CHAPTER 11

Tension

Ginny had all the Aurors assemble once more. Despite Harry's best efforts he could not get a word out of her edge-wise as to what she was going to say to them. In addition Ginny remained hostile towards him – Harry thought that when the Minister healed his face and Ginny saw him again that perhaps she would finally let him into her life a bit more, but his hopes were incorrect. After examining Harry's face she had taken off at a swift walk; and for the rest of their time alone had only said things to him when he asked questions, and even then her responses were vague.

Now, Ginny and Harry stood in the room surrounded by Aurors. Their expressions were not amused, however occasionally Harry felt curious and interested eyes on him. Some appeared to almost be annoyed at being called back, like the meeting was going to be a waste of time – just as the last one had been.

"Hello, again, fellow Aurors," Ginny began, "last time was a failure, but I'm afraid I had a very important matter to attend to. I'm sure I do not need to remind you why we are here." No one responded in any way, but there was an uncomfortable shuffling of cloth against the seats. Ginny cleared her throat, an evil smile twitching on her lips,

"I do not want to threaten making unbreakable vows… no that's a lie I do want to threaten you with an unbreakable vow but I think it'll be a waste of time to perform it so many times, and you all know I will." No one raised an objection, "so, I am going to pass this sheet around and I want everyone to sign it," She passed the sheet of paper to the man closest to her, "after that we can get down to business." She watched as the Aurors hesitated, the pen coming to the paper as they made a spit-second decision and wrote their name in script before passing it on. Harry shifted slightly as the parchment came back to Ginny, she scanned the names and put it on the desk behind her. Casually, she started to stalk the room; she felt the eyes of everyone on her, and the swift and curious silence that met it.

"So, you all wanted proof huh?" Said Ginny, her eyebrows raised angrily, mocking them. "Here's your proof." She gestured to Harry; Ginny slammed a bunch of papers on the table, spreading them out and pointing to them as she spoke. "The results of a DNA test, a Death Certificate, and articles written on the disappearance of Harry James Potter."

"You mean the death of Harry Potter right?"

"No, the disappearance." She said, emphasising every syllable. The Auror's murmured in confusion, some casting Harry side-glances. She felt Harry grab the back of her coat, he whispered,

"What are you doing?" She turned around, meeting his eyes; they flashed a bright green,

"Trust me." Ginny whispered back, he frowned and slowly let the coat fall from his grasp. She turned to the Aurors, "everything you hear in this room will remain with yourselves and yourselves only. This is a Top Secret mission, and you are all involved." Ginny saw a set of faces smile to themselves as if it were an honour, others went stern in preparation.

"If anyone feels the dire need to tell someone, it will be ensured that it is the last thing they will ever say." The smiles disappeared in an instant, "who here can tell me what happened on the night of the disappearance of Hermione Jane Granger, Ronald Bilius Weasley and Harry James Potter?" She paused momentarily, smirking to herself and realising how simple it must have been for Harry to pick a false name. She felt Harry's curiosity burst beside her, he shifted and fidgeted waiting for an answer. An Auror stood, starting to maintain the code that was used at Auror meetings,

"Gene Fillius," He said, before stating his credentials which included and Order of Merlin and the capture of several dangerous Death Eaters, whose names he had memorised. "Due to reports made by some of the Weasley family," he muttered, "apparently they burst into flame, there was a flash of green light, and all of a sudden they were gone. Due to the fact that there was ash remaining, it appeared that some sort of flame curse was used, ending in their combustion." Harry snorted, the man shifted, "and because they all let out a terrible scream before falling silent we were led to believe it was a particularly painful curse…" With that he sat down, Ginny nodded as if she found this interesting. Harry shook his head, wanting to correct the man, but he kept silent. He didn't want to tell his story… by doing that he'd have to recount the tortures after that, and again the faces of Ron and Hermione would blaze in his head, an imprint, something which he was trying so hard not to think of.

"Was the ash ever identified as the remains of any of these individuals?" Ginny asked,

"No." Said the same man, remaining seated this time, "the samples were taken for testing but there was no conclusive evidence due to the amount of deterioration and the tampering that had been done to it."

"So there was no proof that any of them died really was there? Asides from some accounts that they all disappeared suddenly." Harry wanted to point out that Ginny was practically the only one who witnessed these happenings, but she already knew - and clearly didn't want to say anything for effective purposes.

"Wrong." Said the man who had previously questioned Jack and Fred, immediately all heads turned to him, "there was some remains, a finger in fact, which belonged to Ronald Weasley," he paused, "your brother." Everyone turned back to Ginny expecting her to be ashamed or shocked but she merely smirked.

"Interesting." She said, "I seem to recall something very similar happening to one Peter Pettigrew."

"The Death Eater Peter Pettigrew is dead."

"Thankyou, I didn't know," She said, her voice laced with cruel sarcasm. "It doesn't mean his ideas did not pass on, considering how well it worked last time." Harry frowned, why hadn't he thought of that? It made perfect sense. The man considered the words before shifting back into his seat. Casually, Ginny gestured at Harry and his heart skipped a beat. "I introduce to you," she said slowly, "the perfectly undead, Harry James Potter." Harry had expected an eruption of questions, mutterings, yells of protest, his heart was beating so hard in his chest that it appeared to make the earth underneath his feet shake, but all there was, was silence. People stared awestruck; some looked disbelieving, but regardless – silent.

"Do you have the… scar?" Asked one of them, a clog came up in Harry's throat and he became unable to talk, his mind flashed back to Ron, sitting across from him on the Hogwarts Express at the young age of eleven, "And have you really got – you know…" The room waited for an answer, but all he was able to do was nod. Ginny, sensing his discomfort stepped in,

"It's faded," she said, sitting on the desk casually. "Vereor nex made sure of it," she searched their faces, "it may seem unbelievable but you are going to have to believe it. Because I do, the Minister does, and what more, we have proof and we are the only army there is." The man at the back rested his elbows on the table,

"You're not asking us are you?"

"No," Ginny said, "I'm telling you." The man reached forward and grabbed the results of the DNA test, scanning them with his eyes he put it back.

"Then my hands are pretty much tied aren't they?" He muttered, "what do we have to do?" Harry waited for Ginny to speak, but she didn't. No one did, every eye intently rested on him.

"You expect me to do this do you?" Harry whispered to Ginny,

"Yes, I got them to the place of wanting to help; you need to tell them what to do."

"And you don't think a warning would have been nice?"

"Do you think you can shut up and do as you're told?" She muttered in a violent whisper.

"Do you think you could stop having a stick so far up your ass?" Harry replied, forgetting to whisper, a couple Auror's smiled, amused.

"Real mature…"

"My middle name."

"You're ridiculous." Ginny clenched her jaw, and faced him dead on, forgetting about all the Auror's watching them.

"And you're apparently a bitch." Replied Harry angrily, "I spent god knows how long in a cell being tortured, and I'm more normal than you. You've completely forgotten who you are, who Ginny is. You randomly apparate people, you stab people in the chest without a conscious thought, you don't tell me anything anymore. It's like you aren't even you." In a flash Ginny removed a sword from her sheath, she pushed Harry against the wall with her hand.

"I've changed, we both have." Harry pushed her hand off his chest and moved away from the wall, removing his own sword as he did so.

"But how much?" They stared each other down, then without thinking Ginny slammed her sword against his; it sent a shrill ring through the air, and with that, a duel began. It lasted only a minute before Ginny was disarmed; her sword fell to the ground with a clatter, leaving a hushed silence in its wake. Harry picked it up, feeling the anger that bubbled inside him calm and disappear. He swallowed, hating himself. He placed his sword back into his sheath, looking over the table of Auror's.

"This trip isn't going to be easy." He said his voice clear and stern. "You may die, I may die… but, if we don't even attempt to do this, we will. No question." He sighed, running his hand through his hair, "I may be Harry Potter, but as far as you are all concerned, my name is James. Say I am Harry Potter and god knows what will happen." He looked around the room, "we're going to leave the day after tomorrow, so get prepared." The Auror's stood without a word and left the room, some came up to Harry and clapped him on the back, stating how glad they were that he was alive. When all the Aurors had dispersed, Harry and Ginny were left alone in a screaming silence. Harry didn't turn around to look at her, and she didn't move.

"If there was no real evidence, then why didn't you look for us?" Harry said suddenly, glancing at Ginny; she looked at him as if he had just slapped her.

"I saw you burst into flame," she said so quietly he had to lean it to hear her. "You pushed me out of the way Harry, the heroic bastard you are… and I saw you burst into flame." He looked up, then back down, "I looked anyway," she sighed, taking her sword and securing it to her belt, "a year I looked." She gathered up the papers, "then I was forced to stop."

"Forced?"

"Mum." She said simply, "I needed to stop; I had gotten into a bad state. A really bad state and I was told that if I didn't stop I would be sent to St. Mungo's next to Lockhart."

"You're mum would have never done that."

"Wouldn't she?" Ginny shot back almost angrily, "you didn't see me back then Harry." They stared at each other until Ginny shook her head, as if trying to shake thoughts from it. "Yes, I've changed. But that's what loosing almost everyone I cared about did to me." Harry clenched his jaw,

"I'm sorry I left you," he said to her, she smiled slightly.

"Wasn't really your fault Harry," Ginny traced a finger over her sword's hilt. Harry found himself fighting with the uncontrollable urge to hold her again.

"I missed you," he found himself saying without a real conscious thought, "every day."

"Same here," Ginny muttered back. She took a few paces towards him, looking up into his eyes, "every day." Harry reached out and placed his hand around the back of her neck. Ginny moved closer towards him, he could feel his skin against his, her eyes imploring him. Slowly, he leant his face down to hers, their lips were close, Harry could feel the heat from Ginny's on his own. However, just as they began to touch their moment was shattered with the door opening. Ginny reacted as if someone had just burned her – she jumped away from Harry, her pulse racing, and pretended to be fixing up the sheets of paper on the table. Harry glared up at the door with annoyance; an Auror stood there; he looked both of them up and down, his blonde hair in his eyes,

"Forgot my jacket," he muttered distractedly, moving swiftly into the room and taking the denim jacket from the back of a chair; he then left as quickly as he came. Ginny sighed, relieved when he left.

"We should go," she said, looking at Harry with an expression he was unable to read. Harry merely nodded in reply and followed her from the room, his mind swimming with possibilities, and what might've happened if they weren't interrupted.

A quick update in celebration of finishing the 12th chapter - the next update will take a bit longer!

Thought I'd give you Ginny/Harry loving people something to think about.

Let me know what you thought! I love reading reviews, it's great.

Someone asked:

I was wondering - is harry a great wizard in your story? i.e. i don't feel
like harry has the aura of power or that he commands attention by his
appearance and voice or..any of those potter characteristics for Your
particular harry potter. He's very timid instead and his reactions are way low
- he got pinned to the floor by some ministry guys - he's harry potter! cmon!
he doesn't get pinned down by regular blokes!

In case other people were wondering, I felt I should answer on here. Harry was never super-powerful in Rowling's depiction... it was explained multiple times that the only reason he survived so many things was out of sheer luck. No doubt he was an exceptional wizard - but he wasn't super-human. The Harry Potter I've written about has changed from J.K's Harry, yes. He is timid, he doesn't exude confidence.. but he's been stuck in a cell and tortured to death for God knows how long - wouldn't you be a more like that?
He got pinned by Ministry blokes, yeah. He was taken off-guard - and there were multiple of them. There were many times in the Harry Potter novels that Harry was taken off guard... take for example when he said Voldemort's name and was tied up and such. Mmhm.
Hope that answers the question!

Pheonixxsong