Shouts and Faints

Harry woke up on December twenty-second feeling the cold from outside. He'd left his bedroom window slightly open the night before. He felt the cold wind blow on his bare chest as he got up from the bed and put his glasses on. His eyes adjusted to light and he saw that it was snowing outside. He retrieved his wand from the pocket of his pants that he had been too tired to remove a few hours before. He had barely gotten enough sleep because he'd been out hunting Death Eaters up until two in the morning.

Today he was supposed to go to the Burrow. The Weasleys had invited him to their house to stay a few days before Christmas. It had been almost two weeks since Harry had seen Ginny. He hadn't scheduled an auror lesson with her because he'd been so busy actually fighting the Dark Arts.

All of Voldemort's Death Eaters who hadn't died with him or that hadn't been sent to Azkaban had suddenly started attacking all the witches and wizards they encountered. They didn't seem to care if they who they were killing, as long as they were killing someone. Harry Potter, being the most powerful auror in the Ministry, kept on finding himself out in dark woods and alleys every night, looking for Death Eaters. He had spotted a few of them, but they had been aware of his presence and had disapparated immediately.

Harry wasn't so sure he could stay at the Burrow and go out looking for Death Eaters at night, but he had promised the Weasleys that he would be there.

Harry went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He had scars all over his arms and chest, all of which he knew would eventually disappear. He tore his gaze away from a rather long scar right above his six-pack, and instead looked at the famous scar on his forehead. He wouldn't mind if that one disappeared, especially since it seemed to have grown since he killed Voldemort. It almost seemed as if it wanted to show the world its power. All the pain and joy it had created.

Harry smoothed his bangs over the lightning-bolt scar, feeling like his own eyes made him uneasy.

-----

Harry apparated in front of the Burrow showered and dressed in his usual black robes. He was carrying a duffel bag, in which held his clothes and toiletries for the next few days. His astonishingly green eyes sparkled as he made his way through two feet of snow. Before he reached the door of the house his jet black ruffled hair acquired quite a bit of snow.

He knocked on the door of the Burrow, and Mrs. Weasley immediately opened it. Mrs. Weasley hugged him cheerfully and ushered him inside.

"Would you like some pancakes, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "You're looking quite thin! Good lord, Harry."

Harry managed to convince Mrs. Weasley that he had already ate and he was too full to eat six pancakes, three eggs, two egg omelets, and leftover soup from the night before, some toast, juice, and for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

Fleur came down the stairs just in time to save Harry from a steak sandwich ("Oh, Harry! You must eat something!"), and squealed, "'Arry! You are zere!"

Fleur kissed both of Harry's cheeks, leaving them burning. "It eez so wonderzerful zoo finally zee you again!"

Harry managed an embarrassed "Hi" and asked where he could find Ginny.

"Ginny?" Fleur laughed. "Whazever would you vanz wiz 'er? She'z probably fixing zat awful 'air of 'ers."

Actually, I think her hair is quite – Harry's thought was interrupted as Mrs. Weasley shot Fleur a menacing look and told Harry that he could probably find Ginny and Hermione in Ron's room.

Harry's hesitance reminded Mrs. Weasley that Harry had no idea where Ron's room was. Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a pitying look, something that Harry was starting to hate as much as people staring at his forehead and whispering about him.

"Ginnnnnnnnyyyyyyyy!" Mrs. Weasley called.

Harry waited a few seconds and then heard Ginny answer her mom. "YEAH, MUM!"

"GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Ginny screamed immediately.

"JUST GET DOWN HERE," Mrs. Weasley screamed back.

"I SWEAR I DIDN'T DO IT, MUM! IT WAS FRED!"

Harry stood in the kitchen listen to the interaction between Ginny and Mrs. Weasley in amusement. Then his slight smile turned into a stunned expression as he listened quietly to the explosions that followed. One after the other, he heard them go off. They seemed to go on for five minutes straight. Upstairs was quiet as well, and he wondered it the whole top of the house had been blown up.

Harry looked at Fleur, who had an amused expression on her face. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from laughing, thinking of what Mrs. Weasley would do to her if she did.

Mrs. Weasley herself was on the verge of screaming her head off, something that Harry was rather sure he didn't want to witness.

Footsteps ran down the stairs, and Harry caught sight of Ginny Weasley. Her face was black, completely covered in soot; her flaming red hair was standing up in every direction, making her look like a good luck troll.

"I didn't do it, Mum, I sw – " Ginny noticed Harry standing in the kitchen for the first time. She also noticed how his lips were twitching upwards, as if he was trying not to smile.

Ginny blew a stay strand of her hair away from her eyes, and then she crumpled to the floor.

Mrs. Weasley seemed to have forgotten for the time being what had happened upstairs. She and Fleur both ran to Ginny's aid. Harry quickly followed them. Ginny was lying on the floor with her eyes closed.

Mrs. Weasley and Fleur began pulling Ginny up. They tried to drag her to the couch in the living room, but instead ended up huffing.

Fleur looked at Harry expectantly. "Vell?"

"Well what?" Harry asked, although he thought he knew what was coming.

"Vell aren't you going zoo 'elp us."

Mrs. Weasley seemed to be waiting for Harry as well, so Harry bent down and Gently pulled Ginny's lightweight body into his arms. He held one hand under her back and the other under her legs.

His heart flipped over as he held her, and this time he knew why.

As Harry carried Ginny to the couch, a moan escaped her lips.

"Ginny?" Harry asked. He stopped in his tracks and stared down at her. His face was only inches away from hers, and he thought it would have been almost romantic if Mrs. Weasley and Fleur weren't looking over his shoulders.

Ginny opened her eyes slightly and said in a hoarse voice, "I told you it was Fred."

Harry almost laughed, but he was aware that Mrs. Weasley was standing right behind him with her wand in her hands, and his hands were completely occupied with Ginny Weasley's body right then, something he definitely wasn't complaining about but didn't give him an upper hand in the situation. He was definitely keeping his mouth shut.

As Ginny's eyes adjusted to the light, she saw Harry's green eyes and handsome face, and immediately her eyes closed again, she sighed, and her head lolled back on one side.

"Ginny," Harry whispered, shaking her slightly. "Wake up."

But Ginny stayed limp in his arms, and so he laid her gently on the couch.

"Fleur, will you go get me a wet towel?" Mrs. Weasley said.

Fleur went off to get the towel, and Mrs. Weasley started in about how Fred and George were in serious trouble. Harry realized that none of the Weasley brothers had come downstairs, probably because they were afraid of what Mrs. Weasley would do to them.

Fleur came back with a wet hand towel and handed it to Mrs. Weasley. Just then, another set of explosions went off. Mrs. Weasley started cursing and threw the wet towel in Harry's hands. She and Fleur both went running up the stairs.

Harry looked at the towel dripping in his hands, and then at Ginny, lying limply on the couch. Her hair had fallen back down on her head so that she didn't look like a good luck troll anymore, but her face was still black with soot.

Harry dragged a chair next to the couch and sat down. He leaned in and placed the towel on her forehead. He wiped the soot off gently. Harry removed the towel from her head, and he saw an interesting shape on her forehead. The soot that was still on her head formed a little lightning-bolt shape that looked scarily alike with Harry's own scar. Harry wiped that off too, and watched Ginny's chest move up and down as she breathed.

Harry tore his gaze away from Ginny as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Ron and Hermione smiled when they saw him. Fred and George trampled after them, with Mrs. Weasley still yelling at them.

"Hiya, Harry," Ron said.

"Hi Ron, Hermione, " Harry said, standing up to greet them.

"Hullo, Harry," Fred and George said, their shoulders drooping as their mother screamed at them. Fred looked at Ginny, who still hadn't awoken. Not even Mrs. Weasley's shouts hadn't awoken her. "What happened to the blabbermouth?"

Harry looked at Fred, confused. "Huh?"

"Ginny," Fred explained. "The blabbermouth who went and told Mum what we were up to. What happened to her?"

"Oh," Harry responded, failing to mention that Ginny didn't need to say anything for their mom to know what had happened. "Fainted."

"Really," George said, peering down at Ginny. "Serves her right…"

"George!"

George looked at Hermione, who was shooting him a deathly stare. "I'm not George," he said, pointing at Fred, "he is. Seriously. And you call yourself our brother's insufferably know-it-all girlfriend!"

Harry watched in astonishment as one of Hermione's boots hit the side of George's head ("What was that for?"), and Ron fell on the floor laughing himself to death.

During all the commotion, Ginny woke up. Harry was the first to notice she was up.

"Ginny!" Harry said. "You're up!"

"Hi Harry," Ginny smiled. She finally seemed to have gotten over fainting at the sight of him.

Harry smiled back at her. "Alright, Ginny?"

"Yeah…I'm fine."

"Oh, good," Fred said. "Now we can curse you without feeling guilty."

Harry didn't really know if Fred would really shoot a spell at his own sister, but he felt the urge to move in front of Ginny anyway. But before he could do that, Ginny pulled out her wand and said, "Maybe you've forgotten how good my bat-bogey is."

Harry suddenly had a vision of a certain Draco Malfoy with a face full of flapping wings. He laughed, and then noticed how weird he must look laughing to himself. They think I'm nutters. …

Harry cleared his throat and said, "So…" He didn't know what else to say, so he said again, "So…" Okay, they definitely think I'm nutters.

"So…" Ginny said, and everyone stared at her. "So… I'm going to go take a shower."

As soon as Ginny went upstairs, Mr. Weasley, Tonks, and Lupin walked in the door.

"Hi, kids," Mr. Weasley said. Then he noticed Harry. "Harry! I've been waiting for you to get here!"

"Hi Mr. Weasley," Harry said, shaking Mr. Weasley's hand.

"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks smiled, her hair turning from red to purple.

Lupin smiled at Harry. "Hello, there Harry. You're looking more like your father everyday."

"Thanks," Harry said uncomfortably.

Mrs. Weasley walked in the living room and greeted her husband, Tonks, and Lupin.

"All of you," Mrs. Weasley turned to Fred and George and Ron. "I need you to degnome the garden." Then she turned to Harry. "Not you of course, Harry, you're the guest and all – "

"No, I really want to help," Harry said.

"Alright then. Dinner will be ready in a few hours."

-----

After Harry had finished degnoming the garden and had taken a shower, he joined the Weasley family and the other guests at the dinner table that was set up outside. Harry found one of the Ministry's junior auror waiting for him.

"Mr. Potter!" he exclaimed, when he saw Harry. Everyone turned to look at how much the boy looked up to Harry, when he couldn't have been more than a year younger than Harry.

"Er…" Harry said, brushing a hand through his wet hair. He didn't know what a junior auror was doing here.

"Mr. Potter, it's urgent! You must come – "

"We're about to have dinner," Mrs. Weasley told the boy. "You don't expect Harry to leave now, do you?"

The junior auror stammered under Mrs. Weasley's gaze, but then finally said, "Mr. Potter, it's urgent, Death Eaters are meeti – "

"Death Eaters!" Mrs. Weasley gasped. Then she realized what was going on. "No, no, no, no, no. Harry will not be going! Death Eaters…"

Everyone was stunned, but Mr. Weasley managed to calm his wife down. "Molly, Harry's of age now. He can make his own decisions. You're not his mother, Molly."

"I might as well be!"

"Mrs. Weasley, " Harry began. "I'm really sorry, but I must go. It's my job."

"I don't care!"

Ginny seemed to not have been listening to her mother's protests, because she shouted, "I'll come with you, Harry!"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Mrs. Weasley screamed.

Harry agreed with Mrs. Weasley. He didn't want to put Ginny in danger.

"Molly, Ginny's of age! She can make her own decisions as well!"

"But I am her mother, and I say absolutely not. Tell them Harry. Tell her she's not going."

Harry didn't hesitate one second. "You're not coming, Ginny."

"What!" Ginny cried, standing up.

"You're not coming," Harry repeated. Everyone stared at him not believing what he had said.

"But this can be part of my training, Harry, please!"

Mrs. Weasley kept quiet, wondering what Harry would say next.

"No, Ginny."

Ginny's face hardened, and she looked Harry right in the eyes. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Actually, I can," Harry answered. "First of all, I am the captain of my auror team, so I get to say who goes out on a mission and who doesn't. That means if you ever want to be an auror, you better follow my orders. Second of all, you're not coming."

Harry disapparated from the house, and the junior auror went after him.

Everyone stared at Ginny in silence. We'll see about that, she thought. We'll just see about that.

A/N

Hi guys! Did you like this chappie? Please review! And can any of you think of a more attracting summary for this story than the one I already have? It's kinda sucky. I'm not very good with summaries. Oh, and my new story, Bloodsucking Fiends is not another part of this fic. it's just a H/G story. Please review cuz it makes me happy and makes me want to write more. :)