Choices and Consequences

Even though it had barely been two hours since Voldemort's deadline for releasing the Dark Mark, the Daily Prophet that Hermione was reading aloud to them as they sat at the breakfast table that morning had full details of the atrocities.

The newspaper had somehow managed to get a reporter to a number of the locations and had full reports of the ten attacks that Harry had witnessed during his vision.

The reporters didn't skimp on the detail of the horrors that the Death Eaters had inflicted, and the survivors had apparently been interviewed by the paper before they'd even managed to get any medical attention, which Harry thought was unnecessarily callous. The interviews revealed tortures and abuses both physical and sexual, and Harry could see by the faces around him that his friends were sickened at them as Hermione read, just as he had been at witnessing the mildest of them as Voldemort moved from one location to the next.

Hermione looked up at Harry as she turned the page and picked up her coffee cup, placing in back on the table when she saw the expression on his face.

"What's up, Harry?" she asked cautiously, not liking the dark look he was giving the paper.

He simply nodded at the paper. "All that you've been reading out," he said briefly. "I saw it all."

Hermione's face paled and Ron choked on the piece of sausage he'd just put in his mouth. Ginny simply gripped his arm tightly.

"All of it?" Hermione asked. "All those murders?"

Harry nodded, his face bleak.

"All the rapes and tortures?"

He grimaced. "No. Fortunately not. Some of them, though," he added with a sick expression.

Seeing the looks of confusion on his friends' faces, he explained further, fleshing out the details of the vision he'd had.

"So the Prophet was right then?" Hermione asked. "These people were chosen as targets because they married Muggles?"

Harry nodded again.

"Why?" Ron asked quietly.

"He's sending a message," Harry said grimly. "Probably the first of many."

"What do you mean?"

"He's telling people not to mix with Muggles."

"Why?"

Harry shrugged.

"Because he's scared of them," Hermione suggested to looks of surprise from the two Weasleys.

"He's seen how far Muggle technology has come, and what it can do that magic can't - he doesn't want too many wizards finding out the sort of damage that, say, a machine-gun could do. There's not much in the way of a response to that if you're confronted with it, even with magic."

Harry had been taught a few spells by John Christopher that might be useful in such situations, but since he largely agreed with Hermione's speculation, he elected not to explain to Ron and Ginny and make them even more confused.

Instead he simply nodded.

"They're easy targets, individually," he agreed, "especially with no warning. But if you knew a Death Eater was coming, and didn't have a hostage, you could kill them just as easily as they could you, even without using the Unforgivables."

"So he's going after purebloods that have married Muggles or Muggleborns?" Ginny asked.

"It looks like it," Harry grimaced. "They are the most likely to be able to adapt to Muggle technology and to spread that throughout the wizarding world. More to the point though, he can justify it to the Death Eaters as 'purifying' wizarding blood by cutting down what they would describe as 'blood traitors', and preventing them from 'diluting' the gene pool."

"You said 'the first of many', Harry. What else, or who else is next?" Hermione asked.

"Probably anyone that defies him, just to keep the idea of terror running through wizarding society. To make it seems as though there is no use standing against him and to boost the number of Death Eaters, too."

"Is this what's stopping you sleeping properly?" Ginny asked.

"Not exactly," Harry responded, not really wanting to get into this in the middle of the Great Hall. "I don't get visions very often. No, it's the nightmares of what might happen, not the actual visions, however vile they are."

"Can we-" Ginny began, but Harry cut her off.

"Not here," he said, looking around the room and seeing a number of heads suddenly ducking down as though they hadn't really been listening. "We'll find somewhere a bit quieter after breakfast," he added more loudly for all those who'd been straining to hear the conversation.

After breakfast the four of them found an empty classroom. Harry gave them a general idea of the sorts of nightmares he'd been enduring, and was pleased that the looks on their faces were sympathetic rather than full of pity.

"Damnit, Harry, why didn't you tell anyone?" Ron demanded.

Harry shrugged and grimaced. "It doesn't exactly sound great when you can't sleep because you see your friends getting tortured by Death Eaters, does it?" he asked.

"That's not the point. You could have told us"

Despite the fact that these people were the closest he had to a proper family, he still wasn't all that comfortable talking about his feelings to them. He'd already made one mistake with Ginny, and he was keen not to do it again, but he didn't really have any idea how he should approach it.

"I'm sorry, Ron," Harry apologised. "I didn't want to worry you all. I'm still scared that it might happen, but I think I know what I'm going to do about it."

All three of them looked up at him in interest.

"I hope it doesn't involved overdosing on that Dreamless Sleep potion," Hermione asked nervously.

"No, it doesn't," he replied with a snort. "It's more practical than that. I have to find a way to protect you all, instead. That way, if I know you are all safe, I won't be worrying."

Ginny didn't look very happy about this.

"Harry, we can't just hole ourselves up somewhere safe," she said, pulling at his elbow to attract his attention fully. "Even if it's just to help you combat V-Voldemort, we're not going to be safe from harm. It just won't work."

"Don't you understand?" Harry asked plaintively. "If you're in danger, I'm not sure that I'll be able to defeat him anyway - I'll be far too worried about you, and probably not sleeping very well!

"If I learned anything from my vision last night it's that the people you love make very good hostages. All the witches and wizards that were attacked could have used their magic to defend themselves but didn't dare because they feared for the lives of their loved ones if they tried to save themselves. In the end it didn't even matter because they ended up dead anyway, but at least if they hadn't had to worry about the hostage then they'd have gone out fighting instead of submitting to the Death Eaters."

Tears streamed down Harry's face at the frustration. He hadn't cried at all over the deaths and tortures that he'd witnessed that morning, and perhaps he was letting it all out now, which wasn't totally fair on his friends, but he had to get them to see that their lives were just as important as his own and that if they were in danger, or if the Death Eaters specifically threatened them to get to him, he'd have no choice but to secure their release even at the cost of his own life.

Ginny put her arms around him and drew his head down into her shoulder so that she could comfort him.

"It doesn't have to be like that, Harry," she reassured him. "We're already in danger, whether or not you defy V-Voldemort. We can't just sit back and watch - our family are already deeply involved."

He felt another hand on his back, which he assumed was Hermione's.

"She's right, you know," Hermione's voice drifted across to him quietly. "We're all in danger anyway, Harry. None of us are going to simply sit back and let the Death Eaters take over, you know that. We'd be in danger even if you weren't here to worry about us."

"But-, but-"

"I'm Muggleborn, Harry. Don't you think he'll be coming after all of us?" she asked.

Harry sighed dejectedly.

"What did Dumbledore say about it?" Hermione continued. "You did tell about your nightmares, didn't you?"

"He said I had to confront my fears and get over them," Harry said, remembering the Headmaster's words.

"Well, I'm sure he didn't mean for us to be locked up somewhere safe so you didn't have to fear us getting caught and tortured," Ginny said sharply from right next to Harry's ear. "We'll have to get rid of your fear another way."

"We?" he asked.

"Yes, we," Ron stated firmly, and pulled up a chair, plonking himself heavily down onto it. "You're not by yourself in this. We're with you all the way. When it comes down to it we're going to be there with you, fighting too."

"But the prophecy says it's got to be me or him," Harry protested.

"That doesn't mean he won't bring any Death Eaters with him, does it?" Ginny noted. "You'll need us there to help you deal with them even before you get to V-Voldemort."

Harry looked at her askance at the thought of them all putting themselves in danger to help him defeat Voldemort, but he was starting to realise that there wasn't anything he could do to stop them, and if they intended to be there at the final battle to help him, he'd be better served with their help than on his own.

"So, what do I do?" Harry asked, looking up from Ginny's shoulder.

"Well, I think, if you're afraid of us getting captured by Death Eaters, then we should do something about preventing that - or at least you should," Hermione suggested, a gleam of mischief creeping into her eyes as she spoke.

"Oh?"

"Well, if you're worried about us being able to defend ourselves, then you need to teach us," she said.

Harry let out a deep breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

"You want me to start up the DA again, for the three of you," he stated.

Hermione nodded.

"No. I'm not doing that," Harry responded with a hard edge to his voice.

Hermione's eyes opened wide, and he felt Ginny's hand tense up on his shoulder.

"I'm not teaching just the three of you," he clarified. "If I'm going to do this, then I have to do it for everyone otherwise I'll end up worrying about someone else.

"Could I live with my guilt if because the three of you were well trained to defend yourselves, someone else was attacked instead of you: Dean, Seamus, Neville, or Luna or someone? No - I'd hate myself for not having helped them when I could, too."

Hermione clapped her hands and smiled and Ron let out a brief expletive to express his agreement with Harry's decision. Ginny didn't say anything, just placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and stroked his hair.

"So when do we start?" Ron asked.

"Ron!" Hermione chided.

"What?"

"He's only just agreed to it. Don't be so impatient!"

Ron just shrugged and looked questioningly at Harry.

"Next week?" Harry suggested vaguely. He certainly didn't have any plans what to do in the DA sessions, even if he re-started them. Last year he'd spent quite a few evening idly planning lessons from time to time after Hermione had planted the notion in his mind. This time, he had no particular plans - perhaps he'd discuss it with Moody or John Christopher after one of their lessons.

"Well since we've settled that, I've got a Care of Magical Creatures lesson to attend," Ron pointed out, shocking Hermione into checking her timetable as she rushed to berate him for not mentioning it sooner and dragged him off to Hagrid's lesson.

"Are you regretting not taking Magic Creatures, Harry?" Ginny asked gently, one arm around his waist as the two of them watched Hermione remonstrating with Ron as the they left the room.

"Not really," Harry decided. "Some of the things that Hagrid had us study were downright grotesque - remember the Blast-ended Screwts?"

Ginny giggled. "Only vaguely - we managed to kill most of ours off, but don't tell Hagrid."

"I should get down and see him more often. I think he was a bit upset that I'm not doing his class for NEWTs, but at least he's still got Ron and Hermione in his classes."

They sat there together quietly for a moment, before Harry broke the silence.

"I was thinking of other ways that we could protect you," he ventured.

"Why me?"

"Because it's you that I see getting tortured mostly," he admitted. "I'm scared that you're going to get taken and there's nothing that I can do about it. I'd started work on a charmed amulet in Charms class - a kind of Fidelius Charm that would hide you."

"Harry! You can't do that! I'm not hiding!"

Harry's face fell. He'd half-hoped that Ginny would be keen on the idea, but had figured she'd be resistant to it.

"If you're going out there to face V-Voldemort, I'm going to be there fighting at your side, not hiding away somewhere nice and safe. Mum, Dad, Bill, Charlie and the twins are all already involved in work for the Order and I'm hardly going to back out of the fight."

"Damnit, Ginny, I don't want you to be any more of a target than you have to be!" he grumbled.

"Whatever happens I'm a target, whether it's because my family are 'blood traitors' or because I'm the girlfriend of the Boy-who-Lived." As she said this last she grabbed him tightly and kissed him fiercely on the mouth, as though to emphasis that she wasn't going anywhere.

"If you want me safe, you'll have to teach me to defend myself."

"I thought we'd just agreed that?" Harry asked, slightly confused.

"Sure. Just don't go thinking that you're going to keep me away from danger - it seems to follow me around, too. I did fine at the Ministry until I broke my ankle, and I'm sure that if you have the time to get us all trained up this year we'll be even better off."

Harry put both arms around her and pulled her close, gaining comfort from her presence.

"Umm, Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Much as I'm enjoying holding on to you, I'm late for Transfiguration!"

Harry released her quickly, feeling guilty about the dressing down that his girlfriend would get from Professor McGonagall.

"Damn! I'm sorry, Ginny!"

"It's okay, I won't lose any more House Points than you did for falling asleep in Snape's class. Just be glad that it's not Potions I'm late for: the look on Snape's face when I told him I was late because I was unavoidably detained in your arms in an empty classroom would be priceless!"

She gave him a final kiss on the cheek, then dashed out of the door and up the corridor, leaving Harry chuckling at the thought of Snape's horror at such an excuse for tardiness. He shook it from his mind and headed back up to the Room of Requirement where he was due to meet Professor Gaarder.

The first Quidditch match of the season featured Gryffindor taking on Slytherin, as was traditional. The Gryffindor team had been practicing hard for several weeks even though Harry had missed a lot of those practices because of his stay in the Hospital Wing and the detentions he'd had to serve with Snape. He'd still made an occasional practice though and even if Katie wasn't quite as demanding a captain as Oliver Wood had been, or as Angelina had been the previous season, the team really felt like they'd been working hard in those sessions.

Having Neville practice with the team had provided some fairly unexpected dividends. As well as helping to hone the reflexes of the Chasers and Seeker, by having to evade a third Bludger that Katie had borrowed from Madam Hooch, Neville's presence also made the Creevey brothers even more competitive and keen to hone their Beating skills, while Neville also seemed to thrive in the environment, pushing the two Beaters for their starting spots in the team.

Pre-match nerves all a-flutter, the teams were assembled in the changing rooms to take on Katie's last minute words of advice before heading out onto the field of play.

"Expect them to be pretty brutal," she warned, particularly eyeing Euan Abercrombie, whose slight form was the most likely target for the Slytherin roughhouse tactics. "They've only had to replace one Chaser this year, and the rest of the team are either sixth or seventh years, so we can expect them to play a very physical game."

"When don't they?" Ginny chimed in, "They're Slytherins - they always play dirty."

"Just make sure you're prepared for it. The extra practice we've had with a third Beater should help with that, but I don't want you getting into any shoving matches. That was fine when we had Fred and George on the team, since nobody dared intimidate them. You two need to be ruthless today," Katie pointed out to the Creeveys, who looked nervously at each other then gave Katie a determined nod.

"Whatever else happens, remember that you're on the team because you're good enough," Katie continued. "Even if you have a bad game today, I know that you're capable of playing well, so don't get too nervous about it. We all make mistakes, let's just try and make as few as possible."

Some of these comments were clearly directed at Ron and Euan. Harry remembered how badly Ron had performed in goal when he'd let his nerves get to him last year, and no doubt Katie was trying to make sure that Euan didn't feel as though he was under too much pressure, too.

"Harry, I still have no idea who they are replacing Malfoy with, but I expect you to get the Snitch first, whoever it is. Even if they're better than Malfoy was I know that you're the best Seeker we've seen in years, so you'd better make sure you're on top form - no slacking!" she told him with a grin.

"Ready, everyone? Come on then, let's go!"

The seven of them made their way out onto the field to the roar of the crowd, and Harry noticed that the Slytherin team had emerged ahead of them. An unfamiliar voice rang out around the stadium, announcing the team line-ups, and Harry vaguely missed the dulcet tones of Lee Jordan, who'd seemed irreplaceable as commentator.

"Captains shake hands please," Madam Hooch instructed as Katie led the team out to the middle of the pitch.

The Slytherin Captain, Adrian Pucey, attempted to crush Katie's hand as she reached out, but she showed no obvious pain, much to Harry's amusement.

"On my whistle then, and I'll be watching out for any dirty play."

Madam Hooch blew her whistle sharply, and the two teams headed up into the sky as the balls were released. Harry caught a glimmer of the Snitch straight away, but then lost sight of it as he swerved to avoid a Bludger that was headed his way.

Much as Katie had predicted, the Slytherins concentrated on unsettling Euan as much as possible early in the game, marking him very tightly and pouncing upon him whenever the Quaffle came in his direction. To his credit though, the slight second year handled himself well, using his excellent handling ability to get a pass off back to either Ginny or Katie as quickly as possible whenever he was put under pressure.

"Bell passes to Abercrombie, who quickly hands off to Weasley...," the unknown commentator reported, as Harry took a quick breather from his searching pattern to watch the play, and the Gryffindor Chasers scored to take an early lead.

"Shame you had to lower yourself to the Muggle-lover's level," came a familiar drawl from close behind Harry that made him draw breath sharply. "I'd've thought you could have found yourself a proper witch for a girlfriend. Still, it shows how desperately poor they must be, to be desperate to want you in the family - I hope you weren't expecting a dowry?"

Harry groaned under his breath, as he turned and caught sight of his opponent at Seeker.

The face wasn't all that familiar - it was a fourth year boy that Harry didn't know particularly well - but the drawl was unmistakably Malfoy's.

Why Malfoy continued to taunt him, he really didn't know, but he'd hoped to avoid it now that Malfoy had been expelled. He wondered how the git had managed to get himself back into Hogwarts, especially bearing in mind the way that he had left.

It must have been simple enough to use Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the boy who'd ostensibly replaced him as Seeker, but Harry couldn't really see why he would take such a risk just for a game of Quidditch.

Even if he was there to try and attack Harry, he'd never been subtle, and it would have been much easier to curse Harry if he hadn't made himself known. Taunting him was just daft.

Commenting about Ginny wasn't exactly very creative, either but Harry knew he couldn't let it lie.

"How did you get here, Malfoy?" he demanded. "I thought you'd be halfway to Australia by now."

"Wouldn't you just like to know? But then I'd have to kill you - oh wait a moment, maybe I should. It's amazing how helpful a little Polyjuice Potion and knowing where certain tunnels come out can be. But then you'd know that already, wouldn't you," the blond boy accused.

"What? Worried about another Ministry raid on your house, Malfoy? I understand there's a secret floor in your drawing room that hides a few less-than-legal items."

"Pffft. You think too much of yourself and that red-headed blood traitor family," Malfoy spat. "Is that what you're after with that skank - marriage into a proper wizarding family? You'd be wasting your time - they're about as useful as a fish on a broom."

"We're not all pure-blood freaks who insist on arranged marriages, Malfoy. We have a choice in the matter, unlike you and pug-nose Parkinson."

"I'll have you know that Pansy comes from one of the most influential families in Britain, and you'd do well to remember that, Scarhead," Malfoy responded, easily riled by Harry's quick rejoinder.

"That's my point," Harry noted as he eased his broom further away from Malfoy's and tried to focus on the game.

He was soon reminded that Malfoy was more dangerous than he appeared, as a green bolt of light flew close to his head, and he spotted the blond boy returning his wand to his robes so it couldn't be seen by anyone else.

"Close one that, Potter," Malfoy sneered. "You nearly joined your Father and that stupid mutt Black. Such a shame I'm under orders not to kill you ... yet!"

Harry's temper started to rise at the mention of Sirius's death, and the fact that Malfoy could even stoop so low as to mention his Father's death, too, but his attention was diverted elsewhere momentarily.

Hooch had blown for a foul that Ron had committed on the Slytherin Chaser attempting to score on him, which distracted Harry for a moment as he watched Katie give Ron a snarl and remind him that they weren't supposed to be getting into a battle.

"Oh look, seems like we're level," Malfoy gloated from about thirty feet away as Montague scored with the penalty shot to make the score ten points each.

Harry just ignored him and headed away from the Slytherin Seeker, back into his searching pattern.

The score stayed fairly level over the next twenty minutes as the Slytherin tactics started to get to the Gryffindor Chasers. As well as closing down very quickly on Euan, they were now giving him little opportunity to get any passes away by marking the other two Chasers tightly as well, and Ginny and Katie were having to work very hard to keep Gryffindor in possession of the Quaffle.

This meant that there was very little scoring though. Although the Slytherin Chasers definitely had the upper hand with their tight marking and the violent play of their Beaters, they weren't able to score many past Ron, who seemed to be in pretty good form.

The Beaters were also fairly evenly matched, and the Creevey brothers were holding their own against Crabbe and Goyle, whose strength seemed to be counteracted by their lack of understanding of the team's tactics. The Creeveys' main deficit to the lumbering Slytherins was in their willingness to use the roughhouse tactics their opposition employed. The score was 40-30 in favour of Slytherin.

Harry had had one or two near misses from the ill-directed Bludgers that seemed to head towards him more by luck than judgement, but they had been when his focus was wholly on the search for the Snitch. Malfoy spent a lot of time tailing him as the match progressed, and it didn't look as though he was making any effort to look for the Snitch of his own accord.

This seemed a little strange to Harry. He'd proven himself to be a much better flyer than the blond Slytherin, and he flew on a faster broom - he wondered how Malfoy could possibly hope to beat him without trying to spot the Snitch on his own.

His mind was taken away from Malfoy's strange tactics by the sight of Euan getting free and scoring to tie the match again, having dodged a Slytherin Chaser attack that was intended to crush him in a pincer-like movement. Euan nimbly evaded them, and the two Slytherin seventh years crashed heavily into each other, only just managing to right their brooms and save themselves from falling.

This simple manoeuvre turned the tide of the game. With the two Slytherin Chasers now a little more tentative in their attacks on Euan, he was able to gain more freedom, and became the focal point of the Gryffindor offense. Ginny and Katie continued to work hard together, and started working on feeding the ball to Euan near the hoops, where he was able to use his accuracy to start racking up a sizeable points total.

The score had reached 150-60 to Gryffindor by the time that Harry spotted the Snitch. It was a long way toward the other end of the field and unfortunately, Harry's sudden realisation alerted Malfoy to the Snitch's position as well.

This was unfortunate for two reasons. Firstly Harry had hoped to get a jump, but as it happened Malfoy was actually nearer to the Snitch and he would have to flat-out race him to it. The other reason was that it gave time for Malfoy to hurl a curse at Harry that Madam Hooch failed to spot. Although he was able to swerve out of the way of the ominous green flash of light that passed by him, he had to reorient himself and pick up his bearings on the Snitch once more, which gave the Slytherin Seeker a significant headstart.

"The Seekers have spotted the Snitch for the first time," the commentator pointed out, and the majority of the spectators turned their attention from the Chasers, Beaters and Keepers to the two Seekers as they streaked through the air towards the Snitch as it headed towards the base of one of Ron's goalposts.

Malfoy's ploy had provided him with at least ten yards of headstart, and as the two boys hurtled their way across the Quidditch pitch, Harry slowly started to make some headway into his lead. It was going to be a close run thing if the Snitch stayed on its current course. Harry wasn't sure that he would have enough time to overtake Malfoy before the two of them made it within catching range of the golden ball.

Just as Harry's head came level with Malfoy's feet, the Slytherin kicked out, one of his hard-soled boots making contact with Harry's temple. The impact pushed both of them off target, but the distraction was enough for Malfoy to gain an extra couple of yards as they got to within touching distance of the Snitch. As he reached out to grab it though, the Snitch veered off at an acute angle, causing both Seekers to lose sight of it as it flickered past the edge of their vision.

With his concentration firmly on the Snitch, Harry had become unaware of his position on the field and suddenly found the goalposts looming in front of him. He swerved violently to avoid a head-on collision but couldn't entirely avoid contact with the post and caught one of the them a mighty blow with his leg as he righted his broom.

The shock of the contact with the metal goalpost reverberated through Harry's bones, and a wave of nausea swept through his stomach as he swayed dangerously on his Firebolt, hoping that he hadn't broken anything. Once the initial shock of the impact had receded and he'd regained his composure and started looking for the Snitch once again, he noticed that Malfoy was laughing so hard at Harry's misfortune that he was struggling to stay on his broom.

That proved the Slytherin's undoing. With his attention elsewhere, Malfoy didn't even notice that Harry had already righted himself and got another sighting of the Snitch, and had sped off towards one of the stands. By the time Malfoy had cottoned on, Harry was half the length of the field away, and had no difficulty in capturing the Snitch and securing the victory for Gryffindor by 310 points to 60.

Malfoy was fuming as his Captain reamed him out for his lack of attention. The Slytherins had clearly gotten over the fact that it was Malfoy money that had purchased their brooms, and felt that actually paying attention to the game was more important than having the fastest broom. Harry certainly thought so, and the way that his teammates had played despite the nasty tactics of their opponents pleased him.

The Slytherins were keeping very close together, and Harry wondered whether the Polyjuice had worn off and they were trying to keep Malfoy's face from being seen by any of the teachers before they could sneak him out of the castle, though given his performance, they might well have felt it worthwhile turning him in instead.

Once the Gryffindor team had completed a lap of the stadium in celebration and returned to the ground, they were engulfed by a wave of red and gold-clad supporters who'd made their way down to the field to congratulate their team. There seemed to be a large number of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs mingled in amongst them too, no doubt emboldened by Harry's attempts to foster some intra-house friendships in the DA the previous year.

Harry and Ginny shared a hug and a brief kiss before the mob descended upon them with their congratulations, and herded the team up to Gryffindor common room for a party. Harry wasn't in much of a mood to party though as he limped up to Gryffindor Tower. His knee still hurt from the impact with the goalpost, and now the adrenaline rush that had powered him to get through the game had worn off he was just keen to get settled in a seat and perhaps get some ice on it.

As he lowered himself into his traditional seat in front of the fire, he felt the pain shoot through his leg and finally hissed out loud.

"What is it?" Ginny asked gently.

"Where I hit my leg on the goalpost," Harry responded through clenched teeth. "Bloody hurts."

"Sit back," she ordered, and waited as Harry did so, taking the weight off his injured leg. She grabbed a pair of scissors from out of someone's sewing basket by the fire and started cutting up the leg of the trousers Harry was wearing under his Quidditch robes.

"What are you doing?" Harry muttered under his breath.

"Taking a look at your leg, Harry. I can either do it this way, or you can stand up and remove your trousers. I suspect you'd prefer this way."

Harry chuckled. "I guess so, since there are about eighty other students in here right now."

"Yeah, well maybe when we're alone some time, you can so it the other way," Ginny suggested, a gleam in her eye that Harry identified as a challenge.

"Not sure what your brother would say to that," Harry responded, the blush rising in his cheeks.

"I said, when we're alone. I wasn't exactly advocating disrobing in front of him," she noted coolly, her suggestive tone making Harry's insides squirm.

Finally having cut far enough up the trouser leg, Ginny rolled it up, and took a good look at Harry's injury. He had taken a great gouge out of the flesh above his knee, and it looked as though his kneecap had been displaced.

"Okay," she said with a wince of sympathy. "It's a job for Madam Pomfrey."

"That bad?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"Damn!"

"Let's go now," Ginny recommended, "before you do any more damage to it."

Harry sighed. He spent far too much time in the Hospital Wing as it was - he didn't really want to have to go there if he didn't have to, but he trusted Ginny's assessment of the damage. She wouldn't force him up to see Madam Pomfrey if she thought he could cope with it, having herself had plenty of minor knocks from Quidditch practices that she tended to shrug off.

"Come on. Lean on me," she said as she helped him stand up once again. "Try not to put any weight on it."

They made their way out through the portrait hole, declining the numerous offers of assistance as they went, and left the happy Gryffindors to their party. It took them a fair while to get Harry up there, but Madam Pomfrey was pleased to see that Ginny hadn't left him to make it on his own.

"Ah, good work, Miss Weasley. Could have caused some nasty damage if he'd tried to walk too far on it," she admonished kindly, as she helped Ginny make him comfortable.

He shucked off the Quidditch Robes, leaving him in his now-ripped trousers and a T-shirt, as he lay on top of the bed Madam Pomfrey had indicated.

"Let's have a look then," she instructed, and Harry leaned forwards to pull his trouser leg up, but was firmly pushed back down onto the bed by his girlfriend, with a warning glare. He settled down with a sigh and relaxed a little as Ginny pulled back the material, uncovering Harry's wound for Madam Pomfrey.

Peering at the damage, the nurse 'tut-tut'ed a couple of times, as she carefully probed the injury with her fingers, causing Harry to wince on more than one occasion, and ran a few quick diagnostic spells over the wound with her wand.

"You've made a bit of a mess of that, Mister Potter," she informed him. "What did you do?"

Harry told her about his collision with the Quidditch goalpost while Ginny seated herself next to him on the bed, being careful not to jar his leg.

"Right, well you've torn some ligaments and displaced your kneecap, but the blood's just from the flesh wound, so I'll just clean it up and I'll have a potion for you, then it's probably best if you stay overnight while your ligaments reattach themselves to your knee properly." Madam Pomfrey told him. "You might as well keep those trousers on until tomorrow morning, then they could do with a proper washing.

"Are you staying or going, Miss Weasley?"

"Can I stay?" she asked, surprised she was being given a choice in the matter.

"You can stay until Mister Potter falls asleep, which he'll be doing pretty quickly once he's taken his potion," she noted with a stern glance at Harry, who for once hadn't complained about being dosed up with healing potions. "Then I'll walk you back to the Gryffindor common room."

"Thanks," Ginny smiled up at the nurse, who cast a quick cleaning charm on Harry's leg, then shuffled off into her office to pull out the appropriate potion for him to take.

"Shame I can't stay all night," Ginny smirked as the two of them were left alone.

Harry went red, but still managed to formulate a reply. "Miss Weasley!" he remonstrated. "What are you suggesting? I hope your brother doesn't hear you making remarks like that!"

Ginny sniggered, but bent her head down close to Harry's and touched her lips to his.

"I'm not saying them to Ron," she murmured in between the tiny butterfly kisses she dropped on Harry's face, "and besides, what he doesn't know won't hurt him," she added softly.

"Ahem!" Madam Pomfrey interrupted from behind Ginny. "This is the Hospital Wing, not the Astronomy Tower, you know."

Harry coloured again, but Ginny was quick to respond.

"Are you suggesting we should use the Astronomy Tower for an illicit, post-curfew liaison, Madam Pomfrey?" she joked.

The nurse gave her a stern look. "Hardly. But I would appreciate it if you did not use my Infirmary for such purposes!"

Ginny gave a large pretend pout, at which Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes.

"Mister Potter. If you could kindly control your girlfriend's impulses for a few moments."

"Not much chance of that," Harry muttered under his breath, to giggles from Ginny, before presenting a beatific face to the nurse. "Yes, Madam Pomfrey," he replied dutifully.

Pomfrey gave him a grumpy look, but passed him the potion to drink. Watching to make sure he drained the glass, she turned back to his knee, and cast a pain relieving charm on it, at which the tension drained from Harry's shoulders and he lay back a lot more comfortably on the bed.

"Five minutes," she instructed Ginny, and pulled a blanket off an adjacent bed to cover Harry with, "that's all. He'll be asleep after that." She looked at them for a long moment, then decided that they could be trusted not to get up to anything too inappropriate in the few minutes she knew they had before Harry would be soundly asleep, and walked back into her office.

"Five minutes, huh?" Ginny whispered in Harry's ear as she lay down on the bed next to him. "I'm sure I can think of an incentive to keep you awake longer."

Harry turned his head to face her, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her nose. "Oops! Bad aim," he slurred, snuggling up against her.

"Ah well, perhaps not then," Ginny sighed, running a hand through Harry's hair and wrapping the strands around her fingers as the potion took effect and he quickly fell asleep, all thoughts of Malfoy, Quidditch victories and damaged knee forgotten.

She lay there a few moments longer, enjoying the secure feeling she had wrapped in his arms, before gently disentangling herself and pulling the blanket up under his chin.

"Sweet dreams," she whispered, kissing his forehead gently, then turning towards Madam Pomfrey's office.