Shared Encounters

A/N - Many thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter one. Please let me know what you think of this one.

Chapter 2: Friends

Ok, I said that just that one conversation made me start to see Harry in a different light and it helped me to ease up a bit with my crush on him. From that night on, I was able to talk to Harry. We weren't close friends, but we sat and talked whenever Ron and Hermione's bickering got too much for either of us to stand, or after I'd had another nightmare. However, I didn't know that our friendship was about to be cemented for good not long before Christmas.

I woke sweating from another nightmare about the Chamber. They weren't as bad now but the continued worry about Sirius Black, particularly after the events on Halloween, seemed to be affecting me more. Finally, after tossing and turning for several minutes in an attempt to get back to sleep, I gave it up as a bad job and climbed out of bed. Quietly, I padded out of my dormitory and into the common room where I found that someone had lit a fire and was sitting in one of the armchairs nearby. Drawing closer, I saw that it was Harry, looking pale and drawn.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked.

Harry shook his head and I pulled another armchair closer to the fire before sitting down. I knew what was bothering Harry and I thought carefully about it before speaking again.

"You're thinking about what you heard in Hogsmeade today about Sirius Black and your parents, aren't you?" I asked, straight to the point as usual.

A look of shock was apparent upon Harry's face and he immediately stiffened. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"I overheard Ron and Hermione saying earlier that he betrayed them or something and led Tom there. Don't worry, no one else heard," I replied quickly.

"He killed them, Ginny!" exclaimed Harry, his anguish evident on his face.

"No he didn't, it was Tom who killed them," I replied quietly, my nightmare now completely forgotten.

"He as good as killed them though, and now he's after me."

"Tell me what happened, then," I said. "I didn't get any details about your parents, I've only heard the part about him supposedly killing Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles from Dad."

Harry hesitated and I said, "Mum always says that a problem shared is a problem halved."

"Ok," said Harry, "He was my Dad's best friend at school, best man at my parent's wedding and he's my godfather, too. When they found out that Voldemort was after them, they hid themselves using the Fidelius Charm. Do you know what that is?" he asked.

I nodded and said, "Go on."

Harry continued, "My parents chose Black to be their Secret-Keeper, even though Dumbledore had already offered because he suspected that someone was spying for Voldemort. Black handed them to Voldemort - he betrayed his best friends! And then he went and killed all those other people as well without a single thought for my parents!"

Some parts of the story didn't seem right and I thought things over for several minutes before saying slowly, "Perhaps it's not all as black and white as it seems."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry furiously as he left his chair and started pacing in front of the fire. "It can't get any simpler than the fact that if he hadn't told Voldemort where we were then my Mum and Dad would still be alive now!"

"Harry, calm down and listen to me. I understand where you're coming from, you're angry, but do you honestly believe that your Dad would have been best friends with a murderer? Or your Mum? They were good people, Harry, and they trusted him to be their Secret-Keeper."

"But they died because someone told Voldemort where they were, Ginny! You can't deny that!"

"I'm not going to deny that, Harry," I said calmly "All I'm asking you is if you really think that someone who had been best friends with your Dad since school could go and willingly betray him so easily? I mean, you wouldn't betray Ron and Hermione so how do you know that he wasn't tricked into it by Tom, or some other Death Eater for that matter?"

"I don't," said Harry slowly, finally sitting down again. "You could be right about that. I didn't think about it that way."

"Exactly," I said firmly, "You believed what you overheard straight away but there's a lot that we don't know about this, probably a lot more than anyone but Sirius Black knows. He protested his innocence for killing Peter Pettigrew and those Muggles even when he was taken away to Azkaban but no one ever looked into it. Doesn't that make you wonder if he was telling the truth after all?"

"A little," said Harry, "But they all thought that he was mad, didn't they?"

"Just because someone came across as mad, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're a murderer, " I replied firmly. "Don't keep going over what you've heard, Harry, it's not going to erase the past or make the present any easier."

"I was just so angry when I overheard and I didn't know what else to think," said Harry quietly.

"You have a right to be angry, Harry. You've just got to save it for Tom instead, he's the one who's caused all of these problems."

"Yeah, he is. Thanks, Ginny."

"What for?" I asked.

"For helping me to see things differently."

"No problem, it's what I'm here for," I replied, grinning as I tried to lighten the mood a little.

"What's that then?" asked Harry, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

"To kick your backside until you agree with me."

Harry laughed and then yawned tiredly as he looked at his watch. "I'm going to go up to bed, it's two in the morning already," he said, standing up.

I stood up too. "Night then," I said as we walked over to our respective staircases.

Harry paused before walking up the stairs. "I mean it, Ginny, thanks. And I'm glad that I've got you as a friend now."

"Me too," I replied sincerely.

I'll admit, I very nearly turned into mush right there and then, partly because of my crush and partly because I was now officially Harry Potter's friend - something which less than a year ago I would have said was impossible.

However, being Harry's friend did come with a rather annoying side effect which came in the form of extra nagging from Ron. You see, we started to spend more time together in the common room doing work and, as I said before, trying to keep out of Ron and Hermione's arguments. That's not to say that Harry was neglecting his friends in any way, but something about it seemed to upset Ron.

Ron let his feelings be known by glaring at us and being in a particularly bad mood whenever I was near Harry. I couldn't understand what his problem was and things came to a head one day in the common room after Harry left to try and extract Hermione from the library. I put down the essay that I was working on and asked Ron straight out what his problem was.

"My problem!" exclaimed Ron loudly in response. "It's not me who's got a problem!"

"Why are you always in such a bad mood when I'm near Harry then?" I asked angrily.

"Because you're always with Harry, don't you think that this is taking your… crush on him a bit too far?"

"You think that I've still got a crush on Harry?" I asked quietly, conscious that people were staring at us now.

Ron folded him arms across his chest and nodded. "Yeah," he said.

"Well I haven't." Ok, maybe that was a slight lie, but that wasn't the reason that I was spending time with Harry. "We're friends."

Ron snorted at this and raised his eyebrows at me. "Really?" he asked sceptically.

I stared defiantly back at him. "Yes, really. Is that so surprising to you?"

"Well… yeah," replied Ron. "You had a crush on him last year. I mean, you couldn't even speak when you were near him, Ginny."

"Don't remind me," I muttered sourly. "Things have changed now though, Ron."

"Why though? What's changed so much that you're friends now?"

"I've realised that he's not just 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' - he's Harry. He's kind, supportive, loyal, and he understands what it was like for me last year. He, he's made it easier for me to start to move past it." It cost me a lot for me to admit this to Ron but I wasn't going to let him know it.

"Do you mean in the-"

"Yes," I replied, "But I don't want to talk about that."

"You've talked to Harry about it though, haven't you?" asked Ron, not letting me drop it so easily.

"Yeah." I caught the look on Ron's face and decided that I'd better explain before he got the wrong end of the stick again. "Ron, I'm not trying to exclude you at all, but Harry understands, he really does."

"How?" asked Ron, curious now and thankfully not angry anymore.

"We've both been hurt by You-Know-Who," I replied simply. "Do you understand now?"

Ron nodded and said, "I think so, and I'm sorry for being so bad tempered. I get it - you're friends."

"It's ok," I replied, "You weren't to know."

Harry and Hermione entered the common room just then and Hermione was loaded down with a large stack of books. Ron took one look and exclaimed, "Are you trying to read the whole library, Hermione?"

"Ronald!" said Hermione, putting the books on the table and glaring at Ron.

I rolled my eyes at Harry and picked up my essay as Hermione lectured my brother. Things were certainly back to normal - for now at least.