Harry went to his room to retrieve his Cloak and other supplies, then headed for the hospital wing.

Along the way, he pondered how to reveal himself to Ginny without startling her. He planned to wear the Cloak to sneak in, but after everything Riddle put her through, he didn't think she would react well to either his sudden appearance or his disembodied voice.

It turned out he needn't have worried about catching her by surprise. When he pushed open the door and stepped through, the room was dark, but not dark enough to prevent him from seeing her sit up and point her wand his way.

He hurriedly pulled off the Cloak, and held up his hands. "It's me," he whispered.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" she whispered back, lowering her wand.

He moved closer. "I was in the neighborhood, thought I'd stop by for a visit."

"Just happened to be out for an evening stroll with your Invisibility Cloak?"

"Pretty much. Want to try it?"

"Are you kidding? Of course."

He handed it to her, and she used it to disappear.

She said, "This could come in handy."

"It already has. Loads of times."

"Yeah, but just imagine. Pardon me, Tom. You haven't seen a curse around here, have you? Oh, there it is now, killing you in a horribly painful manner before you even noticed it."

"If it was that easy, Dumbledore would have done it during the war. He even had that Cloak for a while."

"I suppose." She fell silent, then her voice appeared on his other side, deeper and more sinister. "I guess I'll have to settle for easier prey."

He turned to look, realized how pointless that was, and tried to listen for her footsteps instead. She was good at moving around in silence; better than he usually managed.

She spoke again, from yet another location. "Or at least, for prey which is more…"

"Um, Ginny? What are you–"

He jumped as her voice came from right behind him. "… ticklish!"

She pressed against his back and wrapped her arms around him. He clamped his own arms against his sides in defense, but she merely gave him a quick hug, then let go.

He turned to find her reappearing as she removed the Cloak.

She handed it back to him. "It wouldn't be right to attack you using your own Cloak. Not when the whole reason you're here is to save me. Again."

"Not sure what you mean. Save you from what?"

"From my own mind, I assume."

"Like I said, I just stopped by for a visit."

"Oh? How long are you staying?"

"All night, if that's okay."

"Some visit."

"To be honest, the beds here are way more comfortable than the ones back at Gryffindor. Thought I'd kip here one more night."

"I haven't noticed much difference."

"Maybe it's different on the girls' side."

She made a skeptical sound, and went back to sit on her bed. He followed, and sat on the bed he'd been using before Pomfrey evicted him.

"It's true," he insisted. "I might start sleeping here every night from now on, under the Cloak."

"Uh-huh." She looked at the Cloak, pooled next to him on the bed. "That's one solution to your summer problem."

"Stay at Hogwarts? Nah, I've thought of that. People would notice if I wasn't on the train."

"No, go back to your relatives' house, but pretend to run away the first day. Then use the Cloak to hide right under their noses. Whatever food you take, leave the dishes and crumbs in your cousin's room to make it look like he did it."

At the talk of food, his stomach growled.

"You alright there?" she asked.

"Excuse me. I didn't get a chance to eat dinner."

"Harry. Go eat and then come back."

"It's okay, I brought food with me." He began pulling items from his pockets. "Uh… You ate already, right? If not, I didn't bring a lot, but I'll share what I have."

"I ate. You didn't have to bring that here. You could have stayed and eaten in the Great Hall, to catch up with Ron and Hermione and everyone."

"I didn't get this from the Great Hall. It's from the stash in my room."

"Why do you have food stashed in your room?"

He shrugged. "You never know when you might need it."

She gave him a hard look. "You're saving up for summer, aren't you?"

He shrugged again, and didn't answer.

She gave a brisk nod. "Right, then. You'll loan me the Cloak, and when we get off the train, I'll sneak into your car with you. When we get to your house, you'll go outside and make sure people see you, while I deal with your relatives." She paused. "We still need an alibi for me though."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, the Muggle authorities don't know I exist, but when the news breaks about Harry Potter's lucky escape from a deadly house fire, my parents might have some tough questions about why I happened to go missing at the same time."

"You can't burn the Dursleys' house down."

"Not just the house. They'll be inside it. Maybe I didn't make that part clear enough."

"Ginny, you just can't."

"Why? They're terrible people."

He shook his head. "Even so."

"We need to get used to it. With Riddle back, sooner or later, the war is going to start up again. When that happens, every Death Eater we don't manage to kill will be one more trying to kill us and everyone we care about."

"Maybe not. Dumbledore hopes we can stop Riddle from ever coming back fully, and he's not going to start any wars in the state he's in now. Besides, my relatives aren't Death Eaters. There are different degrees of terrible people."

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. "I know. I doubt I could actually go through with it. Maybe not even against people who deserve it even more than your relatives. It terrifies me how far I am from being ready for what's coming, for the things I'll have to do. But it also terrifies me to think of becoming that other witch, the version of me who is ready. I have all this fire and anger inside me, and I don't know what's going to happen once I let it out. Sometimes I feel like I might burn the whole world."

"You're a first year. No one expects you to be ready to fight a war."

"It's coming, whether we're ready or not." She sat up straight again. "We can't let Riddle win. Even if we have to become terrible ourselves, letting him win would be a thousand times worse."

"He won't win."

"His followers don't understand what they're playing with. They think their great victory would mean more money for them, nicer houses, people bowing when they walk by. Laws applying to them even less than they do now, while they make laws for everyone else. But they don't know Riddle like I do. They don't see the world he'd make if he ever won completely. The strange, awful things he would do to people, to the whole world, because he was bored, or to show he could… We can't let him."

"I know. We won't, but we're not there yet."

"Right. We have to get you through the summer first. I have an idea for getting your relatives under control enough to make things bearable for you, but I haven't been able to do anything while stuck here. And I don't know how to get you out of there altogether yet. Don't worry, I'm not giving up."

"Thanks, but I wish you'd let go of this idea that you owe me anything."

"I wish you'd let go of the idea nobody can ever help you, and it always has to be the other way around."

"I don't think that."

"No?"

"Not as far as the Dursleys go. Your brothers got away with busting me out last summer. Riddle is a different story. In the end, I have to face him alone."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Those are the rules."

"Says who?"

"It's how things always go. Last year, Ron sacrificed himself to win the chess game. Hermione tried to stick with me, but there was only enough potion for one of us to continue forward. This year, Hermione got taken out first, then the cave-in separated Ron from me. Both times, Dumbledore was away, and the teachers were useless. Or worse than useless, like Lockhart. That can't all be coincidence. It's fate or something."

"Then I guess once I'm ready, I'll have to find a way to summon Fate, and burn that bitch to ashes."

"It's so simple, I don't know why I didn't think of it."

"Don't underestimate my determination."

"We don't need to argue about all this right now."

"I don't mean to argue. I'm glad you're here."

"Me too. I like hanging out with you."

"You mean it?"

"Sure. You're easy to talk to."

"That's alright then. As long as you want to be here, and don't feel like you have to."

"I'm glad that's settled."

She grinned. "In fact, let's make this our official policy. Whenever you feel the need to come rushing to my side, your main reason should always be my delightful personality. Any danger you think I might be in comes second."

"Official policy? Do we need to file paperwork or anything?"

"Nah, I'll trust you."

They heard the door to Madam Pomfrey's office open. Ginny dove under her covers, while Harry grabbed his packets of food and pulled the Cloak over himself.

Pomfrey came out and looked around. She didn't seem to find anything amiss, as she soon left.

Harry and Ginny continued to talk while he ate the food he'd brought, lowering their voices further.

When they both started getting sleepy, Ginny whispered, "I think I'll be okay. Knowing you're here helps."

"I'm glad. Good night."

"Good night."

~*~

Ginny slept through the night without waking. Harry sneaked out at first light to avoid Madam Pomfrey. He'd been too worried about getting caught to do more than doze through the night.

He went to breakfast with Ron and Hermione, and updated them on how Ginny was doing. Afterwards, Hermione caught him yawning and told him to go take a nap, which got him through the day.

Madam Pomfrey released Ginny that afternoon. When she returned to Gryffindor, Harry insisted she borrow his Cloak for the rest of the school year, so she could sneak into his room during the night if she needed to.

The closing days of the term passed uneventfully. Harry spent his time with Ron and Hermione of course, but with Ginny also now joining them. He and Ginny fell into the habit of leaning comfortably against each other, or at least staying close enough for her to reach over and rest her hand on his arm.

She didn't pay him any late-night visits using the Cloak, but told him, "It's enough to know I have the option. It helps that I can feel your magic on it. If I lay in bed with it and focus, it's almost like you're there with me." She blushed as she realized how that sounded.

Hermione overheard this, and remarked that in her research on Invisibility Cloaks, she hadn't read anything about forming a personal connection to one–let alone a connection strong enough for another person to sense.

Ginny replied that she trusted her own experience over books, and refused to let Hermione draw her into an argument. This response left Hermione feeling baffled and rather cross, so she turned to argue with Ron about a different topic.

Ginny had worried Hermione might hold a grudge over the Basilisk, but it turned out to be Ron who struggled the most with her addition to the group.

At first, he saw it as a chance to keep a closer eye on her than he had done the rest of the year. Over time though, he got used to the idea that she was back safe, and began to frown at her constant presence.

When Ron at last lost his patience and demanded to know why she was always hanging around and hanging all over Harry, Hermione dragged him aside for a lengthy conversation conducted in angry murmurs.

After that, Ron settled for trying to ignore Ginny as much as possible, though he would engage with her if an important enough topic came up, such as Quidditch.

~*~

The day before the students left for the summer, Ginny took Harry aside. She drew a potion vial out of her robes and passed it to him.

"Draught of Peace," she explained. "For your relatives. Put it in their meals. One drop per day for each of them should be enough to take the edge off. I know it's not much, but it's the best I could manage for now. Sorry."

"Don't be. This is a lot. It's more than anyone else has ever done to sort them out. Watching Hagrid put them in their place was amazing, and the first time anyone ever stood up for me, but it didn't actually fix anything."

"It's not enough. All this will do is get them to leave you alone and not hassle you. You should live with people who care about you, not in a place where having everyone ignore you is an improvement." She shook her head. "Someday, though. Someday I'll be powerful enough that no one will mess with me or mine."

Harry knew arguing that point would go nowhere, and he had a more immediate concern. "I thought we weren't allowed to do magic over the summer."

"The Trace is only for wands. The Ministry doesn't care about potions. Drinking a potion doesn't look like magic, so there's no danger of breaking the Statute. Well, unless it's something like Pepperup, with obvious side effects. But you're good with what I gave you."

"I guess it makes sense that using a potion someone already made wouldn't count as proper magic."

"It's not just using them. You can also brew away from school. We all take turns helping mum brew ordinary household potions. And Fred and George are always doing their little experiments. Those tend to not go over as well with mum though."

"Wait. Did you get this from those two? Are you sure it's what you think it is?"

"I'm sure, and it's best you don't know where I got it. It's enough that I did."

"Okay. I trust you. One drop per day, you said? My uncle and cousin are both pretty heavy, so two drops each for them?"

"What does weight have to do with it?"

"What do you mean? That's how medicine works, isn't it? Like how kids aren't supposed to take as much cold medicine as adults?"

"Draught of Peace doesn't work on the body; it works on the mind. One mind, one drop. I mean you can use two drops if someone is super worked up, but weight has nothing to do with it." She tilted her head. "Wow, Potions really isn't your best subject, huh?"

He scowled. "I don't exactly get on with the teacher."

"No one outside Slytherin does. Most people learn from their parents, or doing their own thing like Fred and George."

"What if you're raised by Muggles?"

"If you can get the ingredients, and find a place to brew, you should be fine. Didn't Ron ever explain anything about this?"

"I was thinking more for Hermione. I bet she doesn't know. If she did, I'm sure she'd practice at home, but I've never heard her mention it." He frowned. "She's going to be furious at Ron when I tell her."

"Can I tell her?" When she saw him eye her, she added, "That came out sounding too eager, didn't it? Seeing Ron get yelled at would be a nice bonus, but mainly I could use a way to get back into Hermione's good graces."

"I told you she doesn't blame you. She told you the same thing. She blames Tom Riddle and Lucius Malfoy, like you should. Like we agreed. You don't need to prove anything to her, or to me."

She looked down and didn't answer.

He said, "I don't mind if you're the one to tell her."

"Thanks. It's not about blame. I played a part in what happened, and that's just a fact. If I can do little things to make up for it, it feels like I'm fighting back against what Riddle tried to make me into. Like I'm putting myself back on the right side. Does that make sense?"

"I guess, if it really helps you to think of it that way."

"It does."

"Good enough for me."

~*~

The next day, Ron didn't object when Ginny joined him, Harry and Hermione in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express for the ride home. He even helped her with her trunk.

Ginny decided to spare him some trouble, by waiting to send Hermione a letter to tell her she could brew potions over the summer. She didn't think Hermione knew how to make a Howler to send him.