Chapter 8 : A light in the night

"And you haven't experienced any other symptoms aside from the nausea?"

"For the last time, no, nothing. Are you done yet?"

The look Susan gave him made it clear just how unimpressed she was with his desire to leave as quickly as possible. Not that it mattered to Harry though, he'd ended up in Mme Pomfrey's care often enough to learn to ignore it.

"You know, if you're going to be the ship's doctor, you could at least work on your bedside manners"

"If I'm going to be the dedicated healer of this ship, I'd like for you to let me do my job. You may be the captain, be in here, you're just another patient."

All around them, the room they had begun to turn into an onboard infirmary was filled to the brim with sick crew members. Almost everyone had fallen sick one way or another after their little lunar excursion and the relatively small room had quickly overflowed with patients. Those with the most severe symptoms had been eased onto the few beds they had while the others were sent back to their quarters after they had been examined.

In the corner of the room, he could see Dean plunge his upper half into the enchanted trunk he used to store their supplies of medicinal potions. As he emerged with his arms full of vials, his pale complexion and the slight tremor of his hands seemed even more pronounced than they had the last time Harry saw him just a few minutes earlier. He had tried more than once, unsuccessfully, to make him stop and rest like the others. Nothing seemed to convince their other healer in training to take care of himself when others needed him.

Well if he was going to be stubborn, two could play this game. Staying put and doing nothing while others worked had never been Harry's strong suit anyway. He jumped down from the examination table he was sitting on and put the top half of his suit back on while glancing at Susan.

"So, any idea about what's going on? If we all caught some sort of space disease, we can't let anyone go back to Hogwarts until it's gone."

She gave a sigh as she put down the slate she was holding and leaned on the table.

"We're not sure yet. The nature and intensity of the symptoms vary from one person to another, so we can't pinpoint the exact cause. So far we've had people complaining of fever, nausea, vomiting, headaches, vertigo... The list is growing by the hour."

Her traits were drawn and he could still see the numerous vials of pain relievers he had seen her drink through the night. The sooner this was all other, the sooner he could order them all to bed.

"We've seen some improvement in most of the patients after some general care and bed rest, but we can't go beyond that without knowing exactly what we're dealing with. Administering the wrong treatment could worsen the symptoms for all we know."

"Not much to do than keep looking, then. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

From the speed at which she turned toward him with a frown, he knew he must have said exactly the wrong thing. How did he always manage to get on the bad side of the people responsible for keeping him in one piece?

"We're lucky that it seems like nothing too serious happened this time, but it won't always be the case."

"Well, yeah but-"

"We need a real healer." She interrupted him, shaking her head. "With so many of us experimenting all day with alien stuff, it's a wonder no one has lost an arm yet. Relying on two students doing the bare minimum after a few weeks of light tutoring and praying for the best is a recipe for disaster."

"I know, we're working on it. We need to be careful with the people we bring in on this, and these things take time. Can't you use the alien stuff to make do in the meantime? There's got to be medical equipment in here."

"You're kidding, right? We're still cataloguing everything on the ship and browsing a computer library the size of London." She picked up a nearby device with a cylindrical shape and protuberances on both ends and abruptly brought it right under his nose. "For all we know, this thing could be used to detect problems with your spleen, or it could rearrange your insides to whatever is normal for aliens."

"Probably best not to put it in people's face then." He slowly pushed down the offending gadget before he took it out of her hand and placed it on the table. Susan offered no resistance, her exhaustion catching up to her as her expression softened.

"I know you want to protect us, but we can't do all of this ourselves. We haven't even finished school yet and now we have to learn completely different things. Amazing and wonderful things, but it will take time. The mistakes we make along the way can have real consequences. Especially if..."

Her voice faltered for an instant, before she clenched her fists, took a deep breath and raised her head to look him in the eyes, brimming with determination.

"When we fight against You-Know-Who, it's gonna be a lot worse."

"Some of us don't exactly have a choice in the matter and we will have to fight, but not everyone-"

"Don't." She raised her index to his face, as she would a wand ready to unleash a deadly spell. "Don't you dare. This is our fight as much as yours. You're not the only one to have lost your family to these... to these monsters."

"I..."

There are many things he could have said. Many half-hearted arguments, sensible reasons and reasonable alternatives he could have brought up. But since when did any of them do the logical things? When you are a magical teen caught between a terrorist led-government and a spaceship while still going to class every Thursday, logic was the last thing you cared about.

And with every sick friend and acquaintance filling the room standing as shining beacons of how right she was... He couldn't bring himself to rebuke her.

Especially since, deep down, he knew she was right.

And he really didn't want her to point something at his face again.

"Alright, I get it. I'll see what I can do, ok?"

"Good. And don't you forget it."

The soft whirring and buzzing of various devices and half finished inventions that filled Lee's office could be heard even before he opened the door, but it was at least expected. What wasn't, was that the room looked like a tornado had ravaged the place since he was last here. Large sheets of parchment covered in schematics, schemas and equations had been scattered around as if it was the latest hit in home decoration. On the large desk occupying the middle of the room, a suit laid half-dismantled while the missing parts had been thrown around haphazardly.

Neither Lee nor the Wesley twins seemed bothered by the mess, however, as they continued to argue in front of a large whiteboard covered in scribbles and drawings of a suit. They seemed so engrossed in their quarrel, battling to be heard or for ownership of the only marker, that they did not hear the faint hiss of the door. For a second, Harry was tempted to let them continue, just to see how long it would take them to notice his presence. Unfortunately, the night itself had already been far too long for him to indulge in anything that would delay his reunion with the soft sheets of his bed anymore.

He stepped into the room, putting enough strength into his steps for them to be heard by the squabbling trio.

"Guys. Care to tell me what's this all about?"

As one, the three stopped and turned toward him, looking like deer in headlights. Their surprise only lasted an instant, however, and they soon gathered their bearings. Fred crossed his arms with a sour look while George sheepishly started to rub his neck and looked everywhere but at him. Lee, for his part, gave an exasperated sigh that Harry would have happily echoed.

This was off to a great start.

Just as Harry opened his mouth to press them for answers, George's lips seemed to unsew themselves and the words flew like arrows.

"It's our fault! I swear, we thought everything was fine, we did a lot of testing, but we hadn't-"

"What are you talking about?"

"The whole sickness thing... It's our fault."

That... Wasn't what Harry was expecting. The admission seemed to sour Fred's mood even more, however.

"We couldn't have known. We're only responsible in the sense that we failed to prevent it."

"It's still our fault."

"We can't be held responsible for not knowing everything!"

"That's not the point and you damn well know it."

Harry could feel the irritation simmering in his blood flare at the bickering contest flaring up once again in front of him. With half the crew still stuck in the infirmary and the last echoes of his own nausea making him feel like he was about to throw up, he had very little patience to spare at the moment. Still, he forced his voice to stay levelled, keeping all hints of his annoyance from it. Shouting would help no one right now.

"Guys, focus. Why is it your fault? Did you slip us all one of your jokes sweet?"

Fred and George stopped squabbling mid sentence and exchanged a few glances, as if silently discussing what they should say without managing to agree on something. Next to them, Lee gave them a look of his own, thoroughly unimpressed, but seemingly unsurprised. He most likely has seen them like that more than a few times over the years.

They seemed to finally find a compromise as they started talking again, albeit with clear reluctance.

"It's not like that..."

"Yeah, that would have been much better."

"None would have been in danger then."

"Now, it wasn't that ba-"

"It was a flaw in the suit." Lee interrupted, frustration clear in his voice. "When we conjured them, we had to enter quite a few environmental parameters, including the amount of radiation they could shield us from."

Finally, a straight answer.

"I remember. But I thought you guys took care of it?"

"We did!" Fred piped up. "The suits work perfectly and they do protect us from radiations, thank you very much."

"As long as you're not exposed to the enormous quantities that permeate deep space or stay in them too long." George grumbled as he sent an accusatory look to his twin. "We prioritised the ease of movement and comfort since we thought the armour platings would be enough protection."

"Now hold on, why is it only becoming a problem now? We've gone out of the ship plenty of times before, and no one fell sick like that."

"Because we were protected without even knowing it. Here, I'll show you."

Lee summoned one of the sheets of parchment and inkwell that were laying around the room and took out his quill. He spread it out on a nearby console and quickly drew a rough sketch of Earth, the moon and the sun. He then added small waves coming out of the sun in every direction, dotting the parchment with small blots of ink in his haste.

"It's a gross simplification, but the sun is like a giant continuous nuclear explosion, releasing an insane amount of radiation into space." He added two rounded half circles around the earth, joining the two poles. "Now, the Earth and its atmosphere are protected by a magnetic field generated by the planet's core-"

"Just like the shield on the ship, protecting us from all the bad stuff space throws at us." George supplied.

"Exactly. Every time we went out, we stayed close enough to a planet or the ship to be protected by these shields. That greatly reduced the amount of radiation the suits were taking in and we never stayed out too long anyway. We even built the station close enough to Neptune that it is inside its field. This time however..."

"The moon is too far away. It's not in the field." Harry nodded in grim understanding as he looked at the drawing.

"Bingo. And it doesn't have one of its own."

Knowing what happened was all well and good, but the churning in his stomach reminded Harry of the more important question here.

"Alright, but do you know if we are going to get sicker?"

Harry vividly remembered a man burned by radiation in a movie Vernon watched, years ago. He could only see a part of the telly through the openings in the cupboard's door, but the sight remains engraved in his memory to this day.

"We should be ok. We're not sure if magicals are more resistant to radiation or if we weren't exposed long enough for serious damage to be done, but Susan told me that even the sickest patients are well on their way to recovery the last time I checked."

"That doesn't mean we can ignore this going forward." George announced, a bit of his usual cheerfulness coming back.

"And that's why we're gonna work on a new version of the suits that'll let us go out in deep space safely."

"Might be a bit bulkier though."

"As long as we don't die while taking a stroll, I'll consider it a win."

With the twins perking up, the weighty mood of the meeting was lifted and they talked for a while longer of their plans going forward. There was still so much they didn't know about this new environment where no wizard had gone before, just like the ship itself. They were still unsure what half of the consoles did, and they had only managed to access and translate a small portion of the enormous databanks of the ship.

Hopefully they wouldn't kill themselves by accident before they could figure it all out.

"Harry! Harry, a moment please!"

His blood froze in his veins and his feet stopped mid-stride at the call. This day had been going so well before that. Just another normal Thursday where the only dark cloud should have been his morning class with Snape. The daily routine he had fallen into had finally betrayed him to complacency and nothing could have prepared Harry for Him.

With a look and a nod, he told his friends to go on ahead and leave him to his fate. He could see the look in their eyes, how they hid their derision behind a thin veil of concern. Well, except Ron of course. The traitor was smirking at him, barely containing a laugh and taking delight in his plight as they resumed their march up the stairs.

Left alone to face the coming enemy, Harry closed his eyes and took a big breath to steady himself. Gathering both courage and patience, he turned around, a crisped smile on his face.

Merlin knew he was going to need both those things if he was to deal with this today.

"Good afternoon, professor."

"Harry, my boy! Just the man I was looking for." Horace Slughorn announced with his usual exuberant cheerfulness as he reached the stair landing below Harry. "I hope you are doing well."

"I'm... fine, sir."

"Good, good. I hope I'm not intruding on your free day. Then again, you do have a lot of those this year, don't you?" Harry could only stare as Slughorn gave him a knowing smile and a complicit wink.

"I-"

"Still. Quite the luck that I bumped into you now. You are an awfully hard man to find, you know? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you spent your days away from the castle!"

"I'm just... busy. With homework, helping out the quidditch team, and... and everything else. You know how it is."

"Quite, quite. But any longer and I would have begun to think you were avoiding me."

That... wasn't completely inaccurate. One might even say it was the complete truth of the matter. Ever since he attended the one on board the Express, Harry had been doing his best to avoid him and his invitations to the "little gatherings" of his club as much as possible. And although there had been a few times when his excuses had been more than a little flimsy, he had so far managed to escape the man's insistence.

"Still, I digress. I wanted to invite you to a little party I'm organising this Saturday to celebrate the new term. Many of your classmates will attend, and it will be a good opportunity to get your mind off the schoolwork that keeps you so busy."

Around them, a few students had stopped around the stairs, watching his complete lack of social grace like dogs would a butcher preparing them a treat. Two younger Slytherins in particular seemed far too interested in the situation for his rapidly dwindling patience, and failed miserably to conceal their eavesdropping.

This was just great.

"Actually, I already made plans with my friends for this week-end, sir."

"I'm sure they can manage without you for a night. And you can still see them the rest of the wee-end. This is an opportunity you shouldn't pass on. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to see you since you have been such a rare sight these days."

Could they manage the flight training without him? Cho knew the flight path and he trusted her not to try anything too dangerous, but the idea of not being there in case things went wrong just didn't sit right with Harry. Unfortunately, he didn't even get a chance to refute him before Slughorn launched himself into an impassioned sales pitch about his club.

"Since it is the first one of the year, I wanted to go all out. Peter Dwinkley and Florence Robert will be there, you know? They're chasers for the national team. It's a shame they couldn't play last season because Ireland wouldn't have stood a chance, let me tell you. And let's not forget Archibal Swansforth, the head of the Sanctimus Price ward at St Mungo's who-"

He could feel the gazes of the amassing audience burning through him as Slughorn drone on about the merits of his party and guests until, finally, he cracked.

Slughorn wanted him to go? Fine then, he'll go. For the first and last time. At least then he would be able to shut him up quickly the next time by telling him how bad it had been.

"I'll come, sir. I'll have to talk to my friends, but I'll come."

"Fantastic! I look forward to seeing you there this week-end by boy."

"Yes... Great. Now if you'll excuse me..."

"Oh right, right, of course. Don't let little old me hold you. And don't forget not to overwork yourself!"

Harry grit his teeth as he began to climb the stairs with heavy steps. Surrounding him were the mocking looks and snickers of his impromptu audience and the sound of two children running away down one of the corridors...

The hot air that blew in his back was the only warning Harry got before a wave of flames came crashing down upon him. Reacting on instinct, he twisted on his heels and reappeared a few metres away with a loud cracking sound. Before he could even take a breath, however, the pavement all around him began to turn into metallic spikes, ready to impale him.

Harry brought up his wand above his head as he began to draw wide circles with it, willing into existence a wind that grew in strength as he did. The quickly forming tornado drew in its current the growing spikes, tearing them from the ground and pulling them in the air. Bringing down his wand with a swish, Harry broke the pattern to send the gust and its deadly charge toward Ginny.

Not one to be taken down so easily, Ginny tore the wall of the nearby building and brought it in front of her, just in time for the first spikes to hit and pierce half-way through it. Confident in her rapidly breaking wall, Ginny stabbed the air with her wand before twisting it. A thick smoke burst from it, quickly engulfing her surroundings and hiding her from Harry's sight.

Lately, Harry's workload had lightened to the point where he found with a lot more free time than he knew what to make of. Whether it was because they were starting to slow down in their discoveries about alien technology, or because they reorganised themselves to make the divisions more independent as Ernie suggested, he didn't know. He certainly wasn't complaining, though.

Gone were the nights spent hunched over a never ending pile of reports or pondering the plannings of the crew's various divisions. Sure, there were always more runes to learn and unused parts of the ship to explore, but he far preferred to spend his time training with Ron and the rest of the combat team.

At least it gave him the impression of actually doing something in this war while Dumbledore searched for the remaining Horcruxes.

Standing in the middle of a road torn asunder, Harry listened and watched his surroundings carefully, trying to pick up the slightest hint of Ginny's presence. The crackling of the fire and the clouds of dust and smoke left by their latest bout made the task difficult, however. The sting of the bruises and burns that covered his body didn't help either, but he hadn't been hurt to the point where he couldn't just ignore the pain.

He sent a blasting curse to his left as he heard the sound of a rock rolling on the pavement, only to shout in pain as a cutting curse sliced the back of his shoulder. He raised his wand as he ran for cover, manifesting a glowing shield that flared when another curse hit it. As he jumped behind a low garden wall, Harry sent another basting curse in the general direction of the attacks, but only succeeded in raising more dust in the air.

Harry reached for the little pouch at his hip and brought out a vial filled with a brightly yellow and viscous substance. The pouch was slightly singed, but overall undamaged by the violence of the fight, courtesy of Parvati's insight of adding strands of gold and silver in the threads. The same could not be said of his muggle clothes, however. The oversized hand-me-downs looked like he'd walked through a war zone.

Though he supposed he had, in a sense.

Gritting his teeth, Harry poured the vial's content on his hand and spread it on his wound, igniting a fire in flesh as it mended itself. He gave himself a few moments to recover before chancing a glance above the wall, ducking back down when he was almost immediately greeted by a stunner. He was about to try and crawl along the wall when Ron's voice boomed through the village.

"Alright, that's enough hiding. Assume enemy reinforcements are coming. You need to finish this now and escape."

Months ago, when their studies of the ship had turned into an actual organisation, Harry had relinquished the tutoring role he had when they were still just a study group. As captain, he simply couldn't give their new combat team the time they needed to prepare and oversee their training sessions. The transition had worried him slightly in the beginning, because although he trusted Ron to step up and take care of things, the same could not be said of Ron himself.

At first, he had come to him often, asking for advice or brainstorming ideas on the best ways to teach one subject or the other, trying his best to become the teacher Harry had been to the D.A. That wasn't what Harry wanted though. Nor was it what they needed. They weren't preparing themselves for exams anymore, and Ron had to find his own way of doing things instead of seeking to fill a role that wasn't his.

With time, practice, and one near hit too much during training, Ron had cracked down on his squad. Gone were the hesitant tutoring sessions that mirrored the days of the D.A. His new exercises and drills were a lot closer to what Harry would expect to find in the army. Ron had found more confidence in his own ideas and begun to experiment, progressively developing his own teaching style and expecting in return more discipline and rigour from his team.

Today's session was focused on one on one duels without their suits, a scenario Ron insisted as necessary since they wouldn't always be able to rely on them. The lack of technology did nothing to hamper them, however, as neither Harry nor Ginny were holding back. Their fight was a brutal one, using their spells using the environment to their advantage with no regard for the conjured replica of Hogsmeade that served as their battlefield.

Swearing as he pushed himself off the ground, Harry brought another shield to life as he saw Ginny jumping down from a roof across the street. From her dishevelled look and the way she favoured her right leg, one of his latest curse must have been a close miss.

He stepped over the low wall as he sent one hex after the other in Ginny's direction, watching her own shield flash in increasingly dimming lights as they splashed harmlessly on it. Determined to end this, he brought back his wand, raising it in preparation of a more powerful spell that would break the shield and finally end this fight.

Ginny wasn't just going to stand there and allow him to rain down spells upon her unpunished, however. He heard a wet sound behind him, and a quick look revealed that the garden wall had become a wave of greyish water rapidly advancing in their direction.

This was going to be close.

"Magnus Fulgur!"

"Accio!"

Completing the wand movement, a great bolt of lightning crossed the distance between the two of them and shattered Ginny's shield. As the sound of rushing water grew too close for comfort, Harry's eyes widened as he saw one of the conjured metal spikes floating near an unscathed and smirking Ginny Weasley.

When the water licked his heels, Harry leaped forward, twisting in mid-air as hIs gaze remained fixed on Ginny. He reappeared in the air behind her, his momentum intact, and tackled her to the ground before she had any chance to react. He brought his knee up to press on her back and caught her wand-hand to hold it against the ground as he braced himself for the incoming wave...

"And we're done. Good job you two. Alicia, Seamus, you're up."

The wave never managed to reach them. A flash of light engulfed it along with the entire replicated village, breaking them down into their base elements and leaving them on the bare floor of the enormous training room.

Breaking his hold on Ginny, Harry let himself fall to the side where he took the time to catch his breath before standing back up. Next to him, Ginny rolled onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows, wincing as she pulled on her bruised limbs.

"You got lucky."

"Sure I did. Like every time we fight, right?"

She huffed, but her brilliant smile as he helped her up betrayed her lack of resentment and sent butterflies to dance in his stomach. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Harry brought one of Ginny's arms around his shoulder to support her as they made their way out of the room and into the observation deck above it. There, he helped her sit on one of the last available couches while Ron and the others welcomed them.

The observation room stretched through a good half of the training room, with all but the floor and back wall being one of the alien force-fields to allow them a great view of the battles below. When it was first built, Harry didn't think they would need so much space for spectators, especially since there were only a half-dozen of them in the combat team, including him. What he hadn't expected was the fact that many of the crew still came to take part in the training from time to time, although they tended to limit themselves to less brutal exercises.

Among them today were most of Angelina's research team and part of the bridge crew, who began to cheer as Alicia and Seamus shot their first spells in the middle of a wide Londonian roundabout. Not all of their unofficial trainees were as excited as they were, however. In the far side of the room, Neville and Susan sat in silence, their eyes focusing on the duel in an effort to glean something, anything they could use to better their own fighting styles.

Ginny must have noticed him staring at them as she lightly pulled on his arm, prompting him to sit beside her.

"I know it's hard to see them like that, but staring will only make it worse."

"Yeah, sorry. It's just... I haven't really talked much to them since... since it happened."

"You've been busy. And so have them. They've been here almost every time we trained since Halloween. And from what I've heard, they haven't sat idle during the holidays either."

Risking another glance to the corner of the room, Harry would see the dark shadows under Neville's eyes and the way his body seemed far too thin in his usual robes. Since the death of his grandmother, he had grown quiet and withdrawn, only opening up to Susan, despite the efforts of many amongst the crew.

Unlike Neville, Susan did not look like death warmed over, and seemed to be dealing with her grief better. From what he'd heard, she had received a lot of support from the crew. Her position as healer kept her well surrounded every day, unlike Neville who lost himself with only Goldstein and his plants for company. Yet, doubt remained in his mind, as he sometimes caught an all too familiar dullness in her eyes when she thought no one was watching.

One he had seen far too many times in the mirror after Cedric's death.

"Is he eating properly?"

"Not until recently. It may not look like it, but he's come a long way. It took some time to convince him, but he's been coming back to eat with everyone more often now." A small, hopeful smile lifted the corners of Ginny's mouth, before her eyes darted back to Harry's. "Unlike a certain someone."

Suddenly very interested in the content of his pouch, Harry pulled out two vials of Wiggenweld potion. The doses were small, but they would be enough to soothe their cuts and bruises. He uncorked one of them and offered it to Ginny, his eyes refusing to meet hers.

"As you said, I've been busy. And I could say the same to you, with how often you and Dean seem to be missing at dinner time."

Damn it Potter. Expertly done, you just change the subject to one you dislike even more.

To make the matter worse, the feeling seemed mutual. The laughter and mischief in Ginny's eyes died as quickly as it had come. She turned away as she brought up her knees on the couch to bury her head in them.

"We... we broke up."

Her voice was barely a whisper, carrying notes of sadness and regret that seemed to echo the ones that had filled Harry's heart. In his mind, all sorts of alarms were blaring. Dread and self-loathing filled him as he realised what he had done. Panic and discomfort arose at the unexpected turn of the conversation, exacerbated by his lack of romantic experience.

And somewhere, buried under all that chaos, the embers of hope flickered.

"That's... I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's alright. I haven't exactly been going around telling everyone."

"Still, I-"

"It's done. Neither of us can do anything about it." She raised her head to rest her chin on her knees, her gaze losing itself in the battle below. "The last few weeks, we always ended up arguing when we were alone, so I can't say I'm not glad it's over but..."

Harry didn't know what to say. He never had to comfort someone after a break-up before, let alone his own crush. So he did the only thing he could think of and brought his hand to her back, rubbing it gently. Ginny leaned toward him ever so slightly, huddling closer as they silently watched Angelina rain down birds of fire upon Seamus.

"You know..." Harry said after a few minutes. "Slughorn invited me to this party Saturday night. It's probably gonna be stuffy and boring, but at least there'll be food? And maybe some quidditch pros?"

Ginny turned to look at him, eyes widening slightly and a teasing smile came to her lips.

"Why, Harry, are you asking me out on a date? Right after I tell you I'm single? Quite bold of you I must say."

"As-As friends of course! Just... Just friends. But if you don't want to..."

Great job Harry. Very smooth.

"No... No, I'd love to." A smile crept on her face, almost shyly. "But you really know how to sell a night out, hum?"

"It's just... I really didn't want to go." Harry sighed as he brought his free hand through his hair. "But going in good company might make the evening bearable, and you look like you need to get your mind off things, so..."

"So we'll go together." Ginny said, smiling in earnest once more. "I'm sure it won't be that bad. And it could be good for you too, you know. You've been far too broody lately, so a night out as friends might be just what you need."

The whole affair ended up being, just like he feared, overly stuffy and full of pompous gits. The unwelcome surprise of entering the dining room to find himself face to face with Malfoy, whose father's "promotion" had earned him an invitation, had cemented his bad impression.

Though, in retrospect, the party hadn't been that bad. The room had been decorated like a Victorian palace, the fancy food had been delicious, even served in small portions. After a seemingly never ending series of introductions by Slughorn, they had snatched a large plate and a bottle from the buffet before appropriating a couch in a corner of the room.

They spent most of the night making fun of the pricks in hushed whispers, trying and failing to be as discreet as they could while getting increasingly tipsy. They had a great time laughing at everyone's overly serious expressions, inventing increasingly ridiculous reasons for their presence in Slughorn's collection.

The dirty looks the other guests sent them didn't deter them in any way, and even Slughorn gave up on trying to get the pair to join them after a while. There had also been that Mallow girl... Brigitte? Bridgett? Not that her name had mattered, anyway, since she didn't stay very long. She had come to him when Ginny left his side to get another plate and had seemed a bit too interested in Harry's opinions for Slytherin company, asking far too many questions and getting a bit too close for comfort.

Not that he would complain about it now, mind you, since he would have missed the sight of Ginny chasing her from their couch otherwise. There was something to be said about cute redheads acting all jealous over you and sticking close to deter the competition.

The night had been far more enjoyable after that last little snag. Their hilarity and what his alcohol-addled brain suspected to be a bottomless bottle did wonders to distract Harry from his daily worries and turn his mind to much more interesting matters.

Like how well Ginny had dressed up, for example.

When she came down to the entrance hall, she had looked even better than she had during the Yule ball a couple years ago. And his traitorous wandering eyes couldn't help but notice that she had grown quite a bit since then, in a way that the bulky armoured suit she usually wore really didn't do justice...

They had ended the night after far too many drinks when they lit up the two Filibuster's Fireworks Ginny had pulled two from somewhere and thrown the stifling reception into chaos. They ran away from Slughorn's dining room roaring in laughter until they lost themselves, breathless, in the corridor.

And if they had held each other a bit too close when they unsteadily made their way back to the seventh floor... Well, it was no one's business but theirs, really.