"Gin, I'm sure you're mum isn't mad at you." Hermione told her friend, who was crying in her arms. "It's just, she wasn't expecting that kind of news. You're her little girl, and now you're being taken away from her." She was talking quietly, willing herself not to cry too.
"She hates me!" Ginny said as another way of sobs overcame her. "They all hate me!"
"No they don't." Hermione tried to calm her. As small knock sounded at the door.
"Come in." Hermione called to them and Harry stuck his head around the door. He too, had tears rolling down his face, and his left eye was beginning to swell.
"Ginny?" He said coming over to stand by her and Hermione, both of whom were sitting on Ginny's bed. Ginny jumped up and put her arms around Harry's neck, crying into his shirt.
"What happened to your eye?" Hermione asked him, coming up to examine it.
"Ron." Harry told her simply. He picked Ginny up and sat down on the bed with her in his lap. "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay!" Ginny muffled voice wailed. "My entire family hates me!"
"They don't hate you Ginny. You want to know what Ron told me, right after he punched me in the eye?"
"What?" She asked looking up at him.
"He told me if I didn't take care of you, I'd be in St. Mungo's. He does care, so does everyone else. I've just got done having a nice long talk with your dad."
"He's not mad at you is he?" Ginny's sobs had stopped, but she still had tears rolling down her face.
"He seemed upset that we're in this position, but other than that? Not really." Harry looked up to see Hermione returning with some ice for his eye.
"Put this on your eye before it swells closed." Hermione told him, handing him the ice wrapped in a towel.
"How bad is it?" Ginny asked him, getting up so he could shift into a more comfortable position.
"I'll live." Harry shrugged.
''
Arthur and Molly sat at the kitchen table; the sun had already disappeared behind the trees in the window.
"How could they?" Molly asked, looking to her husband for an answer.
"It could be worse. It could always be worse." Arthur got up and walked to the window, looking up at the stars that were appearing one by one in the quickly darkening sky.
"We'll have to have a talk with the boys. I hear Ron has blacked Harry's eye."
"It's going to take a while for them to forgive Harry."
"I'm just hoping none of them commit murder." Mrs. Weasley said, shaking her head.
''
Sirius ran the way to the headmaster's office, singing all the while. He encountered a few students, who gave him weary glances, but continued on their' way none the less. When he reached the hall with the stone gargoyle, he dropped to his knees, and assumed hi combat stance. Providing his own theme music, crouched down the hall, as if the stone gargoyle were his enemy, and must be taken down. As he got close he rolled to the other side of the hall, before jumping out and screaming the password. He then quickly ascended the stairs, and leaped through door at the top.
"Mr. Black I would like to thank you for forcing me to change my password, yet again. Though I was growing tired of that one." Dumbledore said with his back turned toward the door. Sirius' jaw dropped in amazement.
"How did you know it me?"
"I know everything Sirius." Dumbledore answered, turning around and smiling at him.
"Stupid old people," Sirius muttered under his breath, "Gotta ruin all the fun."
"Why don't you have a seat?" He motioned to a wooden chair. Sirius skipped over to it, and stopped to examine the left armrest before nodding and planting himself firmly into it.
"You really should consider getting new furniture." Sirius told him while giving him a look of satisfaction. "These are the same old pieces that were in here when I was in school."
"How do know that?"
"I thought you knew everything." Sirius said shrugging his shoulders. Dumbledore sighed in annoyance. "But if you must know," Sirius continued, rolling his eyes, and sounding as arrogant as possible, "I carved my name in this one in first year. It was right after we got back from being on holiday and we had turned Snape's hair pink. Or was it metallic yellow? I can't seem to remember." The last two statements were more to himself than to Dumbledore.
"And how do you know I haven't replaced the others?" Dumbledore asked, trying to one up him.
"If you had bothered to take time out of your busy schedule, you would have noticed the others had been carved in a similar fashion with the names, James, Remus, and Peter." Sirius said and leaned back in 'his' chair.
''
Remus, once again, sat in his armchair in front of the fire. Sirius was supposed to be in a meeting with the headmaster, so he should be able to at least eat half of his cookie before being interrupted.
"Half the cookie and a sip of pumpkin juice." He told himself quietly. "Oh, I love the peace and quiet of Christmas." He went to take a bit of his cookie, but at that moment Sirius burst through the door.
"He's going to kill me!" He yelled in a high-pitched voice. Behind him was Snape, scowl in place, and wand in hand. Sirius ran and hid behind Remus' chair.
"Move Lupin." Snape snarled at Remus.
"What has he done this time?" He said calmly while looking longingly at his cookie.
"He lit my classroom on fire." Snape's face was quickly turning red.
"Really, it was an accident. I swear!" Sirius squealed.
"The only accident…" Snape snarled back at him, before being interrupted.
"Enough, the both of you! You can either settle this like rational human beings, and get out of my office, or you can get out of my office and have this fight somewhere else."
Snape turned and strode to the door. Before exiting he turned and snarled, "This is not over, Black!"
''
Fred and George were sitting in their room working on their latest experiment when Hermione came busting through the door. Her scowl looked as if it could boil water.
"What is this?" She hissed, dropping a large pile of what appeared to be feathers on the floor at their feet.
"An owl," Fred said simply.
"With fangs." George added before turning back to what they were doing. Fred, sensing an explosion coming on, elbowed his twin in the ribs. "Blimey Fred…" He stopped dead when he saw Hermione, tears streaming down her face.
"DON'T YOU CARE?" She screamed at them, "YOUR SISTER NEEDS YOU, AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS TERRORIZE HER BOYFRIEND."
"Hermione, calm down." Fred said.
"CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN!" She continued to shriek at the top of her lungs.
''
"Have you met with him Dumbledore?" The minister asked as calmly as he could with his high stress level.
"I have." Dumbledore replied cryptically. Scrimgeour raised a questioning eyebrow, but Dumbledore just sat and sipped the glass of tea in his right hand. The two sat like this in silence for several minutes.
"So what does he say?" Scrimgeour finally burst out, losing his last shred of patience.
"He will turn himself in, if he can get your promise of a trial on paper." Scrimgeour looked pleased. "In a magically binding contract, of course. He wants your signature, with five witnesses, that I approve of."
"Is that really necessary?" The minister spluttered, spilling his tea down his front and on the floor.
"I suppose he could stay in hiding. And Mr. Black is a hard man to find when he doesn't want to be found."
"Very well Dumbledore," The younger man sighed, "Have him draw up the contract, and pick your witnesses."