Disclaimer: If I owned the books, you would have seen a lot more of Ginny. As she is one of my favorite character. As I don't own them, sadly she doesn't show up nearly enough.
A/N: I know I had something else here, but I lost going over the story to make minor edits... ah well. Read and enjoy!
Chapter 2
Snape was the first recover from his shock, quickly closing his mouth and resuming his normal glare. It was more intense than normal, he was furious. Potter dared to return and ruin his peace that he was enjoying without the Potter brat being around. The brat was supposed to be dead, and he should have stayed dead. Even if he wasn't actually dead he should have stayed wherever he was; he wasn't wanted here.
McGonagall and Dumbledore were quick to follow in resuming their normal countenance. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled brighter than usual, much brighter than they had in years; for the twinkle had dimmed at Harry's and Ginny's disappearance, until earlier that night when the original twinkle resumed at the arrival of the cloaked couple. He knew that they were going to bring some good and happy news that everyone has been waiting for. Flitwick and Sprout didn't bother to hide their shock and glee, as was the normal occurrence for them. They were known as very kindly and open teachers, so they acted as such.
When Ron and Hermione disengaged from Harry and Ginny, everyone in the room was able to examine them more closely without the couple blocking the view.
Harry had let his hair grow out, he now wore it in a pony tail that reached his shoulder blades. It had also darkened; it used to be an extremely inky black, now it was pitch black. He was almost as tall as Ron was, the height was so close that you couldn't even tell who was taller without them standing right beside each other; Ron was about half an inch taller. He was now much more muscular than he used to be; not the big and bulky kind, but the lean, sinewy, and athletic kind, like you would find in runners and martial artists. His eyes were much brighter green, they seemed to glow with their brightness; he no longer wore his glasses, which left them in a much more striking view. They held knowledge and wisdom, something that no one his age should have. His scar had faded so much that it was practically invisible. His robes and cloak were made out of a very fine silk, that flowed like water and the light shone off of them like it was reflecting from the surface of water.
Ginny's robes and cloak were exactly the same, except blue instead of green. She was no longer very petite, she was almost an inch taller than Hermione. Her hair had also darkened into a very rich, deep red that went just past her shoulder blades. It was still a flaming red just a darker shade than the rest of her family's. She was still just as freckly as ever. Her eyes also now glowed and held knowledge and wisdom.
"Harry, your eyes they're fixed!" exclaimed Ron, after he had finished examining them thoroughly.
"Yes, where we were had the abilities to heal my eyes," replied Harry.
"What happened to you two? We thought you were dead. Well, everyone except for Ron and me-we knew you were alive. We never really believed for one moment that you were actually dead, but everyone else did. We'd wait for you at he start of term feast every year. We knew that was when and where that you would show up and return to us. We just didn't know what year it would be, but we knew it that had to be before the end of our seventh year," Hermione babbled away excitedly, not noticing that she was babbling. She was just so happy that she and Ron had been right all those years, and everyone who claimed that they weren't right had been proven wrong; she couldn't help but to babble. Harry's back, and Ginny too. I can't believe it, Ron and I were right, we were right all along, despite no one believing us. I can't believe it.
"Hermione, you're rambling," laughed Harry.
She blushed a slight shade of pink, when she realized that she was indeed rambling. She muttered, "Sorry," looking at her feet in embarrassment.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. He smiled at her reassuringly. "It is good to know that I have such faithful friends, and Ginny has such a faithful brother. We know what you two have done over the years for us. Thank you. For you to have done what you did for us shows how much you know us, and as you can see there are not many people who really know us as well as you two do. It also shows what true friends you are and we are very grateful for it."
"Could you get on with it. No one cares about your personal life," sneered Snape. He received glares from just about everyone in the room, even several of the portraits, for saying this. He paid them no heed as he continued to glare at Harry.
Harry smirked. "Now what would be the fun in that?"
Ginny smirked as well "I do not see any," she said, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "Why I have to say that it is definitely much more fun not to tell them."
"You are right my dear," said Harry, as he continued to smirk. His eyes got the same mischievous glint in them that Ginny's had. He took her into his arms, so that she was facing everyone in the room, and rested his chin on her shoulder. "If we were to 'get on with it' as you say it would ruin all of our fun."
Laughter filled the room. Everyone looked around trying to find where it was coming from. They found the source to be Van Helsing, he was clutching his sides from laughing so hard.
"Was right," he choked out, as tried to subside his roaring laughter. It appeared to be a lost cause, as he continued to laugh for several minutes. Finally he was able to calm down enough to speak, "I was right. You two really are worse than Dumbledore!" before continuing his laughter even harder than before.
"Pray tell, what do you mean by that?" asked McGonagall, raising an eyebrow in surprise at that statement.
Van Helsing just shook his head in reply, unable to answer because of his still uncontrollable laughter.
"It is official," said Harry, exchanging a glance with Ginny. "We were right, and-"
"He is the crazy one," Ginny finished for him.
All that did was cause Van Helsing to renew his laughter just as he was starting to calm down. This time it was worse than it was before. He kept gasping out, "I knew I was right, I knew it."
McGonagall turned to Harry and Ginny. "What is he going on about?" she asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
They exchanged another glance before Harry answered, "He seems to believe that it is more difficult to get information out of us than it is Dumbledore, and that anything that you can get out of us makes less sense and is even more riddled. We decided that he must be crazy to believe that, though many people seem to agree with him for some strange reason," he shrugged. "And this," he waved at the still laughing Van Helsing, "Just proves that we were are right, he always finds it ridiculously funny whenever we say that he is crazy. He often ends up laughing like this when we meet."
Van Helsing was finally able to calm himself down. "Well it's true, every time I talk to you I end up leaving more confused than the last time, especially if I have something to ask you," he said to Harry. He turned to McGonagall and said, "Every time that I mention it they claim that I'm crazy, so there is no need to be concerned about it. I'm used to it, they mean nothing by it."
"Well it's true," said Ginny, using Van Helsing's words against him.
"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" asked Dumbledore, calmly. Though, you could see from his eyes that he found this situation highly amusing. "Which I believe is the questions of where you were? Why you were gone? And why you decided to come back now of all times?"
"Where have we been? Hmmm, let me think," said Harry, he tapped his chin thoughtfully. He exchanged a glance with Ginny, and smirked. "I should think it was obvious, it was all over the papers a while back."
At everyone's confused looks Ginny elaborated on the subject for them, "We were dead. Didn't you read the paper?"
Dumbledore sighed. "We are not going to get a more definitive answer, are we?"
"No," stated Harry. He smiled wistfully. "It's not that we don't want to tell you, it's that as the saying goes, we don't want to leave all our eggs in one basket. We will tell you, but you of all people must understand the need to withhold some information on certain things. When the time is right we will tell you. That time is just not today.
"As for your second question it will have to wait. It ties too closely with the first one to be properly answered."
"But for your third question," said Ginny, taking over from Harry. "I should think that the answer would be obvious."
"Is it these attacks that are going on?" asked Hermione, voicing the question that had been playing at the back of her mind since Harry and Ginny first appeared that night.
Ginny sighed sadly. "I'm afraid that it is, I wish our return was on a happier note, but some things just cannot be."
"Do you know who is behind all the attacks?" questioned McGonagall.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other. They remained like that for several minutes before turning towards Dumbledore. "Headmaster, we believe that you have your suspicions of who is behind them. Would you be so kind as to share them with us?" asked Harry.
"I believe that it is Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Not many may realize this, but it is exactly the same thing that happened last time," answered Dumbledore, quietly.
McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout all gasped at the name. Snape stepped back in shock. Ron and Hermione quickly exchanged a glance and then a nod -they had started to use the name after Harry's and Ginny's disappearance- as if what he said had confirmed their suspicions. Van Helsing was watching the two students curiously, and paid no heed to the name. Harry and Ginny exchanged another glance.
"Yes, that is what we believe as well. We have found certain evidence that points to him," said Harry, solemnly, then he smirked. "But we do not know of anyone with the name of Voldemort-"
"Tom sure is a menace, though," finished Ginny, she was also smirking.
Harry sighed, the smirk leaving his and Ginny's faces to be replaced with a look of determination. "On a more somber note, back to the reason for our return. You know the prophesy Headmaster, you know what I must do. Part of the reason that we left was to receive training, so that I can fulfill it. If it wasn't necessary that I received training we wouldn't have left in the first place. Ginny only came along to help me train. That is part of your answer to question two, but not all of it. The rest is what must wait until a later date."
"But that is off topic. We came back not only to fulfill the prophesy, but to help prepare for war. For it is war that is going on, it's just that no one knew it. And that is exactly what Tom wants," Ginny took over. "He is trying to spread fear by removing only those that he can get away with without drawing too much attention to himself. He is using it as a cloak as he slowly builds up his army -while no one knows it is there- and getting ready to truly start his war. As long as no one knows that he is back, they won't think that they need to build up any defenses to him.
"That is also why Fudge has not been targeted, he is such a fool that he would cover up anything may indicate Tom's return. Fudge does not want anything to affect his term in office, and if Tom is back, he, being the Minister of Magic will automatically get blamed and more likely than not be thrown out of office. He is already standing on thin ice, with the disappearances of Harry and myself. The people blamed him for removing you from Hogwarts, making them upset with him, so ultimately the blame for our disappearance was placed at his feet. These other disappearances have not helped his standing at all, so he is covering up anything else that will hurt him. It is a very common occurrence for those in power to be blamed for anything that may or may not go wrong, regardless of how much control they have over it, and this is exactly what has happened with Fudge.
"But Fudge is not important right now, we will need him exactly where he is for the time being. Tom may be using him, but we will be able to use him as well. What we need to be concerned about is Tom. Our spies were unable to find out the size of his army, but what we do know is not a pretty sight.
"Tell me Headmaster, if Tom was to attack Hogwarts, or anywhere else for that matter, right this instant would you be ready for him? Do you have the sort of defenses that will keep an army from storming the castle?"
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment, then sighed. "I believe that if he were to attack now we would be facing a losing battle before it even began. Sadly we have no such defense at this time."
"Exactly," said Harry. "And that is what we are here to fix. If Tom was to find out that you knew he was back he would attack strong and hard leaving you no time and no warning to be able to defend yourself. He will eventually attack anyway, but he is waiting until he either has no choice but to attack, or has an army that it will be hopeless to defend against.
"What we need to do is build our own army as fast as we can, making it as large as possible. That is why we need Fudge in office, for as long he is covering things up we can use it. He wouldn't dare go against you right now, it would lose him his power, so if he were to find out about it he would cover it up. But it would still be better if he were not to find out about your involvement. If he finds, out he must believe that I am the one behind it all, for after he finds out about my return he will be less willing to go against me than you, for without a doubt that will get him removed from office.
"I'm positive that Tom's first target will be Hogwarts. I believe that when he finds out I have returned he will want to take the school even more. We know that he does not know where we were, but he does know that I'm still alive, so there is no point in keeping our return secret.
"We can talk later about most of what needs to be done. This weekend would be a good time, but the one thing that we need worry about immediately for defense is is getting the students prepared for war. They will be need to be able to fight to defend themselves-"
He was interrupted by McGonagall. "This is preposterous, students should not go to war. War is not a place for children."
"Oh but they do Professor," said Harry, his voice and eyes turning stone cold as he spoke. Though he was looking at McGonagall, his eyes were unfocused and distant, as though what he was seeing was not in the room. Ginny turned around in his embrace to hug him tightly. "If they do not fight they will die. Tom is most likely going to attack the school before this year is over, next year at the most. His army is already massive, and anyone who gets caught between it and his goal is going to die before they have a chance to blink if they cannot fight. Children will be the first, because their deaths will cause the most panic and fear. He is not afraid of using children to get what he wants, I assure you there are current students here who bear his mark.
"He is not going to give them a choice, if they don't fight they will die. That is the simple fact of the matter. Closing the school won't help anything, it will tell him that we know he is back and he will do something just as drastic as attacking the school, and we will be helpless to stop him. It will get rid of all the tactical advantages that we have, leaving us with no idea when or where he will attack. This school was built as a fortress; it is no longer a fortress, but if we plan right it can be one again.
"Not all of the students should fight -the ones in third year and below, not if we can help it;- but all of them need to know how to fight; if they aren't directly fighting they will need to be doing something else: helping the healers, bringing supplies, or something along those lines. Yes, we will need an evacuation plan; we won't force anyone to fight, but they all need to be prepared.
"Not every person has the luxury of going through childhood. I lost that luxury long before I even knew about the wizarding world and Hogwarts, so do not even try and tell me that I shouldn't fight, I have no choice. There is a prophecy that saw to that, it was made before I was born." His eyes blazed, and about halfway through his speech, his back straightened, he removed his chin from Ginny's shoulder and stood in a very rigid and stiff position. Though, he did keep his arms around Ginny.
Ginny spoke softly and quietly, but her voice was still heard throughout the room. "And sometimes people lose their childhood before it is time to." It was made apparent that she was referring to herself with those words. "We are no longer children. Ron and Hermione are no longer children. Anyone who has faced death is no longer a child. Many who have lost loved ones due to war are no longer children. Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom are among those others who are no longer children. War steals childhoods, that is the simple fact of the matter. Those that lose their childhoods should be able to fight to stop others from losing theirs as well. It is something that they need to do. If you keep them from doing it, they could quite possibly go crazy.
"We are not taking away the students' childhoods. Learning to fight and defend yourself and others does not take your childhood. As Harry said, there will be no forcing the students to fight, but they will help in the preparation for the war. They can help by setting up the defenses. It is very important that we train them to defend themselves.
"Before any of this can happen, several other things need to happen. First, we will need to locate anyone who is either a Death Eater or has some connection to Tom. Second, we need to stop them from leaking out what we are up to. There are several ways to deal with that, but we will get to that at the meeting this weekend. Third, we will need to come up with a training plan. Fourth, we will need to get more people in here to help with the training, and to help keep an eye on the students and castle. They must be completely trustworthy and willing to swear an oath. And finally we need to find out which students actually going to help fight, for they will need extra training and also must make an oath."
She held up her hand to stop protests about the oath. "You may believe that an oath is too much. In war NOTHING is to much to stop the enemy from destroying our lives, killing our loved ones, and ruining everything we believe in. If they will stop at nothing, then so must we. Tom cares nothing for age. If he wants he will use children as young as eleven, perhaps younger, if he thinks it will help him. He will kill no matter what age. Very few can handle what he does to those whom he doesn't kill immediately, and those only because they have enough determination and will power to fight to stay alive through all of his tortures and who knows what else he does to his prisoners. Anyone who does succeed in surviving and escaping, which is no mean task in itself, does not remain unaffected; they are scarred for life and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is why we must train the students to fight. Tom only gives you three choices, and each choice depends on who you are; join him, suffer under him, or die. All of those choices are worse than having the students fight," she sighed and shook her head sadly. She turned around in Harry's arms again, and looked everyone in the room directly in the eye. They could all see the determination burning strongly there. "We do not like it anymore than you. It pains us to have to make these decisions, but they must be made or the war would already be lost. We wish that it did not have to be this way, but sadly that is the way it is. But this is not what we are here to talk about tonight, we can take care of all of this at the meeting this weekend."
McGonagall stepped back in shock. What Harry and Ginny had said had shocked her to the core, not just from what they were saying but the truth behind their words that she had never even thought of before. They have changed so much over the years. What have they been through to make them say things like this? The students I knew wouldn't have talked like this; but I can see that they are still in there, just older and more mature, with deep understanding of the unpleasantness of life, that no one should have, especially at this age. She nodded stiffly. "Yes, we will talk about this later," she said, trying to recompose herself to her normal countenance.
The other teachers were also startled by what the two had said. They all quickly agreed that this is a topic that they will most definitely return to at the next meeting. Silence reigned in the room for several minutes, with barely the sound of people breathing, as everyone digested what had been said. Ron and Hermione were fidgeting nervously, unsure of what to do. Ginny had turned around in Harry's arms again, and they appeared to be having a staring competition. The teachers -except for Van Helsing, who appeared unsurprised at what was said- were the main ones thinking back on the lecture.
Harry was the first to break the silence. "It is getting late and we really must return to the matter at hand."
Ginny pulled away from Harry, but kept a hold of his hand. "Headmaster, we need to discuss our arrangements for this school year as students. We no longer need the education, we are quite capable of passing our N.E.W.T.s right now, but it will cause the least suspicion to be placed on us; suspicion, I might add, that would only hinder what we are trying to do."
"Here are our O.W.L. scores. We took them at the place that we were staying before coming here. That is your copy for the school, all that is needed to be done with now is to file a copy at the Ministry. Here is the copy for that," said Harry, taking over from Ginny. As he spoke he handed Dumbledore a couple of slips of parchment. "We are both going to be in sixth year, and we have already chosen all of our classes. They are all on this sheet," he handed Dumbledore another parchment.
Dumbledore examined the parchments carefully for several minutes. Then he looked at Harry and stared into Harry's eyes for another minute or two, as if examining his intentions. Seeming to find nothing the matter he nodded. "Everything seems to in order. We should be able to have your schedule for you, at breakfast, tomorrow, when we hand out everyone else's."
Snape was silently fuming, as he had been in the corner since Harry and Ginny had removed their hoods. When they brushed him off it just made him even more furious, how dare they treat him like that. They have no respect for proper authority. He hasn't changed a bit, he is still just as arrogant, conceited, and spoiled as ever, if not worse. Now he has a little Weaslette who follows his every whim, making him much worse than he was without her. Surely Albus cannot let 'them' back in this school. Ah, but he has always been to lenient and forgiving. And what is this talk about the Dark Lord being back, if he was I would be among the first to know, there are no Death Eaters in this school, especially student Death Eaters. This just proves what I have been saying all along. Albus cannot really be listening to them.
"Headmaster," Snape sneered, in his snide voice. "Surely you do not believe them, you are not going to let them return here. They-"
Ginny put her wand away after casting a silencing spell an Snape. She had drawn her wand so fast that no one had even noticed it until she was putting it away and had already cast the spell. "Professor," she sneered, with just as much contempt as Snape always used towards them. "If you cannot speak of matters you know nothing about with any decency or respect, you should speak constructively, or at least with some civility; if you can't even do that then you shouldn't speak at all. You have no idea what you are actually referring to, and were about to tread in very dangerous waters. If you do not want to lose it, I suggest holding your tongue. If you finish what you were going to say I will personally remove it." Her eyes showed her fury, and a glance into them would have most anyone wanting to find some dark corner to huddle up in; any man who was not able to control himself as much as Snape, or had not been through what he had would have wet themselves and ran straight for the closest corner he could find; but Snape was not that man, as it was he was terrified out of his wits, he just refused to show it, so he nodded stiffly, unsure of what else to do.
Ginny continued to glare at Snape for several more minutes, until Harry placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him. "Darling, you need to calm down, if you continue your glare, this meeting will never end, and we have had a very long and trying day. I do not want to stay up all night, trying to finish this conversation."
This caused them to have another staring contest; or so it appeared, they just stared into each other's eyes unblinkingly for several minutes. Finally Ginny nodded. "Alright, I'll let it go for the moment."
Snape let out breath that he didn't know he was holding. I'm capable of dealing with a dark lord, but a mere girl can frighten me, pathetic.
Hearing Snape let out his breath, Ginny turned and glared at him again. "You shouldn't relax I'm not finished with you yet. Know this, if you step out of line like that again I will have retribution. I'm not going to put up with your petty attitude anymore. You have been warned, and this is your one and only warning. Understood?"
Snape stepped backwards in shock and fright. This is no mere girl, she is more terrifying than the Dark Lord. He nodded again, and Ginny took out her wand and removed the spell. Snape forced himself to refrain from saying what his impulses were telling him to.
Ginny stopped glaring and turned towards Dumbledore. "Back to our arrangements, we need our own room."
A shocked silence fell on the room. It had been many years, since anyone other than the head boy and girl had their own room, and even longer since anyone has asked for one. Why could Harry and Ginny possibly need their own room, and from the sounds of it they wanted a room together, was what was running through most everyone's minds at that declaration. Snape had to bite his tongue to stop himself from making a comment, Ron was cycling through several shades of red, unable to make up his mind about whether he should be furious, embarrassed or pleased at the thought of his sister and best friend sharing a room. Hermione was too shocked to do anything. McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick were all at once trying to list all of the reasons why it was impossible for them to have their own room, and especially share one. Van Helsing was laughing at everyone's reactions. Dumbledore sat there silently watching Harry and Ginny; who in turn were staring at him unblinkingly and unmoving, not saying a word, and waiting for his verdict.
Dumbledore raised his hand, and silence ensued. His eyes never moving from Harry and Ginny. "You know that that is a very serious thing to ask for, and also that I cannot grant it without good reason. Also no student but the head boy and girl has had a private room in over a hundred years, and that was only because of the child's loss of his family, and his need to be away from his peers at night so that he could deal with everything."
Harry nodded. "Yes, we already did know that. We wouldn't be asking if we did not have a sufficient reason."
"Albus, surely you are not considering this?" questioned McGonagall.
"I am, as long as they say have sufficient reason for it," replied Dumbledore. "Now Harry, Ginny, tell me why you believe that you should receive a private room?"
It was Ginny who spoke in reply. "There are several reasons. First, we will need somewhere we can converse without anyone being able to hear us or walk in on us. Much of what we may talk about is very delicate in nature, and we can't afford to let the wrong people get a hold of it unless we want them to. Second, we need to have time away, and someplace to get away from all of the students. From what we have seen and heard so far, they are going to be much worse in idolizing Harry this year than they were in the past. It also appears that I will be included in their idolizing this time, and it is likely to get much worse for the both of us as the year goes on and secrets are revealed. We need to be able to get away from all of that; it will be enough to drive anyone bonkers. There are several small personal reasons, but they they are unimportant and you do not need to know them. All that we need is a bedroom and sitting room. Close to the Gryffindor Common Room would be good, because we do plan to spend lots of time with our house."
"Yes, those reasons are very sound, but it does not address the fact that you are asking for a private, single bedroom room, together. I'm afraid that I cannot give you what ask for without you giving me reason why you should share a room," said Dumbledore.
Ginny blushed and glanced at Harry, who sighed but nodded. "We were hoping to avoid this, this early on. I guess it was inevitable, though." She raised her left hand for all to see. "We have been married for the past two years." Sitting there twinkling happily on her left ring finger were two simple, but elegant gold rings.
-Chapter End-