Oh, my God, it's been ages since I updated! So sorry everyone for the wait! I got a bit distracted, had some family events to attend and I did some reading. I know, sometimes fanfiction doesn't govern my entire life, it's quite a rarity :))

Anyways, I'm back now with a new chapter which I hope will entertain you as much as it entertained me :)

Many, many hugs and thanks to my wonderful readers and reviewers:

Emmylianaa22: Harry does indeed get protective around Ginny, well-spotted :) and Neville is the greatest, he'll pop up again soon :) sorry for the long wait.

Satinous: Aww, thank you so much, it's such a treat to hear I managed to render the characters faithfully, I'm really flattered :)

Guest: So glad you liked my incorporating that reference :) It will probably happen again some time soon seeing as I'm not very linear :) As for DH and the epilogue, I guarantee there will be a lot of chapters dealing with the gap since it's got the most creative potential, so no worries, we'll get there :)

Soloz: thank you! happy to update :)

Please enjoy everyone and leave a comment :D

P.S. For anyone who might be confused by the passage from the book, this takes place the night before Harry's big disciplinary hearing at the Ministry after using underage magic.

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11: The Bug

He felt as though a brick had dropped into his stomach when Mrs. Weasley turned to him during dinner on Wednesday evening and said quietly, "I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight, too. A good first impression can work wonders."

Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny all stopped talking and looked over at him. Harry nodded and tried to keep eating his chops, but his mouth had become so dry he could not chew.

"How am I getting there?" he asked Mrs. Weasley, trying to sound unconcerned.

"Arthurs taking you to work with him," said Mrs. Weasley gently.

Mr. Weasley smiled encouragingly at Harry across the table.

"You can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing," he said.

Harry looked over at Sirius, but before he could ask the question, Mrs. Weasley had answered it.

"Professor Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for Sirius to go with you, and I must say I–"

"Think he's quite right," said Sirius through clenched teeth.

Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips.

"When did Dumbledore tell you that?" Harry said, staring at Sirius.

"He came last night, when you were in bed," said Mr. Weasley.

Sirius stabbed moodily at a potato with his fork. Harry lowered his own eyes to his plate.

The thought that Dumbledore had been in the house on the eve of his hearing and not asked to see him made him feel, if it were possible, even worse.

Rowling J. K., Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, PDF, Chapter 6: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, pages 89-90.

He almost wished he could just sit there forever, eating his chops, without having to get up, wash his hair, put on the ironed clothes or follow Mr. Weasley out of 12 Grimmauld Place into the cool morning air towards an uncertain but positively dreadful future.

Hermione was the first to nudge him in the ribs when she noticed he had stopped listening to any of them and was now contemplating running away in the dead of the night.

"Harry, I think we should just go upstairs now, you've got a lot to do before you go to bed and you need a fresh start tomorrow."

She hadn't meant for it to sound as motherly as it did, but a bit of bossiness from his best friend helped him to acknowledge the fact that with her and Mrs. Weasley keeping watch, he couldn't actually make a run for it.

"Hermione's right, mate. We've got to rehearse what you're going to say tomorrow. Don't worry, we've got it all figured out. Fred and George have come up with this cool routine, it really works on mum..." Ron began, trying to cheer him up.

"All right," Mrs. Weasley interrupted them as she entered the kitchen once more after having led Sirius upstairs, "I want you all out of here in roughly three minutes and by ten I expect most of you to be asleep and dreaming. Is that clear? Harry, darling, you should hurry up and take a bath like I told you to."

Harry went slightly red, but he only nodded his head and decided to oblige her, getting up to leave, followed closely by Ron and Hermione, the former of whom was complaining loudly that "this place is making mum worse with each day!".

The twins couldn't help but snicker behind their backs.

Fred started to coo into Ginny's ear, taking off Mrs. Weasley,

"Ginny, darling, you should hurry up and remove those unflattering pyjamas and undergarments from the bathroom like I told you to."

Ginny instantly flushed and glared at Fred scandalized.

"Shut up! You're disgusting! You know I'd never leave –"

Fred held her gaze and challenged it with a raise of an eyebrow.

"You think I'm lying? Who was the last one to take a shower on the third floor dummy?"

Ginny was about to protest, when her face suddenly went as white as a sheet.

"Bollocks! I forgot about –"

Fred patted her on the shoulder, sympathizing. "No worries, Gin, you've still got about one minute to run up before Harry gets there first."

But she was already gone before Fred had managed to finish the sentence.

She was practically flying up the stairs, not bothering to look where she was going.

On her way she passed Ron and Hermione, who both looked at her as if she had gone completely mental, especially when she made an abrupt turn into the corridor, barely avoiding twisting her ankle, as she rushed towards the bathroom.

But she did not care. Harry Potter could not and would not get there first.

She saw him from afar about to turn the knob of the door and she knew she had to make a run for it.

With an excessive force she did not know she possessed, she collided right into his solid back and pushed him straight onto the bathroom floor with a dramatic thud.

If someone had come up and found them right at that moment, they would have seen Ginny Weasley sprawled on top of a very befuddled Harry Potter, as she struggled in vain to get up, managing only to push Harry's spectacled face further into the wet tiles.

"Ginny! Ginny, s-stop! Hang – hang on!" Harry's muffled cry surfaced midst chaos.

The girl listened to him and let him roll over, face upwards, as she slid next to him and hit her back against the now very open door.

"Harry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to tackle you like this!" she blurted out, wincing at the fresh memory of her assault.

"s'all right Ginny," Harry managed, raising himself on his elbows.

"You're a lot stronger than I thought," he remarked, panting.

Ginny was about to reply, but her eyes suddenly trailed upwards and she was met with the horrific sight Fred had described earlier; pyjamas and undergarments hanging from the towel rack.

Harry was about to follow her line of vision, but she quickly got up, averting his gaze.

"Harry, could you please keep your eyes shut for twenty seconds or so?"

The boy stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

"What –"

"Could you just please do it?" she begged, growing more and more embarrassed.

"But why –"

"Please, I'll explain later! I just need you to shut your eyes until I say you can open them. Please."

Although Harry was beginning to suspect the issue was something bathroom-related, he didn't feel any better about having to lie there with his eyes shut while Ginny did Merlin knew what.

But he obliged her anyway.

Ginny mumbled a small thank-you as she quickly rushed to grab her clothes from the rack and fold them into a giant heap that she could safely carry to her room.

When she was done, she leapt past Harry into the corridor and disappeared from sight, forgetting to tell him that she had left.

Harry stood there waiting for several moments, wondering whether Ginny was still in the room and simply not moving or whether she was actually gone.

Needless to say, when he did open his eyes and realized she had indeed left he felt like the biggest idiot alive.

He slowly got up, brushing his knees and surveying his now dirty clothes in amusement and confusion.

He was a little bit irritated but also a great deal puzzled by the entire ordeal.

He was about to close the door and draw the bath, planning to ask Ginny about her outburst after washing up, when she suddenly appeared in the doorway two seconds later.

"Harry – you – I – totally – forgot – I – such – an – idiot! So – sorry!" she breathed out, trying to steady herself as she held onto the door. She looked as if she had run two marathons on her way back.

Harry watched her frantic display, trying to stifle the laughter building up in his throat. You couldn't exactly stay mad at her, could you?

"Er, are you okay, Ginny or do you need me to close my eyes again?" he asked, thoroughly enjoying her anxiousness.

She laughed haggardly and blew a lot of air into his face.

"Oh, Merlin, I really have no excuse, do I?"

"Well, just so you know I'm never doing anything you say again," he clarified in a mock-serious tone.

"Okay, I don't want you to think I'm turning into my twin brothers, I'm not; it's just that I needed to –um –" she trailed off, desperately wracking her brains for a good reason.

"There was this giant bug!" she suddenly exclaimed.

Harry blinked sheepishly.

"Yeah, there was this giant, gross-looking bug on the wall behind you!" she continued with renewed conviction. "And I didn't want you to see it, because it was just really disgusting. So I killed it...which, thankfully, you didn't see either because it was even more disgusting. I was just protecting you, really."

Harry looked behind him at the opposite wall.

"A giant bug, you say?"

"Yes. Green and yellow with large antennae. I caught it in a towel and I left to throw it away," she went on, giving him one terrible lie after another.

"Er, all right, I guess, but how did you know there was a bug before I even opened the door?"

"Huh?" she asked distractedly.

"You were running towards me, before, when you ambushed me into the bathroom," Harry said, reminding her of what had happened mere moments before.

Crap, was all Ginny could muster to think.

"Ah, I – yes, that did happen," she began, hot sweat trickling down her spine, "because...because I'd seen that bug earlier today and I knew it was lurking around here somewhere. So, when I heard you were going to the bathroom..."

"You decided to be the hero and warn me?" Harry finished for her, smiling.

Ginny smiled back apologetically.

It was clear as day he didn't believe her and Ginny knew Harry was only going along with her lie because he was tremendously amused. But there was no point owning up to the truth now.

"Um, you know, tomorrow's not such a big deal anyway," she began softly.

Harry's smile melted away. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know it seems like the world to you now and it is, but it won't be... in the long run. Years from now, you'll just laugh at the memory."

And Ginny did really mean it. She knew how important the hearing was for Harry, but she also knew everything would eventually pass. Time had a way of swallowing it all up. Even the worst things in life faded away at one point. Even the Chamber.

"You think the hearing will be in my favour?"

"I know the hearing will be in your favour. Dumbledore will be there and many other wizards who know who you are and what you've done. They also know Dementors are a bunch of cheating pricks."

Harry laughed despite himself.

"Well-put."

"Yeah, well, everyone's thinking it, I guarantee it."

"Dumbledore came here late last night and he didn't ask to see me – well, you heard what your father said," Harry told her awkwardly.

"Is that what you're upset about?" Ginny asked, folding her arms.

"I know it's sort of stupid, but -"

"Oh, come on, you and Dumbledore both know he wouldn't have been able to do or say anything to help you hours away from your hearing. The best he can do is in front of those wizards tomorrow, not here."

Harry looked at her as if she were much older than he. And a great deal wiser.

"Plus, I can't really imagine him gossiping with the bunch of us over dinner," she added as an after-thought. "Can you?"

Harry chuckled and exhaled a breath he did not know he was holding.

There was a long pause before either of them spoke again.

"So...it was a really big bug, huh?"

Ginny's shoulders relaxed and she smiled, nodding her head.

"Yeah. Enormous. See you in the morning, Harry."