Chapter Four- Hangovers and the DA
"Ugh. What happened?" said very hung-over Ebony. She had woken up to the hustle and bustle of people coming in and out of the Common room. She rubbed her eyes groggily and looked around the room. To her near right, Jamie was still sleeping on the love seat in the same clothes she had worn last night. When Ebony looked down, she noticed she was too.
"Ah!" she groaned.
"Pounding head?" a voice right behind Ebony said. She whipped her head to the side so fast it made her head pound very painfully, "Ouch..."
She felt a firm hand push her back down onto the couch. "Stay. Try to move that fast again and you'll probably make yourself have an even worse headache than the one you already have" Ebony looked up and saw George grinning down and her with a small cup of some unknown potion.
"Here, drink this. It should help with the hangover," he said handing Ebony the cup. She eyed it suspiciously, "What is it?" She was startled by George laughing quietly and shaking his head. "Just drink it. I promise you'll feel a million times better" Ebony grunted quietly then mock-glared at George, "It better make me feel a million times better or I'll sue"
"What?"
"In the muggle world you can 'sue' in court which is basically a way to steal money from someone or a company in a way that is legal," George nodded, though he still didn't really know what she meant. There was an awkward silence as George just stood there, not quite knowing what to do or say, and Ebony sipping the potion while avoiding looking up at him. This had to be the worst most-awkward conversation, or non-conversation they had had thus far.
They both stayed like that for four excruciatingly long seconds until George looked behind him and said, "Umm. Well I should probably get back to Fred. He loves me so much he can't be away from me for too long. So, I'll see you again sometime?"
"Sure, and thanks for the potion I'm already feeling a lot better," With one last grin towards Ebony, George spun on his heel and all but ran up the boy's staircase, stealing another glance at Ebony before disappearing. Ebony blushed down into her cup of the potion George gave her, and was surprised that she really was feeling a tab bit better. She would have to ask him how he knew about the potion. She would ask him when she saw him again. Ebony blushed even harder and took another gulp of her potion.
"What happened yesterday?" she muttered to herself. Again, Ebony looked at the still sleeping Jamie and remembered it was Jamie who had given the liquor to her. Ebony had no idea how Jamie had even gotten a hold of the liquor, and knew it would be better not to know. Ebony vowed to never again get drunk in her life no matter the reason. She didn't bother to leave any more of the potion for Jamie, and got up off the couch slowly and cautiously. She knew she was being petty and immature, but Jamie was the reason she had had to deal with the terrible hangover in the first place. Ebony ignored the little part of her brain telling her she was partially responsible, and climbed up the steps to her dormitory.
She walked into the dormitory and went towards her bed. All the other beds were empty, so Holly and Ginny were probably already down in the Great Hall.
Ebony sat at the end of her bed and tried to remember the events from the day before. Yesterday had been her fifteenth birthday...
She stood up with a gasp and the move made her dizzy, and she almost lost her balance. Yesterday had been her birthday! She had received a letter... It had been a letter that she remembered being the worst thing ever in her fifteen years of living.
Ebony scrambled up on her bed, ignoring the vertigo it came with. She tried to find the letter from her mother and its contents. She searched in her trunk, under the mattress, under the bed, inside the pillow, inside the little crack on the bed's wooden frame. She searched everywhere, leaving her space in the dormitory very messy, but she had still failed to find the letter. Ebony groaned and lied down on the bed, but it ended up looking more like a collapse. As she let herself fall on the bed, a couple pieces of paper tumbled out of her robe's pocket. She let out a little gasp of surprise and hastily picked up the letters and re-read them.
The dread returned again after reading the letter from her "mother" again, but this time it wasn't as bad. As long as no one ever found out...
"Ugh! Ginny already knows!" she said remembering she had told Ginny.
"Ginny already knows what?"
Ebony started, and was half-way to her wand when she realized it was just Holly. "Oh it's just you..."
Holly grinned, "Nice to know you're enthusiastic to see me... So what's this about Ginny knowing something?"
Ebony discreetly hid the letters under the covers of her bed, and said as evenly as she could, "I was just surprised is all. I have a bit of a hangover and it's still getting to me even with some of George's potion. Oh, she already knew about my crush on him..."
Holly's bright blue eyes bulged, "I'm not surprised about the hangover, considering how drunk you were, but the George thing it new! Hey, maybe he likes you too considering how gentle he was when setting you on the couch" Ebony cringed because she didn't like lying to her friends and for the reminder of why she was so hung-over. Holly noticed the cringed and misunderstood it, "Oh! I'm talking too loud for you, huh? I'm so sorry! - Hey, I could bring you something to eat from the Great Hall, 'cause I doubt you can take the noise out there..."
Ebony felt really bad about the lie, but she didn't think she could handle the noise until the potion George gave her completely kicked in. She smiled faintly at Holly and received a small one in return.
Ebony pulled the letters out from under the covers, folded them neatly before placing them on the bedside-table, and tried to get dressed. She was in the process of changing her blouse when a very disgruntled Jamie stormed into the room and collapsed into her bed. Jamie was obviously having an even worse time with her hangover because she hadn't had any of George's magical "Hang-over- be-gone".
"Jay? You okay?"
"What? You're talking to loudly... Ugh! I swear it's like my brain is trying to pound its way out of my aching head!", Jamie whispered. Ebony immediately felt bad about not leaving Jamie any potion.
"Well, I know someone who could help you out with the hangover if you want it..." Ebony whispered as loudly as she dared. Jamie picked her head up from the bed and cocked it to the side to see Ebony, "Who?"
"George... He knows how to make a potion and helps out with the hangover a bit"
"Could...could you please ask him to make one, or something?" Jamie said letting her head fall back into the mattress, making her voice sound muffled. Ebony said she would and then after she finished putting on her uniform and some shoes, she walked down the staircase. She was feeling a lot better than before George had given her the potion, and was thankful for it. The common room was obnoxiously loud. No wonder Jamie woken up in such a bad mood.
She passed various students, all hanging out in the comforts of the common room, and walked with caution up the boy's staircase. She passed various doors until she reached the seventh year dorm. She looked down at her hand and was about to lift it up to knock when it was thrown open. Ebony was almost sent flying down the many steps, but a strong arm grabbed her hand before she could fall. The arm pulled her into the room and she ran into none other than George Weasley with his twin right next to him.
She looked up at George, who was just as shocked as she was.
"Why, hello there princess..." Fred said.
"Shut up, Fred..." Ebony said quite lamely. Ebony stayed in George's protective arms for a few second longer than was necessary until Fred coughed, alerting them both of how long they were hugging.
Ebony could feel the blush burning, "Umm... I just came to say thanks about the potion thing you gave me. I'm also on behalf of Jamie, whom also says she would appreciate some 'Hangover Be-Gone'..."
The twins grinned, "Hangover-"
"Be-Gone... I like it... We should really name it that George", Fred finished.
Ebony just stood there awkwardly, a little creeped out and awed by how in sync the twins were.
"We still have some, so I'll just give you some in a cup to give to Jamie", Fred said.
"Thanks Fred." Ebony always knew which twin was who; she was just weird like that.
Fred grinned, "Ha-ha. Seems you haven't lost your gift to be able to distinguish who we are... You know some-thing's wrong when a person you aren't related to can tell the differences between us better than our own mum can sometimes...Never ceases to creep me out"
Ebony felt another blush coming on, "Well, you might be almost identical, but you two still have your own differences. No two humans could ever be completely identical in every way."
She looked up and the twins were grinning impishly. She suddenly found her hands very interesting. Ebony looked up again and saw George handing her a small vial with the potion.
"Thank you, really", Ebony said earnestly at the two boys whom just grinned as she made her way towards the door. She put her hand on the handle when she cocked her head to the side and said, "How come you two don't have any dorm mates?"
The two twins laughed until Fred began, "We still have Lee, but the three of us scared off the other guy when we were in third year and now he sleeps with this year's fourth years-"
"- We traumatized him... He's never been the same since...", George finished.
Ebony's eyes widened in surprise, "What did you guys do to him?" The two boys fidgeted. Ebony sighed, "Never mind. I'm pretty sure now I don't really want to know," George stepped towards her, "You see..."
"...It wasn't our fault he left..."
"...He just couldn't handle a good joke..."
"..He always hated snakes..."
"...So, naturally we decided it would be funny if we turned his 'man junk'..."
".. Into a snake..."
Ebony burst into a fit of giggles; instantly feeling guilty and a tad bit sad for the boy that the twins had traumatized. She knew it was wrong and that having a snake replace your man parts should be traumatizing to any boy/man, but it was pretty funny in a sense.
After realizing she wasn't going to scold them, the twins laughed along with her. Then as if remembering something, Ebony said her goodbye hastily and walked out of the dormitory in a flustered manner and half-ran down the staircase. Without looking around the common room, she ran up the girl's staircase and into her dormitory.
She made a beeline to Jamie's bed and left the vial on top of her trunk at the foot of her bed and whispered in her ear, "I got the potion..." Jamie obviously had not been sleeping because she heard every word. Ebony went towards her bed, while Jamie gulped down the potion in the vial. She noticed a tray with a bit of food on the top of her trunk and smiled. Holly really was a sweetheart. Holly had gotten Ebony all of her favorite breakfast foods, which would have meant she would've had to ignore her very nature. Ebony's food was far from healthy, so Holly had to have really made an effort.
She made a mental note to thank Holly about this later and sat down on her bed. She reached out and picked out to pick up the tray to rest it on her lap, and took a bite out of a chocolate chip muffin. She saw the folded pieces of paper by her bed and dropped her muffin into the bowl of grapes which was probably the only "healthy" thing. Ebony hastily picked up the letters and stuffed them in her shoe. She didn't feel safe putting them anywhere else. Ebony looked nervously at Jamie, whom had not seen a thing. She was already in dreamland probably dreaming about something odd or some new prank she wanted to try out. How Jamie could sleep at any time during the day for long periods of time and still be able to sleep at night was beyond Ebony.
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"Harry, mate what do you reckon that Ebony girl meant about the 'mass murderer' part?" Ron said in a whisper. Harry really didn't want to think about what she had said, because that would mean she was his god-sister...or whatever.
"I dunno, Ron... Why don't you ask her when you see her," Harry didn't want to make it obvious that he himself was very curious and was still brooding over what Ebony had said, but he was curious and still brooding.
"Ron, just drop it. She was drunk beyond her wits!" Hermione cried out.
"Exactly! People yell tell the truth when they're drunk... That's just how it is", Ron countered.
Harry resisted the urge to sigh hearing his two best friends banter, "Shut it both of you... It's too much hearing you two at each other's throats so early in the day," Ron and Hermione both shut up, but continued the argument with their eyes. Harry didn't care if they still continued their little 'battle' as long as it wasn't verbal and it didn't distract him from his thoughts.
After the trio finished eating breakfast they made to walk out of the Great Hall and they noticed Holly putting a variety of foods onto a tray and carry it out of the Great Hall. It was especially unusual, because Holly was notorious for being a complete health freak. The only thing that could pass as healthy on that tray was a small bowl of grapes.
They walked out at the same time as she did, but all deemed it wise to not ask. Ginny's friends all had their weird quirks. Besides, she was probably getting the food for one or both of her friends that hadn't showed up in the Great Hall. That would explain the chocolate muffins...
"Oi, Harry!" Ron exclaimed while waving a hand in front of Harry's face.
"What?"
"You were spacing out there, mate..." Ron said then dropping his voice into a whisper, "When are we having the first DA lesson?" Harry started. He had sort of forgotten about the whole DA thing. Weird.
"Uh ... weren't we having it this Monday?"
Ron looked at Harry dumbly until realization dawned on him, "Oh right! Ha-ha. I can't believe I forgot about that..."
"I can't believe you forgot about it either, Ron", Hermione said curtly.
Harry ignored Hermione's remark at Ron's lapse of memory and focused on not running into anything solid on their way back to the Common room. He was thinking of how he would word his letter to Sirius so it wouldn't reveal anything unnecessary, but could still subtly hint at Ebony...
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"Ebony, you're a life saver", Holly said with a contented sigh as she leaned back on the couch in the Common room. Ebony looked up from her book that she was studying from, "What?"
"You managed to keep Jamie from killing everyone by giving her that potion thingy that kept her as sane as Jamie can be! The world is grateful to you"
Ebony flushed a light pink colour and grinned at her friend, "You'd have to thank George and Fred because they made the potion. I named it 'Hangover Be-Gone' and they seemed to like the name, so..." She closed her mouth and looked down at her book reading the same sentence again, but not really remembering what she read. Ebony didn't want to look up again, because she knew Holly would be giving her an obnoxiously knowing look and grinning like the maniac she is. She had rambled, and of George Weasley at that.
Holly was still giggling quietly and Ebony was making another futile attempt to study, when Ginny sat down next to Holly on the couch. She turned to Holly, "What's so funny?"
Holly grinned and looked at the back of Ebony's head and said bluntly, "She's just in denial and I'm having a kick at watching her reactions," Ginny knew it was best to ask if she wanted to know and got straight to the point, "Okay. Whatever. Anyway, both of you have to come tomorrow. We have another meeting tomorrow after classes, so don't forget"
"Sure, sure", Holly said very condescendingly.
"We'll be there", Ebony said without looking up from her textbook. Ginny nodded at them and went up the girl's staircase into their dormitory.
"Aren't you excited?", Holly said in bad attempt at whispering.
Ebony looked around nervously before answering, "Of course I am, but we shouldn't be talking about it right now- it's not very private. Anyone could hear if they wanted to," she added with a pointed look at a very small first year across the room.
Holly followed Ebony's glare towards the first year and shook her head while rolling her eyes.
"He didn't hear anything- Hey kid! Did you hear anything we just said?" The little first year, startled, dropped his books he had been struggling to hold onto. The kid shook his head with wide eyes, too frightened to speak.
"See? He didn't hear anything, so keep your hair on. Jeez", Holly muttered. Ebony rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. She walked back up the girl's staircase, leaving Holly alone in the Common room, and dropped her books down on her bed. She looked towards Ginny's bed, where Ginny on the edge. Ginny had been waiting for Ebony, so she could talk to her. Ginny had not wanted to tell Harry until she at least had Ebony's consent. It wouldn't have been a good idea if she just went and told Harry before Ebony was ready to tell anyone else. Ebony wasn't particularly known for having a cool or calm temper.
"We need to talk", Ginny said before Ebony had time turn and head back out of the dormitory. Ebony took her sweet time to turn and composed her face into a blank, polite expression. She turned to Ginny and decided to pretend to not know what she meant, "Sorry?"
Ginny raised a red eyebrow, "Don't be daft, you know exactly what I'm talking about" Ebony looked at where Jamie lay crumpled in an array of blankets and pillows, obviously asleep. Ebony sighed in defeat and walked towards Ginny's bed.
"What? Are you going to pity me about being the daughter of the most infamous mass-murderer in both Wizarding and muggle worlds?" she asked warily.
Ginny looked horrified at Ebony's poor choice of words. If only Ebony knew the truth about that terrible night. Ginny took on an unreadable expression and said, "No, but I do want to talk about Sirius with you. He's not who you think he is. Sirius... Sirius didn't really kill all those muggles and Peter Pettigrew on the night James and Lily were betrayed." Ginny let what she had said sink in, but before Ebony could open her mouth and say anything else she interrupted.
"I need you to promise to never tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. Do you promise?"
"Y-yeah I promise,"Ebony said. She knew she didn't have much of a choice, and Ginny was keeping a big secret for her as well. An eye for an eye, she thought, so it's not too much for Ginny to ask.
Ginny took a big breath and made sure to cast a charm on the door of the dormitory to keep people from listening in. She didn't want Holly coming up and hearing their conversation from outside the door.
"Okay, first I want you to know that Sirius Black and James Potter were best friends since they were first years here at Hogwarts," When Ebony nodded, she went on, "When James and Lily had Harry, they made Sirius his godfather" Ginny paused again and when Ebony's eyes widened she continued.
"So? So Sirius Black is... Harry's...?" Ebony asked tentatively. Ginny nodded, "Yes. Sirius was also made their secret keeper when they went into hiding, but eventually he convinced them to make Peter the secret keeper. He thought You-Know-Who would expect him to be the secret keeper, and not have seen it coming if it was little Peter." Ginny had a little trouble saying the rest, "Sirius hated...hates himself because Peter told 'You-Know-Who' where the Potter family was... After, Sirius went after Peter and tried to kill him, but Peter framed Sirius by blowing up half of the block and cutting off his finger before disappearing. He faked his own death, so it made Sirius look bad."
"Wow... You said he disappeared, so he disapparated?"
"No, James and his friends had all become animagi during their school days. Peter's was a rat, so it wasn't that hard to slip out unnoticed.", Ginny said solemnly.
The two girls sat on Ginny's bed in a contemplative silence until Ebony broke it, "You talked about Sirius almost as if you knew him...Why is that?"
Ginny fidgeted under Ebony's unwavering stare and thought about how to answer.
"I...I do... He is Harry's godfather after all. Besides, how else do you think we heard the whole story?" Ebony's eyes widened. She had wondered at how Ginny knew what she knew, but it was still a shock to hear your friend you though you knew had been in close proximity of an alleged mass-murderer. She gasped out a quiet "wow" and tried to organize all the information she had received in a way that made sense. That in itself was not an easy task, in the least.
Ebony pulled out the letter from her shoe, ignoring Ginny's questioning stare. "I didn't feel comfortable leaving them anywhere else, where anyone could accidentally come across it and read it. Also, I don't want to burn them..."
Ginny nodded and Ebony looked over the letters seeing them in a new light. "It's ... all...so foreign to me. All this time, I had lived life in a stupid sheltered bubble, away from reality. A sucky metaphor, I know, but it;s how I feel. I've been lied to about this for my whole life by the people I thought were my real parents. My biological father was convicted as a mass-murderer, but really isn't. I have absolutely no idea if the mother than abandoned me is even alive!", said Ebony with her voice rising in pitch and anxiety with every word. A single tear rolled down Ebony's ivory-coloured skin, and she hastily wiped it off. She then vowed to not cry about this anymore, and especially not in public.
She closed her eyes and tried to stop her eyes from burning; threatening to spill more tears, and tried to slow her heart down to normal. Her eyes shut down even tighter when she felt Ginny wrap a reassuring arm around her shoulders. People often had the misconception that hugging helps a crying person. They had no idea how utterly wrong they were.
If anything, someone hugging you makes it that much harder to keep yourself from crying. It's like a way to encourage your tear ducts to produce and let out more tears.
The two friends sat there for what seemed like ages. Ebony cried until her eyes were red and puffy, and she had no more tears left. Ginny, like the good friend she is, sat there with her until she was feeling better.
"Better?" she asked Ebony.
Ebony shook her head, "No, but I can't keep crying about it. Crying isn't going to change things or even make them better...It's just as an old Jewish proverb goes... I do not wish for a lighter burden just broader shoulders..." Looking at Ginny's confused face she added, "Its saying that I don't wish for things to get easier, but I just want to be strong enough to be able to bear everything"
"Oh. Well, that would make sense," Ebony nodded at Ginny and made to get up towards to go clean her face when the door opened to let in Holly. Holly took in Ebony and Ginny's similar sombre expressions and Ebony's tear-stained cheeks.
"What happened?", she asked Ebony. When Ebony ignored her question and proceeded to go to washroom to clean her face, Holly turned to Ginny with a confused expression. Ginny gave her a barely perceptible shake of the head and a look that clearly said, "Don't ask".
Holly did as she was told and went towards her bed and took out her Potions book. She figured if she wasn't going to be told what was happening and Jamie was asleep, she might as well catch up to all the homework they had. Professor Snape wasn't too bad to their year, but he wouldn't hesitate to deduct a ridiculous amount of points off Gryffindor just because someone didn't do their assignment. Ginny followed her example and started working on her Transfiguration assignment.
Ebony didn't return until awhile later, looking like she had not been crying only minutes ago. She avoided looking at her friends and sat herself on her bed and tried to do her homework as well.
Trying to focus on anything other than the conversation her and Ginny had just had was like trying to make Snape use shampoo, simply useless and futile. Ebony gave up on the Charms assignment and changed into a sleeping gown and climbed into bed.
"G'night Holly...Ginny", she said before shutting the curtains around her bed and resting her head on the comfortable pillow and closing her eyes to sleep.
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Ebony did not wake up in a good mood. In fact, the only one who didn't seem plagued with any worry was Jamie. Ebony was worried for obvious reasons, and also the fact she had to face Umbridge today again. Ginny was worried for Ebony's predicament and on how her friend would handle Umbridge. Holly was hell-bent on believing that Ebony and Ginny were hiding something important from her and Jamie.
Despite the fact that the three girls all were worried over different things, they all felt like there was now a rift between the four friends. Ebony and Ginny were obviously closer than ever with the Golden Trio. Holly wasn't in the know, but she wasn't as clueless as Jamie. She still knew that something was up and she wanted to know. She would interrogate them both after the DA meeting tonight.
The quartet each got up from the Gryffindor table in sync, and walked towards their first class. Arithmancy was calm, much to Professor Stewart's glee. Soon it was time for Defense against the Dark Arts. It was the class everyone, even Jamie, was dreading the most.
When they took their usual seats in the back of the room, they didn't even bother to take out their wands out anymore. Umbridge told the select few that had been hopeful enough to take them out, that we wouldn't need them in the lesson that day. Typical.
Ebony was wearing the usual blank, neutral-as-possible expression when she's in this class, and stared at her DADA textbook. Ebony was set on staying out of sight for the whole day. She didn't want to call any more attention to herself than what was necessary. She knew she was being paranoid, and that thinking that people would know her secret when they saw her was childish. She was relieved when all that happened that lesson was Umbridge send her the occasional sneer, but had not called her out again.
The day progressed as smoothly as any day in Hogwarts can, and soon they were walking out of their Divination class heading towards the Gryffindor common room. Together and silently, they walked back down to the Great Hall for dinner. They sat uncharacteristically closer to the Golden Trio and ate in silence. The only one whom acted remotely normal was Jamie, who was talking to Fred animatedly about a prank that involved a lot of dungbombs, vinegar, and feathers.
The Trio, Ebony and Ginny were all giving each other shifty glances that they thought no one else noticed. Of course, anyone who cared noticed, but they didn't call them out on it. Their friends were used to their odd-ness. It was just a known fact that the trio, Ginny, and Ebony were odd folk. It was nothing new.
After dinner was done, and Dumbledore had dismissed them all, everything went normally. Everyone went to their respective common rooms, but as soon as everyone was settled several from three different houses sneaked out of their common rooms and all met on one floor. On that floor they found Harry and the rest of the golden trio standing in front of a large, intricate-looking door and were ushered into an amazing room with mirrors along the walls. It had a couple bookshelves of books, mostly for Hermione's benefit, and a scary-looking dummy thing. It was in the shape of a very ugly dummy of a Death Eater.
Some people, mainly Jamie, found it ironic that it was a dummy of a Death Eater. She had a logic that anyone who would willingly follow that megalomaniac, Voldemort, would have to be either insane or very idiotic. They would have to be very idiotic or maybe have a death wish.
Everyone greeted Harry in unison and Harry began, "I figured we should start with stun, disarming, and defensive spells for the first lesson..." Harry was then rudely interrupted by Zacharias Smith making, once again, and arse out of himself.
As Ebony expected, no one agreed with the git, and Ron looked about ready to hex him into oblivion.
"Shut up and quit making a bigger arse out of yourself, Smith, and let the man teach", Jamie exclaimed, much to Harry's gratitude. The twins grinned in appreciation, as did almost everyone else in the room. Harry continued and began reviewing the spells that they were going to practice that day. They all started with the disarming spell Expelliarmus.
When Zacharias tried to belittle Harry again about the spell, he was shut up by Harry saying something about using it against Voldemort last year during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. That sure shut Zacharias up.
Ebony thought Harry had done a good job in choosing that spell first, because some people were having trouble with it. If people couldn't get by that simple spell, it would be terribly difficult to get them to accomplish the harder spells. She had to admire the logic behind the choice.
At some point in the lesson they had to pair up. Ebony, since Ginny was with Michael, chose some random Hufflepuff that was friends with Michael. While they were practicing the disarming spell, she had the feeling he had let her disarm him first. Quite frankly, it bugged her to no end. Sure, the guy was pretty cute, but she already liked someone a lot. Ebony scowled at the boy's attempts at flirting with her, and distracted herself by watching the twins. Instead of practicing on each other, as they were instructed to, they were taking turns to disarm Smith before he had time to even lift his wand.
She giggled into her free hand and while she was very distracted she was hit by a disarming spell, which sent her wand flying. She looked at the Hufflepuff incredulously - she had totally forgotten about him.
Perhaps he had noticed her staring unabashedly at the twins?
Ebony retaliated by sending him a well-aimed disarming spell at him, when he gave her wand back.
The whole lesson went by in a similar manner, with Jamie and Holly bickering the whole time. It really was almost as amusing as Fred and George's. Pretty soon, it was time to go. As everyone else eased their way out of the strange room, Ebony and Ginny stayed back. Ginny got a hold on Harry's shoulder and sent Hermione a significant look, so when Ron tried to stay back she would know to not let him.
"We need to talk to you, Harry", Ginny said.
"Yeah, sure. About what?", he replied. The two girls looked at each other and took deep breaths.
"It's... about... Sirius", Ebony finally said. "Don't worry I know he isn't bad...", she added when she saw realization and fear flit across his face. Ebony saw him relax slightly, and Ginny went on.
"Harry, I'm pretty sure you already know by now that Ebony is in fact Sirius's daughter. I know that you somehow put two and two together..."
"So, it's really true?" he said after a while. Ebony looked at him, eyes unwavering when she said, "Yeah. It's all true and I've come to terms with it. That's what me and Ginny came to talk to you about." When Harry didn't answer, she continued. "Also, I think I want to meet him."
"Wow, this is new. You didn't even tell me..." Ginny said after she regained composure. Ebony sent her a pleading look, "I couldn't, because I just realized it myself,"
"No, it's okay. I think I could arrange for you to meet him. I doubt Sirius would mind, anyway." He added to himself as an afterthought. Ebony's face brightened, while Ginny's became suspicious.
"What did you do, Harry?"
When Harry didn't say anything she said a little louder, "What did you do, Harry James Potter?"
Harry fidgeted uncomfortably and replied, "I sort of already sent Sirius a letter about you, Ebony"
Ebony's face blanched from shock, "What?"
(A/N: Haha Don't you just love cliffies?
Sorry about the delay. I had absolutely no time to write for the past week(s), and that accompanied by laziness is NOT a good mix. Anyway, sorry about the really long A/N I don't like long ones either. They're annoying.)