwig caught me… um, yeah; let's just say she was curious. So, I explained everything to her. Shortly after the council gave me the gifts, we had a long talk, and she was able to ask questions she couldn't before. It was a long, embarrassing talk, but I can assure you, before we even entered the Chamber, she was fully knowledgeable about every aspect of The Talk."

Needless to say, Fawkes was shocked.

Awkward Pause

"So then what happened?" Ginny asked awkwardly. Harry had paused, blushing as he told that last part, and silence had descended.

Harry, still with red on his cheeks, raised his hand to the back of his head, mussing his already messy hair as if to find some comfort in the motion.

Resume

Fawkes shook his head. "Why am I not drunk again?" He asked himself out loud.

Harry, still sniggering, shook his head. "Because I dunked you in icy cold water?" He answered innocently.

The Phoenix thought about that. "That's not good." With that, the firebird flew away, and came back seconds later with a bottle of Firewhiskey. "Could you open this for me, Harry? I feel the excessive need to drink a lot in a short period of time."

Hedwig was about to take the bottle away from Fawkes, when Harry grabbed it, and opened it. He gave the bottle back, and watched as the Phoenix started on the big bottle.

"Why in the world are you letting him get drunk again?" Hedwig asked. Fawkes took another drink and Harry grinned at his owl. "Once he gets smashed, we can make sure he will never want to get that way again. And I have a few ideas…"

End Story/Flashback

Dumbledore sighed. "Am I supposed to believe you tied up Fawkes with some Muggle 'Ducked Tape', dipped him in tar, covered him with neon pink chicken feathers, made him into a weather vane, and put him on top of the North Tower, all for his own good?"

Silence reigned once more in the compartment, as the occupants turned and stared at Harry with varying emotions. Ron stared in a bit of awe, and Ginny looked downright gleeful. Hermione glared at Harry in disapproval.

Harry allowed one corner of his mouth to turn up. "Um, yeah. Oh, and it's 'Duct Tape'"

Dumbledore shook his head, speechless, and left. When he was safely away at Hogwarts, he went up to the Tower, where he could join the crowd of teachers staring at the spectacle. Then, and only then, did he allow himself to snigger.

An hour away from Hogwarts, the compartment door opened, and Luna and Neville entered to a loud, noisy argument.

"…progress from organic to non-organic material is unnecessary!" Hermione argued.

"Um, that meant from something that once lived to something never was alive, right?" Ron threw in, looking a bit confused.

"What in the world is going on in here?"

All four of the people that were sitting down shot their heads up. "Oh, hello Neville, Luna! Come on and sit down!" Ginny enthused.

The pair cautiously took their seats, and Harry leaned towards them. "In answer to your question, Neville, we've been talking about Transfiguration. Hermione here says that going from organic to non-organic is harder than simply going from… say, small organic to large organic. I say it's the same difficulty."

"And Ron's actually participating in this conversation?" Neville blurted out. As his mind caught up with his mouth, he blushed, and covered the offending body part with his hands.

Ron scowled, and the rest of them had a good chuckle.

Harry was smiling. "Actually, he started this whole thing. He asked Hermione and me if it were possible to really transform a bird into a weather vane. Then, it kind of degenerated from there."

Luna nodded, as if everything made sense, but Neville looked confused. "Do I even want to know why Ron was asking that question?"

From the peals of laughter after that question, Neville gathered that he didn't, really.

The train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station, and the eager students on board the Hogwarts Express poured out. The first years started migrating towards Hagrid's booming voice, and the returning students made their way to the carriages.

Harry stepped out, and looked fondly at the scene of chaos in front of him. He glanced briefly at the thestrals, and saw that some others were staring at the previously invisible animals. The summer had been a hard one for many of the students… Voldemort had been quite active.

The other members of the Ministry Crew, as the papers were calling them, gathered behind Harry's back. "Are you ready, Harry?" Ginny asked him. She paused, and realized that her question was somewhat ambiguous. "Er, I meant..." The redhead trailed off, as Harry's mouth curved upwards.

"Yes, I am." Unconsciously, Harry's body took a firm stance as he looked towards the building of Hogwarts. His eyes sparkled, and his head lifted, and his friends wondered at how leader-like their… leader had become. He looked like a hero of old, the kind that appears in storybooks.

Or, he did until he spotted something that made him burst out laughing. At his friends' questions, he lifted his arm and pointed. They couldn't help but laugh, and it started a chain reaction among the other students.

There, standing proudly on the top of the tallest tower of Hogwarts, a neon pink and vaguely bird-like weather vane swayed in the wind.

Okay, okay, I know, this is way late... Let me explain before you bring out the torches and pitchforks... shudder

First, I graduated from High School (3 cheers for me!). I'll tell you though, that last month was rough, with me trying to pass and all. Plus, all the grad parties, and saying goodbye to some friends that I've known for four years... So yeah, the end of May through mid-June was hectic... and sad... ,-(

Then, from mid-June until now, I (actually) got a job... Shock to me too... So, I wasn't really thinking about BL, more about the nice, lovely, beautiful paychecks that are now coming into my life every two weeks.

Last... life kinda stepped in, and I had to pay a bit more attention to it than BL. Let me warn you, college is coming up soon, and I will need to concentrate on that... occasionally ;-)

BUT! Let me assure you all, I WILL NOT ABANDON BL! If, God forbid, that I ever decided that I needed to, I would post something up on my profile, or on the story itself. But that's not happening anytime soon!

On the plus side, I did start a Yahoo! Group... the link is here: http/groups. I figured that since there's so much time between updates, I could at least start up some communication between me and BL lovers! I do check it everyday, so check it out, and who knows? Maybe I'll share some BL-related stuff, or make an important announcement... Who knows? Well, me, obviously, but I meant other than me ;-)

Okie dokie, just one more thing. I don't know when the next update will be. Sorry... it's just... job, life, school... those things are so time-consuming! But I will not make it an entire year before I post the next chapter, and that I can promise.

That it! Hopefully I'll be seeing you on my group, and I'll keep in touch! Love you all loads!

Ceres K.