Choices and Consequences

"What was all that about?" Hermione asked as soon as they got back out onto the street.

Harry chuckled and told them how annoyed he'd been at the article in the Daily Prophet about him shopping at Madam Malkin's and Tonks's suggestion for getting some form of payback for the lack of confidentiality shown.

"Actually, she suggested that I should get all my friends to boycott Madam Malkin's as well, but I wouldn't want to force that on you - I'm sure you can decide for yourselves."

"That's really sneaky," Ginny pointed out.

"Yeah, well I didn't ask Tonks what House she was sorted into when she was at Hogwarts, so I suppose it could have been Slytherin."

"Come on Harry," Hermione interjected, "you can't categorise people as simply as that. After all, we spent most of our first five years thinking that Slytherin equalled evil, and we all know that's not true now, don't we? You mentioned it just the other day."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, they're not all evil, just the ones we happen to know, right?"

He waved away Hermione's immediate attempt to correct him. "Yeah, I know, it's not that simple. I was just being facetious. I guess Aurors like Tonks have to think of sneaky stuff like that. It's a bit too subtle for me though."

"Most businesses look after their customers better than that, Harry," Hermione reassured him. "With so much choice out there, they can't afford to drive customers away like that."

"It's different in the wizarding world," Ginny put in, thoughtfully. "There aren't that many suppliers so we don't really have the same sort of buying power, Hermione."

"I'd forgotten you take Muggle Studies," Harry noted.

"Well, it's useful sometimes," she replied.

Harry harrumphed at the situation, but didn't object when his friends took that to mean the subject was closed, for now at any rate, and they moved off down the street.

Hermione dragged them into a bookshop where while Hermione browsed enthusiastically through the academic sections, Harry picked out a couple of extra books that he thought would help with his training. The shop wasn't all that big, but he managed to select a couple of titles that seemed to be what he was looking for.

Finally they headed for the Three Broomsticks where Harry was accosted by a fair number of students almost as soon as he and the two girls entered the pub.

Most of them were people he saw around school anyway, but for some reason they seemed to be in exuberant mood, perhaps as a result of being away from the castle and having an opportunity to forget about studying. They all seemed keen for Harry to think again about starting up the DA. Even though their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons had been pretty good this year, all the former DA members pressed him to re-start the club so that they had an extra opportunity to practice their spells.

Harry was still pretty reluctant to take extra time out of his already packed schedule to re-start the DA. Not only that, but he didn't really feel that it was all that necessary. Professor Silverwood had turned out to be a pretty good teacher of Defence, and everyone in the upper years had been practicing duelling in his class at some point, so it wasn't as though they were lacking the practice.

Harry reflected on the irony of all these people being keen on re-starting the club when they had found it so difficult to agree on a regular day the previous year, and that people's priorities had been focused on other things.

'Perhaps this year, they're all convinced now that Voldemort is back,' he considered.

Now that they knew that their families really were at risk, and that there was a good chance that they would have to use their knowledge to defend themselves, they were much keener to learn. He wondered too whether the teachers had found their work easier this year, with a renewed dedication towards studying.

Harry responded to most of his fellow students that he would take it under consideration, but groaned and put his head in his hands on the tabletop once he finally made it through the throng to an empty berth, Ginny and Hermione taking seats across the table from him.

"I wish people would stop asking me about re-starting the DA," he complained. "Most of them found it difficult to make time for it last year, and now they're all bugging me to give them extra training."

Harry knew that both Ginny and Hermione thought that he should consider taking it on once again toot they understood his reasons for not doing so, even if Hermione did seem to mention it at least once a week. She didn't look too offended at his comments though.

"I think it just shows that you did a good job last year," she told him, as Ginny patted the back of his head in sympathy.

He batted at her hands, but she just grinned and ruffled his hair.

"I thought the point was that they wanted to learn stuff that Umbridge was refusing to teach us," he pointed out, trying unsuccessfully to flatten the mess Ginny had made.

"Well maybe they think that you can teach them more than Professor Silverwood," Hermione countered.

Harry snorted at that thought. "Not much chance of that. He's proving to be one of Dumbledore's better choices for Defence Professor."

Any further discussion was forestalled by the sudden appearance of Ron at their table.

Hermione's expression instantly turned wary and Harry could see that she was annoyed that Ron still hadn't apologised for his treatment of her over the past few days, not to mention the way he'd behaved on Harry's birthday.

"Can we help you?" she asked with a touch of asperity in her voice.

"Um, actually..." Ron tried to explain, before halting and starting again. "Can I have a word with you, Hermione?"

She looked at Harry and Ginny, who just shrugged in response, indicating that it was her decision to make.

"Okay."

Ron looked around rather furtively. "Not here. Um, come for a walk with me?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing that Ron would probably take forever to get to the point. Harry gave her a nudge with his knee under the table to attract her attention, and nodded his head.

She seemed to take that as a sign that Harry believed that Ron was sincere and really did want to apologise, and pushed herself up from the table, following closely behind the red headed boy as he threaded his way through the crowd and back to the front door.

"Is he really going to apologise to her?" Ginny asked tentatively.

"I think so," Harry responded. "He certainly seemed contrite about it last night when I talked to him. I mean, it's not really about him and Hermione, it's about him and me and how jealous he is. The only reason Hermione got involved was because Ron decided to take all his frustration out on her instead."

Ginny took Harry's hand as he talked, and absently traced a pattern on his palm.

"You didn't hear the things he was calling her on your birthday when he thought that the two of you had been having carnal moments," she said, giggling slightly at the memory. "It made one of Mum's Howlers look quite tame in comparison. I think he needs to apologise to Hermione for that, if nothing else."

Harry merely grunted in reply.

"Articulate today, aren't you?" Ginny teased.

"Sorry. I'm still worrying about this being a 'date'," Harry said nervously. "I don't want to ruin your expectations or anything."

"Harry, stop worrying about it. If we hadn't agreed to give this a go, you'd have been quite happy sitting here with me talking about stuff, wouldn't you?"

"Of course," he replied instantly.

"You don't have to act any differently," she told him. "All you have to do is be yourself. Don't worry about it."

"You sure?"

"Sure. Though a few stolen kisses now and again wouldn't be rejected," she added slyly.

Harry blushed a little, and looked around. Everyone seemed to be busy with his or her own affairs and for once no one was paying any attention to the Boy Who Lived, for which he was moderately grateful.

"I don't mind even if people are watching Harry. Just enjoy yourself, and do what you feel is right. If you do something I don't like, I'll tell you."

He winced at that thought, remembering how sharply Ginny had pulled him up in the past when he'd been at fault. Still, at least he knew where he stood with her and didn't have to look for any hidden meanings. Perhaps Hermione wouldn't have to write that book on girls' feelings for him, after all.

He smiled at her and leaned across the table to take advantage of Hermione's temporary absence, but before he'd reached halfway across the table, the scathing tones of Draco Malfoy rang out from about three feet away.

"Oh, I see it wasn't the Head Girl you were drooling over," the Slytherin noted as he slid up to Harry and Ginny's table. "Still, I thought even you could do better than the Weasel King's little sister."

Harry opened his mouth to respond to Malfoy's insult, but Ginny beat him to it.

"Jealous, Malfoy? That's unlike you. Shame I'd sooner lock lips with Millicent Bulstrode than let you anywhere near me!"

"Pah! Hardly, Weasley. I've got better taste than that. Damaged goods don't appeal to me, even if I could lower myself to your family's level."

Harry was out of his seat and had his wandpoint at the blond boy's throat before he'd completed his sentence. Strangely, Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere to be seen, which made Malfoy's approach rather surprising. Presumably he'd been unable to pass up the opportunity of throwing a few taunts at them, despite the absence of his stooges.

"What the hell do you mean, Malfoy?"

Malfoy sneered at Harry, but glanced down nervously at the position of his wand and apparently decided that he'd be safest answering the question.

"You know exactly what I mean, Potter," Malfoy drawled, eyeing Harry with distaste. "This wench is already marked by the Dark Lord. You're hardly the first to have your hands on her."

Harry was about to let loose with a nasty curse, but felt Ginny's hand on his arm urging him not to do anything rash. Instead, he leant forward, close enough to Malfoy that only the three of them could hear his words, and pushed his fringe back with his free hand.

"Just remember who else is 'marked' by Voldemort, Malfoy," he said as menacingly as he could, and was rewarded by the Slytherin shrinking back away from him slightly, though whether that was in response to his implication or simply because of his use of the name, Harry couldn't tell. "Don't you think we're well matched?"

He let his fringe drop and lowered his wand slightly.

"Run along and find your little friends, Malfoy, and you might feel a bit braver," he suggested in a calm, low tone. "Maybe once you've taken your Dark Mark, you'll be a threat, but right now, you're just an irritation. I don't have time to play at the moment."

Harry made a dismissing little gesture with his wand that made Malfoy cringe momentarily as he though he was about to get cursed, but then the supercilious sneer re-surfaced on his face and he backed away through the crowd.

"Well done, Harry," Ginny complemented him, and stretched across the table to place a brief kiss on his cheek.

"You mean for not cursing him?" he asked. Ginny nodded in reply. "It was so tempting, I can tell you, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of getting me into trouble. Even so I nearly did after what he said about you."

Ginny looked at him nervously. "You don't think ... I'm tainted, like he said?"

"Of course not. Malfoy's full of crap."

"Even though I let Tom in? Let him be my friend? Let him use me to open the Chamber and set the Monster free?" Ginny's lip began to wobble a little at the recollection of her experiences with Tom Riddle's diary.

He pushed his stool back and strode around the table to engulf Ginny in a hug.

"Ginny, you were a first year, left on your own at Hogwarts, and you were tricked by an evil wizard. Anyone would have been taken in by him," Harry said quietly in her ear.

"But you defied him in your first year!"

"I didn't have him attempting to possess me though. He said you fought very hard against him; I don't know that I could have done the same. Look how I got fooled by those visions of Sirius in trouble last year." He hated to bring the subject up with Sirius's death still a very raw wound in his heart, but he knew he needed to use the comparison to convince Ginny that she wasn't a bad person because of her possession.

"Besides, you can't compare yourself to Mister 'Tries to get himself killed every year' over here," he joked.

"You shouldn't laugh about that."

Harry shrugged. "Why not? If it keeps me sane for the next few years while I get trained to ... well ... do what needs to be done..."

She conceded his point, but didn't release her arms from around him.

"Next time, maybe you should curse him," she said vehemently.

"Malfoy? Maybe. Maybe I'll send for some more of the twins' stock instead."

Ginny giggled. "You'd better take me along with you next time."

She thumped gently on his chest. "It's not fair that you get to have all the excitement of setting up the pranks while I run interference for you. I did that last year too, so you owe me."

"And what sort of repayment were you looking for?" Harry asked, mischief lighting up his eyes.

Ginny looked up at him, the corners of her lips wrinkling in amusement. She grabbed the lapels of his robes and pulled his face down towards her.

"I don't know," she whispered, "but I'm sure I'll think of something."

With that she raised her lips to Harry's and the real world seemed to disappear from around him for a moment as they kissed gently, standing together at a table in the Three Broomsticks.

Of course, this being a pub packed with teenagers, it was mere moments before the wolf whistles and cheers began to ring around the bar, and Harry and Ginny disentangled themselves with bright red faces as they became aware that they had become the centre of attention.

A few ribald comments were thrown their way by some of the older students, but it was then that Ron and Hermione forced their way back through the throng to find out what had happened in their absence, and implored the crowd to return to their own business.

"Come on folks, nothing to see here!" Ron warned them, surreptitiously fingering his Prefect badge to add emphasis, though the effect was diminished slightly by the fact that he held two bottles of butterbeer in his hand as he reached up to the badge.

"Back to your conversations, back to your drinks."

This got a laugh, but it also broke up the moment, and to Harry's relief, the vast majority of their audience did exactly what Ron had suggested, though from what he could hear around him, he and Ginny were now the main topic of conversation.

"Thanks Ron," he smiled, as his two friends sat down opposite him, their differences apparently forgotten.

"It's nothing, mate," Ron assured him, and slid a round of Butterbeers to his companions.

Harry looked quickly from Ron's smiling face to Hermione with a questioning look on his face.

"So, come on, spill the beans."

Ron looked nervously at Hermione as though to ask permission, and, seeming to find it, explained.

"I apologised for being such a git over the last few days ... okay, and over the summer as well," he added with a wry grin at Hermione's attempted interruption. "I was just being stupid."

"Go on Ron, and the rest," Hermione prompted.

Ron wrinkled his nose in Hermione's direction then continued.

"And I just want to apologise to you as well, Harry," he admitted. "I know you wouldn't do anything to deliberately hurt me, or any of us, and I was letting my jealousy get in the way of what Hermione described as 'logical reasoning'."

Hermione huffed a little at Ron's explanation, but seemed content that he'd apologised properly enough.

"So," Ron asked tentatively. "Friends?"

He put out a hand for Harry to shake, which he did with no hesitation.

"Of course, mate."

Ron surprised Harry by offering the same gesture to Hermione, which she also accepted willingly, and it seemed like even the table itself let out a sigh of relief as the tension drained away from the group.

The four of them chatted over their butterbeer for quite a while, and ordered and ate lunch at their table, though they seemed to get interrupted on a regular basis by Gryffindors congratulating Harry and Ginny and wishing them well.

After lunch Neville and Luna joined them. They hadn't seen what had happened, either with Malfoy or between Harry and Ginny, but had heard about it from others after they'd arrived. By that time the four of them were in the middle of their lunch, and, more politely than some of their schoolmates, waited until they had finished eating before asking questions about it.

Of course, Ginny took great joy in explaining what Harry had said to Malfoy, though Ron kept trying to interrupt before she could explain about the kiss and eventually she had to give him a trademark Weasley glower to get him to stop.

Harry was most amused by the whole thing, but he could see that Ginny was getting irritated and Hermione starting to look nervous, so he refrained from laughing at his girlfriend.

"Oi, you!" He felt Ginny poke him in the ribs. "I could see you trying not to laugh there."

"Me? No, no!" Harry said, attempting to deny it.

"Yes. You! You're supposed to be backing me up here."

"What? And get in the middle of a fight between you and Ron? I've only just made up with him again - I don't want to have to go through that again!"

Ginny grumbled a little, trying to tease Harry and make him more uncomfortable, but to no avail.

"Besides, you were coping admirably by yourself," he smirked.

"Oh? Is that right? Well maybe I'll just leave you to cope with my darling brother then," she threatened, crossing her arms in front of her.

Harry stalled for a moment, wondering if he'd said something wrong.

"I'm sorry," he apologised hastily. "Anything but that!"

Ron looked a bit grumpy, but Ginny burst out laughing.

"That was a good one, Ginny," Neville noted. "You managed to wind both of them up at the same time."

The six of them enjoyed the early afternoon just talking together, enjoying the freedom from studying, although Hermione did turn the topic to class on one or two occasions. The four sixth years only shared two classes - Charms and Defence - and only Harry and Neville shared the repeated Astronomy classes, so they didn't spend too long talking about schoolwork.

Harry's training was of interest to the others though, and he spent a while explaining what he had been learning, particularly the elemental magic. Hermione looked as though she wanted to write notes while Harry was talking, and Neville looked a little awe-struck at what Harry was describing, but Luna and Ginny listened with interest too. Ron wasn't really too bothered. He was just pleased enough to have made up with his best friends to worry about it though.

The six of them were surprised when Professor McGonagall approached them.

"I'm glad to see you all enjoying your afternoon," she began, with just a glimmer of a smile haunting her lips as she looked at the group. "Could I ask Mister Potter and Miss Weasley to join me for a word outside please?"

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and shrugged. They followed McGonagall out through the teeming masses, and stopped just outside the door.

"What is it, Professor?" Harry enquired.

"I preferred to cover this in relative privacy," she told them as they walked over to a quiet spot outside the pub, finding a bench on the pavement to sit. The afternoon was starting to turn chilly as it drew on, and Harry pulled his coat tighter around himself.

"I happened to overhear a conversation between Professor Snape and one of his Slytherin sixth years, and I'm disappointed that I have to talk to you both about a confrontation you had a short while ago. Apparently you threatened Mister Malfoy with all sorts of things, and at wandpoint too! Can you explain?"

Harry was starting to get irritated with Malfoy. Clearly he'd decided to run off to Snape with a little tale about how Harry had upset him.

"I merely told him he was an irritation, and to go away, Professor," Harry said, frustrated at how once again his actions were being micro-managed by the Hogwarts staff. "It was Malfoy that approached us, and said all sorts of insulting things. I'll admit that I drew my wand on him, but I didn't use it, he didn't even have Crabbe and Goyle around as muscle."

McGonagall's lips thinned. "Do you really need to provoke Mister Malfoy any further?" she asked.

"I didn't provoke him!" Harry protested. "He came over to us and started making comments about how Ginny was tainted after what happened with Riddle's diary."

Ginny sought Harry's hand with her own, and he took it quickly, happy to give her that comfort after Malfoy's insinuations.

"Be that as it may, Harry," McGonagall told him, her voice softening a little towards him, yet retaining it's steeliness at Malfoy's attitude, "I can't have students drawing wands on each other, and displaying threatening behaviour, in public, especially not in the Three Broomsticks where the whole school will see. I'm going to have to ask the two of you to return to school."

"But Ginny didn't do anything!" Harry protested.

"I would have done," she muttered under her breath. "Anyway," she added aloud, for McGonagall's benefit. "If you're being sent back up to school, I'm coming with you."

Harry shot her a grateful glance for the support, and the two of them began to trudge back up towards the castle, leaving the Deputy Headmistress forgotten in their wake.

"Mister Potter! Miss Weasley!" she called after them as they turned away. "I'm sorry to have to make you do this, but I have to show impartiality towards the students. If I'd caught you with Mister Malfoy at wandpoint, you would have had points deducted and a detention as well."

Ginny muttered something under her breath that Harry didn't quite catch, but seemed to refer to the lack of similar impartiality shown by other Heads of Houses, and the two of them turned back to their journey.

"Life's not fair, young woman," came Moody's unmistakable voice from close by. No doubt he was once again hidden under an invisibility cloak and had seen and heard the whole exchange.

"Oh, take that stupid thing off and walk back with us, won't you?" Harry called out, annoyed that his movements were still being tracked.

Moody appeared about five yards to their left as he shrugged off the cloak, and gave them a lop-sided smile which, given the pieces missing from his face, would have frightened young children. His magical eye flashed brightly in his skull as though assessing something.

"Okay, it's safe for now," he said, joining the two teenagers as they walked away from Hogsmeade. "You were a bit unlucky, really."

"Why's that?" Harry asked.

"Well it was only because Minerva ran into Malfoy tattling to Snape that she felt forced to do anything. Snape was just about to tell the little ferret to stop whinging to him, and trying to hide behind the teachers just because he was scared of you."

Harry and Ginny shared an amused glance.

"I know Snape's been a lot less nasty this year, but I didn't expect that!" Harry noted.

"Didn't Albus tell you?" Moody questioned.

"Tell me what?"

Moody swore rather colourfully, before returning to Harry's question.

"You must know that Snape's role as Dumbledore's spy has apparently been discovered?" Harry nodded remembering a vision from earlier in the summer when Voldemort announced that the Death Eaters needed to kill Snape if they caught him.

Ginny looked up at him in surprise. "You can tell me later," she said with a glint in her eye that Harry identified as annoyance that she hadn't been given the full story either.

"Obviously, he doesn't need to treat those children of Death Eaters as favourably as he used to. In fact, they are probably the greatest danger to him right now, given the Dark Lord's instructions to have him killed. Anyway, when I came across Malfoy running his mouth off to his Head of House, thinking that Snape would track you down and punish you, I could see the look of distaste on Snape's face. Contempt was about the mildest word that I think I could use."

"Looks like Malfoy's little power games might be coming to an end then," Ginny smiled. "About time too. I've had enough of his sneering superiority."

Moody grumbled and shook his head.

"Well, like Minerva said, try not to provoke him. You said it best to his face: he's only a nuisance, not a serious threat."

Harry's eyes widened. "You heard exactly what I said to him!" he half-accused.

"Of course I did. I'm there for your protection. You didn't think that I was going to leave myself too far to lunge across the room if I had to get involved, did you?

"Anyway, get on back to the castle. I'll be around ... somewhere ... if you have any trouble, but try and stay to the main road."

With that final admonition, Moody pulled his cloak back around his shoulders and disappeared from view, leaving the young couple apparently alone once more.

"Seems to get more pleasure from watching me suffer than from actually protecting me," Harry muttered to himself, before putting an arm around Ginny's shoulders and heading past the end of the village, around the edge of the Forbidden Forest and back through the gates to the school.

He had thought about dropping in to visit Hagrid, since they were in the vicinity anyway, but it was likely that Hagrid was down in Hogsmeade anyway, so the two of them made their way back into the castle as the sun began to sink low in the sky behind their backs.

As they walked companionably together through the corridors, they were greeted with smiles by two or three groups of first years, no doubt grateful for Harry's role in getting them accepted around the school and helping them to settle in, after the shock of their non-Sorting.

As they climbed back through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor common room, Harry remarked how happy he was that Ginny hadn't made a big fuss about their relationship, and how it was so much easier just to be able to enjoy themselves.

Ginny turned to him with a hard expression on her face.

"Why did you think it would be such a trial, Harry?" she asked, perhaps a little concerned that he hadn't really wanted to go out with her after all, despite his displays of affection during the day. "I thought we agreed we'd take it easy?"

Harry grimaced.

"It was the whole thing with Cho, really," he mumbled, not really sure that he wanted to explain any further.

Ginny winced, but then asked the question she felt needed to be asked anyway.

"What about her, Harry?"

He muttered a few words about how disastrous the date with Cho at Madam Puddifoot's had been, but a few prompts from Ginny elicited the whole story from him as they took refuge on a sofa in front of the fire.

"And after all that," he noted, shaking his head ruefully as he got to the end of the little melodrama, "she ran screaming from the tea shop about how if I wanted to meet Hermione, I should have taken her to Hogsmeade instead."

By the time he'd finished his story, Ginny eyes were full of tears, but they were tears of laughter.

"Oh Harry!" she exclaimed, pulling him into a tight hug. "You're so naïve!"

He was a little disgruntled at this particular description, but kept calm while Ginny continued.

"I can't believe you didn't realise she was jealous! Now I understand why it wasn't her you wanted to talk to, that day I found you in the library."

"It wasn't just that," Harry pointed out. "We'd sort of made up a little after that, but then she had to go and defend Marietta after the poor girl had betrayed us, and I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time. I felt like yet another piece of me had been ripped away, and I couldn't see that the DA just wasn't as important to some people as it was to me.

"No, I guess I'm just not very good at talking about my feelings and stuff," he added, turning back to the original point of their conversation.

"And you were worried that I'd make a big deal out of today?"

"Well, I saw how Cho seemed to change once it was just the two of us and we were out on a formal 'date', so I didn't know what to expect really. I know you're nothing like her," he added, seeing the fire dancing dangerously in her eyes at the implied comparison, "but I just didn't know what to expect!"

Ginny's face softened a little, and she leant into him a little.

"It's okay, Harry, I just wanted to know what you seemed to be so scared of."

"Well, you," he suggested mischievously. "I've seen your Mother's temper!"

She crossed her arms in front of her.

"That's not funny Harry - I get that from everybody. Even Ron's a little bit scared of me, no matter how much he babies me at times. I don't want you afraid of me as well."

They sat together quietly for a while, and lay together on the sofa just enjoying the peace and quiet that they knew would be shattered once the rest of the students returned from the village. For once, even the second years were absent from the common room, and Harry speculated that Snape or one of the other teachers had loaded them with homework for the weekend, so that they were busy in the library rather than moping around the castle.

"Since we've talked about me enough tonight, can I ask you why you broke up with Michael Corner?" Harry asked tentatively. "I mean, I know you met at the Yule Ball two years ago, but all I really know is what Hermione said, and I wasn't really paying too much attention to her that day, as you might have gathered."

Ginny blushed. For once the relatively loquacious teenager wasn't keen on talking.

"It's not really all that much to tell, you know," she explained. "He was never all that secure, and kept thinking that I still had a crush on you, so every time your name came up, he'd growl and change the subject. The final straw was the day we beat Ravenclaw to win the Quidditch Cup. He was so annoyed that we won, and that I'd caught the Snitch to win the match, that he went on a right rant.

"Some time the next day I heard he'd been badmouthing me, basically saying that he didn't know why he though I was worthy of him, and I had it out with him. Basically he accused me of not only still having a crush on you," she said with a grimace that eased as Harry kissed her on the forehead, "but that I'd done everything in my power to replace you. He seemed to think that I was inspired by being your replacement on the Quidditch team, and that meant even more to me than just winning the match!"

"And I thought I was insensitive!" Harry joked.

"Yeah, well the worst thing was that it was probably true. He was never anything more than an entertaining distraction for a few months, and we didn't really see each other all that often.

"Anyway, I shouted him down and told him that if that was what he thought of me then he should go back to his mirror and preen there, rather than trying to think up stupid excuses for his teams defeat." She stopped for a moment and reflected.

"I reckon that's when he ran off to find Cho. He probably thought he could put one over on you by going out with her, but I don't think you even noticed did you?"

"Umm, not until you mentioned it on the train," Harry admitted.

"See, so it's still all about you," she sighed, "even when you think it isn't!"

Now it was Harry's turn to grimace. He hated being reminded of his fame, and tried to avoid being implicated in yet more gossip around the school, but he supposed that it didn't really matter what he did it would cause some sort of issue. He always seemed to end up being the centre of attention.

"Well, much as I wish it wasn't, there's not much I can do about it. It's like the prophecy really: it's just something I have to deal with, so I'd better prepare as best as I can for it."

"Like I said to start with, Harry, there's no pressure. We can take things as slowly as you want," Ginny replied, placing one hand on his chest and kissing him gently on the lips.

"Thanks," he responded, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, so that their cheeks were together.

They were laid together like that when the portrait hole burst open to admit Ron, Hermione and Neville just a few minutes later. Initially the three of them were taken aback at the fact that Harry wasn't ranting and raving about the injustice of McGonagall's reprimand and punishment, but then realised that he probably looked as happy as he had done in a long time.

Hermione explained that McGonagall had told them all of her decision, and had done so loudly enough for a number of other students to hear as well, which had earned quite a few protests, largely of the nature that they would have liked to have done exactly the same to Malfoy, and that Harry had been very restrained.

"She was most taken aback by the number of people who spoke up for you," Hermione said, shaking her head in bemusement.

Harry was glad for the support, but realised now that it didn't really matter if he was punished for threatening Malfoy or not - he didn't really think he'd deserved any censure given the way Malfoy had behaved over the years, but he wasn't sufficiently bothered by it to make a fuss. That others supported him was nice, but he didn't think it would make any difference to McGonagall's attitude.

He didn't understand why she'd taken them outside to talk to when she then went straight into the Three Broomsticks and more or less told everybody there what she'd said. It didn't make sense.

More interesting was Ron's brief explanation about how Hermione had advised him not to buy anything from Zonko's.

"I'm sure the twins wouldn't mind, Ron," Harry told him.

"I'd rather not find out though."

"Fair enough. I have plans for Zonko's that I think Fred and George would be interested in though," Harry noted.

Everyone looked very interested in Harry's plans, but he fended all their questions off, not wanting the Gryffindor prefects to be implicated in any future rule breaking.

"I need to discuss it with them first, so I can't say anything more," he excused himself from further explanations, reminding himself to send Hedwig off to the twins soon with his part-formed idea.

His basic idea involved trumping every prank he came across with something from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but he needed something from the twins that would help advertise their superiority, and he was sure that he knew what it would be, having already done something similar once. He also realised that Fred and George would be very interested to know how Zonko's had limited their product range, and that they would surely find a way of using that information to their advantage.

His musing was interrupted by Hermione trying to attract his attention.

"Sorry, Hermione, what were you saying?"

She huffed a little, and re-started her sentence.

"I wanted to ask how much you know about the guy that's teaching you - Fabian Gaarder."

"Not a lot, other than what Dumbledore and Ron have told me," he admitted.

She looked a little surprised that Ron had helped in that department, but if the youngest Weasley son noticed her hesitation, he didn't point it out.

Harry told her what he knew, and asked why she was so interested. Normally he would have expected her to have been curious for the sake of the knowledge itself, but something else appeared to be troubling her on this occasion.

"Well, we saw him-"

"You saw him," Ron interjected.

"Neville and I saw him, Ron."

"Well that's not all that unusual," Harry said, wondering why Hermione was so bothered by this.

"I know that, but he was with that Professor Karkaroff from Durmstrang, and he's a Death Eater, isn't he?"

That particular announcement silenced all five of them for a moment, but Ginny offered a fairly reasonable explanation.

"I'm sure he was just meeting an old acquaintance. After all, Karkaroff was his employer at Durmstrang the past few years, right?"

Harry felt a little disquiet knowing that Karkaroff was back in the vicinity, but thought he trusted Gaarder enough that he wouldn't endanger him.

"I thought he ran away though?" Neville asked.

"He did. He was scared." Harry remembered the panic on Karkaroff's face when he had approached Snape about the Dark Mark on his arm beginning to darken once again, and how, when the Durmstrang students had come to leave, they had had to do so without their Headmaster. "With justification, too."

"So what's changed to make him come back?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I'll have to ask Professor Gaarder when I next have a lesson. It would have to be something big - he seemed to want nothing to do with Voldemort anymore."

Harry remembered the scene in Dumbledore's Pensieve. Karkaroff had testified at the Wizengamot trials, and had informed on a number of his Death Eater colleagues. Even if the Dark Lord forgave him for such indiscretion and relented, allowing the oily man back into his ranks, Harry was sure that those he had betrayed wouldn't show similar leniency. Once caught, Karkaroff's only aim had been to save himself from going to Azkaban, and he had been prepared to turn in all his former compatriots to that end.

It was a huge risk for Karkaroff to return to Britain, Voldemort's centre of power, when he had recanted officially and conspired to leave other Death Eaters to rot in the wizarding prison for his own freedom.

Harry supposed that not all of the Death Eaters served the Dark Lord quite as enthusiastically as Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband, who seemed to revel in the chance to kill and torture innocents rather than for any ideological reason, even if that had initially been their purpose.

There might have been those that were duped into serving him, or were merely weak-minded. Some may have served him for other reasons, perhaps simply because it gave them a feeling of power and self-importance, and boosted their ego. He wondered which of these circumstances applied to Karkaroff, and what had brought him back, if indeed it was he that Hermione and Neville had seen.

He sighed.

"Not much we can do about it anyway," he noted, as he realised that everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to say something.

"Tell Dumbledore," Hermione suggested. "He might know more about it."

Harry looked up at his friend with a smile. "Tell you what, you tell Dumbledore. You're the one who saw him. If I go, I'm just passing on a message."

"Okay," she agreed, "but don't forget to talk to Professor Gaarder about it as well," she added.

He nodded, not sure that he'd get any useful information out of his tutor, but knowing that he ought to find out one way or another if he could.

That evening as he prepared for bed, the thought that Karkaroff was hanging around Hogsmeade still made Harry a little uneasy. Not as worried as if had been Bellatrix Lestrange perhaps, or Lucius Malfoy, though the latter was supposed to be in the custody of the Ministry, but it still nagged at him a little. He was more annoyed at having his date with Ginny curtailed by Professor McGonagall, and fell asleep with a feeling of injustice at the way that he had been treated.

Once again, Harry's sleep was troubled. Rather than dwelling on Sirius's death, his nightmares took on a new perspective.

The room in the Department of Mysteries was replaced in his dreams by a view across Hogsmeade, and a vision of the remnants of a Death Eater attack. Many of the shops and houses were scorched with black curse marks and charring, and more than a few had been burned to the ground.

Harry's perspective took him through the main street of the town, and he could see dead bodies laying to either side, either unrecognisable or unknown to him, which relieved him a little.

In the distance a group of Death Eaters were standing in a circle, and as Harry approached, he could see that they were in the process of taunting a young woman, who refused to submit to their attentions.

To his disgust and horror, as he drew closer, he was able to identify the figure.

Stripped to her underthings, and looking bedraggled, with cuts all over her body and her arms tied behind her, Ginny spat defiantly at the masked man and women that surrounded her.

Despite his shock at the scene, one part of Harry's mind wondered idly how he knew what she looked like in such a state of undress.

One Death Eater was standing behind her and holding her up, with one arm wrapped around her neck, while running his free hand across her body, as she writhed in his grasp, doing her utmost to break free of the unwanted attentions. With her arms tightly bound though, she could do nothing to prevent the man doing whatever he pleased.

Harry's mind screamed for the man to leave her, but no words came out of his mouth, and the assembled Death Eaters heard nothing, as though he were not even there.

A couple of the men started casting curses at Ginny, but Harry couldn't make out what they were, and before he could see and understand their purpose, his nightmare was ripped away.

For a moment, Harry thought he was awake, and breathed a long sigh of relief, but then realised that he was back in the moth-eaten, gossamer-ridden room where Voldemort held court.

Nothing had been done to improve the décor since the last time Harry had suffered through a vision, but that didn't in any case appear to be much of a priority for the Dark Lord. Harry wondered if in fact it was part of the intimidation factor: that he forced his Death Eaters to attend him in such squalid conditions.

It appeared that the meeting had been going on for some time, as Harry's voice carried forth into the ranks of the Death Eaters in mid-sentence as he became aware of his surroundings. Harry wondered whether his Occlumency lessons had helped to push the link aside for a time, or whether his nightmare had been so strong that it had overwhelmed the vision.

"It seems that old fool Dumbledore has finally realised that Severus's treachery has been uncovered. I obviously let the traitor live too long," he spoke sibilantly to the men and women before him. "I'm advised that the Potter boy has been given proper instruction to defend his mind.

"I'm most displeased with you all. I expected better information from you all. Once again I have had to rely on my inside source for information that some of your sons and daughter should be providing for me. Do they not correctly understand their roles? Parkinson? What have you to say for yourself?"

Harry was a little surprised at this revelation. He hadn't realised that Pansy Parkinson's Father was a Death Eater, though given her close relationship with Draco Malfoy, it shouldn't have been a stretch of the imagination. It was another thing to have it confirmed though.

"Potter hardly has any contact with the children these days, my Lord," the man identified as Parkinson stuttered out. "All we know is that he only takes a few classes. Dumbledore must have taken him out of proper classes to have this extra training."

"Be that as it may, without Crabbe and Goyle poking their noses around, I need more information from the likes of you, Parkinson," he hissed in annoyance. "I want to know what else the fool is teaching him."

"Yes master," the prone figure agreed quickly.

"Now, what progress have you made on breaching the defences that Dumbledore has set up around the Weasley and Longbottom houses?" he asked.

The room went deadly silent.

"What? Nothing?"

Again, no one dared answer, in the negative or otherwise.

His anger flared.

"Then we will just have to make an impact another way, and draw them out," he snarled, spitting his disgust at the failure of his followers to carry out their instructions.

Harry woke with a start, to see Neville leaning over him, shaking his shoulders.

"Harry, are you alright?" the moon-faced boy asked, his pale face starkly outlined as the moon shone through the curtains. "You were screaming to start with, and then you went deathly still, hardly breathing."

Harry wiped his face wearily on one of the bedsheets and sat up. He could still feel the sweat on his body cooling, but was glad that, for once, he had been woken before Voldemort actually got to cursing any of his followers unfortunate enough to be present.

"Yes. Thanks, Neville," he said softly. "Just a nightmare."

"Not like the one last Christmas?"

"Not exactly, no. It's okay."

Neville looked at him a little suspiciously. "Do you need to see Dumbledore?" he asked uncertainly.

"No. It'll wait until the morning," he reassured his friend and lay back down onto his pillow.

Neville nodded and backed away between the bed hangings pulling them together behind him again. Harry closed his eyes. He wasn't sure that he really wanted to go back to sleep, remembering the nightmare he'd had, and lay there for a while calming himself by working quietly on some of the pre- Occlumency exercises he'd learned over the summer.

He eventually felt a little calmer, but still didn't fall back to sleep. Instead he got out of bed and quietly rummaged around in his trunk pulling out some homework that he'd left unfinished to go to Hogsmeade, and for several hours the only sounds in the dormitory were the scratching of Harry's quill on parchment and the gentle snores emanating behind the drapes of Ron's bed.