Choices and Consequences

January soon turned into February, but the weather remained cold and wintry. A number of Quidditch practices were cancelled because of the blizzard conditions, which Harry was glad for - trying to find the Snitch in the snow was almost impossible.

The match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin was postponed three or four times before they finally managed to play in the first week of February, Ravenclaw flattening a weak Slytherin team by a score of 410-40. The lousy weather made it difficult for the Seekers to find the Snitch, and by the time that Cho pulled it out of the air the vast majority of the spectators were glad the game was over and headed back to the warmth of their respective common rooms fairly sharply.

Once that was out of the way, most of the idle chit-chat around the school turned to the subject of Valentine's Day.

Following the disaster of the last Hogsmeade visit, the students were not allowed out and about, which left them with little in the way of entertainment for the occasion. While everyone was confined to the castle grounds that did not prevent some adventurous couples finding their own trysting spots, and rumours circulated that some of the sixth and seventh years were using of the Room of Requirement to engage in more than a little snogging.

This was curtailed after Professor McGonagall announced that the staff would be placing the room off-limits, and would be stationing the school's caretaker there for the evening.

Ginny had agreed that not to make a particular fuss about Valentine's Day, although she was a little put out that they weren't able to get out of the castle. She would have liked to have taken Harry back to the Shrieking Shack and convinced him that it was okay for him to lose control, but she was content enough that the two of them didn't have to dance around each other awkwardly like some of the other potential couples.

To make up for being unable to get out and spend some time together, Harry promised that they could use his invisibility cloak and find a place in private in the castle.

What he hadn't told Ginny was that he was bringing along the book that Remus and the twins had given him for Christmas.

Early in the month, Harry received a letter from Remus replying to his questions about the book. Remus noted that, even though James's handwriting was on the book, he didn't know if he had actually tried performing the ritual that was described in its pages and he knew from talking to the twins, that they hadn't been aware that it existed. Harry had a quick scan back through their comments on it, and noted that the comments from Fred and George were largely logical observations about happenings in the castle that they reckoned must be related.

It certainly didn't put Harry off seeing what might happen though. He discussed it with Ginny and, although she was a little concerned about putting so much trust in the book, he had reassured her that he wouldn't try it on his own.

It was nearly midnight when the two of them slipped out through the portrait hole, hidden from common view. Harry grumbled as he looked at the Marauders' Map, noting Mad-eye Moody's persistent presence following them at a discreet distance as they moved off down the corridor.

"Bloomin' teachers," he mumbled in Ginny's ear as they headed down a flight of stairs.

The Map was showing them that almost the entire faculty was roaming the castle in search of students making the most of Valentine's night, whether up on the Astronomy Tower, hiding in broom cupboards, or canoodling in classrooms.

Every now and then they saw a teacher's dot approach couples and then the couples' dots heading swiftly towards their common rooms. Up on the seventh floor, the dot that represented Argus Filch was about the only one that wasn't moving, guarding as he was the corridor hosting the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.

They worked their way through the castle, finally finding an area that the teachers seemed not to be patrolling, and removed the invisibility cloak with a sigh as they entered what looked like a disused classroom.

Ginny reached up to Harry and pulled him close, kissing him deeply and making sure that for a good few minutes, the only sounds he made were vague mumbles against her.

She pulled back briefly and eyed him up.

"Now, we could have done that in the common room, despite an audience, so are you going to tell me why we're really out this late?" she asked.

Harry sighed. "I should have known you'd guess," he said, a little shamefaced.

"Hey, I don't mind," she reassured him, "as long as I'm getting to spend the time with you."

She stood on her tiptoes again and kissed him softly. "No forgetting it's Valentine's Day," she instructed.

He thought about pointing out that, actually, it wasn't Valentine's Day any longer, but decided against it, knowing that she was still waiting for an explanation as she pulled away from him again.

He pulled the book out from underneath his robes, and Ginny's eyes lit up in understanding.

"That's not exactly the most romantic of reasons for dragging me out of the common room so late at night," she pointed out, rolling her eyes in resignation. "Come on then. If you're going to try this, I'd better have the Map so I can warn you if anyone is coming."

"Thanks, Ginny," he replied, handing the Marauders' Map over. He thought a little nostalgically that this time a year ago it would have been Ron or Hermione assisting him in his unauthorised nocturnal excursions, but smiled when he remembered Ginny's insistence that he include her instead.

"What's so amusing, Mister Potter?" she asked him archly.

"Just remembering that you told me to drag you along."

"Yeah, but I thought you had an ulterior motive, tonight of all nights."

"Who says that I don't?" he grinned at her lecherously.

"In that case, I'll be taking advantage of the opportunity once you've finished playing with the twins' Christmas present."

Harry bent down to kiss her briefly, but pulled back before they could get any more distracted, and waved at the Map.

"Keep your eyes open," he instructed.

She sighed and turned her attention to the Marauders' Map, while Harry sat down and opened up his book.

Ten minutes later, Harry had re-read the instructions for conducting the ritual. On first reading he had joked to Ginny that he needed to sacrifice a virgin, but she had just responded by suggesting that he ask someone else. He decided not to pursue that line of thought any further.

"Okay," he concluded. "Looks relatively straightforward. Let's just hope that there aren't any nasty repercussions."

Ginny looked at him doubtfully, but returned her gaze to the Map.

"All clear at the moment," she noted. "No one has been coming anywhere remotely close to here, so far."

Harry took a final look at the instructions and placed his hand against one wall of the classroom.

"Potentia Fundatori!" Harry whispered loudly. "Potentia Fundatori Aperio!"

He felt a wave of power building up in him, and then slowly dissipating through his hand and into the stone surface of the wall.

He paused momentarily, grimacing at the lack of results.

Gathering his will up once again, he took a deep breath and repeated the incantation, feeling the magic flowing through him and into the castle once more, but not noticing any particular effects upon him

Ginny's eyes opened wide as the ground shook slightly underneath her, and she looked up at Harry in alarm. Harry had his eyes closed though, and was unable to see her concern.

He opened them and his shoulders slumped.

"Nothing happened," he sighed, dispiritedly. "I didn't feel a thing."

He stared at the ground, feeling foolish at having dragged Ginny halfway across the castle for such a silly reason, and winced inwardly as he regretted doing something that seemed to have been such a waste of time and effort, and for which he had raised his hopes.

"It did, Harry!" Ginny exclaimed. "Didn't you feel the castle vibrate? Almost as though it was responding to you."

Harry looked at her strangely. "Eh? I didn't notice anything," he said, confused.

"Nothing feels any different, anyway," he added grumpily, not comprehending Ginny's sudden excitement.

She moved over to him, taking her eyes off the Map for a moment, and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I think something happened, Harry," she insisted, pulling him closer.

"I dunno," he replied disconsolately.

He sighed. He'd hoped there might be some sudden knowledge of how he could manipulate the magic around the castle, or some sudden understanding or enlightenment. The way that Dumbledore acted, you felt his relationship with the castle almost evident before your eyes with the way he seemed to know everything that went on.

There was nothing.

He didn't really hear Ginny's insistence that he'd done something; he just bent down to her and lost himself in her embrace, in her kiss, and they stood there in each others arms for long minutes.

"Well since we're here, let's make the most of it," Ginny giggled, trying to lighten Harry's mood. She loosened his shirt and slipped her hands inside, allowing them to roam across his chest, and finally feeling him respond to her.

He let out a low, guttural growl and leant into her, trapping her hands between them and pushing her back against the wall of the room.

She expected to feel the impact of the stone wall hard against the back of her head and her back, but it was oddly cushioned, and she relaxed into Harry and started enjoying the way that he pressed into her in all sorts of interesting places.

---

Half an hour later they left the room under the invisibility cloak, breathless and flushed. Harry had never realised how enjoyable sharing such passion could be, and was already looking forward to the next time they could be alone.

Ginny looked wonderfully radiant in the silvery light of the moon's reflection off the snow outside that occasionally penetrated the castle, Harry thought as they slipped along a corridor close to the teachers' living quarters.

This time, it had been she who had needed to stop Harry going too far. His frustration at the lack of success with the ritual had overwhelmed his natural timidity in such situations, and by the time they had pushed their raging hormones to one side and come up for air he could tell that they both wanted more than was prudent, especially in an abandoned classroom in the middle of the night.

They had re-clothed themselves with only a little embarrassment, though Harry couldn't help sneaking little looks at Ginny when he thought she wasn't watching, and had caught her trying the same thing. They'd giggled about it, and hugged in good humour, seeing the potential for so much more when the time was right.

As they approached the top of one of the staircases they knew moved around a lot, Ginny put her hand on Harry's arm and held him back.

"Stop!" she commanded in a frightened whisper. "I can hear someone ahead!"

They stood there holding their breath as Ginny consulted the Marauders Map.

"It's Silverwood!" she said.

They edged towards the end of the land where it would normally connect with the top of the staircase to find that the staircase wasn't there - it was stationary at the entrance to another corridor some fifty yards away. Professor Silverwood stood about halfway up the staircase waiting for it to change direction.

Harry pulled Ginny back from the edge.

"Back this way," he said, indicating the direction from which they had come.

They headed back down the corridor in search of another way back to Gryffindor Tower, but had gone only fifty yards when Ginny hissed a warning that someone had appeared on the Map in the corridor ahead of them.

It was too dark to see anyone, but as they hesitated they heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Ginny looked at the Map again.

"It's Snape!" she hissed quietly.

"Damnit," Harry muttered. "Where now?"

"Silverwood hasn't moved, Harry," Ginny noted, pointing it out on the Map. "Is he still waiting for that staircase?"

They hurried back to have a look and found that was exactly the case. Silverwood looked bored as he stood waiting for the staircase to move, and Harry could see his lips moving as he muttered under his breath.

"Snape's coming!" Ginny warned urgently.

"We're trapped!" he moaned. "Get back against the wall! Nice and tight, and maybe he'll just go straight past."

They moved away from the mouth of the corridor and slunk back into the shadows, tight against the wall, standing there silently as Professor Snape approached and strode towards the spot where the staircase was supposed to meet the end of the corridor.

Harry felt Ginny go tense against him as the Potions master peered over the edge.

"Been waiting long?"

"Ah, Severus!" Silverwood called out, spying the former Death Eater a way above him. "Seems like I've been waiting ages. I'd come about halfway up and it moved around here."

Harry heard Snape's snort of disgust.

"It normally swings round again after a few minutes, Julius. Just hold on there and I'm sure it will move soon. I want to come down that way, too."

"I hope so. It's a long way round if I have to take this route."

The two teachers stood there silently for about ten minutes, and Harry could feel his legs starting to cramp up. He didn't dare say anything to Ginny, because Snape stood less that five feet away from them, and there was no way that they could move without the motion attracting his attention.

Eventually, Snape seemed to get tired of the waiting. He called back down to Silverwood.

"I'll send a message to the Headmaster, Julius. See if he knows what the matter is with the castle that it's not moving the staircase."

Harry heard Snape mutter something under his breath, and a silvery-white object flew out of the tip of Snape's wand and hurtled off down the corridor. He resumed waiting patiently.

"What do we do now?" Harry wondered to himself. "When Dumbledore gets here, he's bound to spot us!"

As these thoughts crossed his mind, he could feel the wall behind him softening, and he pulled Ginny closer into him, to try and get away from Snape. It seemed almost as tough the two of them were sinking into the stone, extremely slowly. Ginny gripped his arm tightly, and they shuffled their feet backwards to keep their balance as they melted into the masonry.

Something about their movement alerted Snape to their presence though, and the Potions master looked around suspiciously, his eyes darting this way and that as he tried to make out what it was that had attracted his attention in the shadows.

"Who's there?" he called out, taking a couple of strides back down the corridor. "Albus, is that you?"

Harry and Ginny sank further back into the wall, and suddenly found themselves without any support at all, stumbling over backwards and getting caught up in the invisibility cloak as they tumbled to the ground with a yell.

Harry clapped a hand over his mouth as he realised that he had given them away.

"Who's that? What the hell's going on here?" he could hear Snape's angry voice raised loudly. "Students out of bed? Where are you hiding?"

Harry looked up and could only see the blank wall in front of him. Looking behind him, a corridor stretched out into the distance, and he took a quick look at Ginny, grabbed her by the hand and they tore off down the corridor, pausing only to pick up Harry's cloak as they fled from their Potions master's voice echoing through the castle behind them.

A detour with the assistance of the Map saw them back in the common room half an hour later, where they collapsed into a sofa in front of the dwindling fire, unable to stop the giggles overtaking them as they re-lived their narrow escape.

"Oh Merlin!" Harry gasped. "The look on Snape's face when he heard me yell must have been priceless!"

For some reason this set Ginny off again into another gale of laughter, and they lay there together for some time before the hilarity wore off, and they were able to steady their breathing sufficiently to be able to talk properly.

"So what actually happened there? What did you do?" Ginny asked him.

"I've no idea!" Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders to emphasise the point. "I was just thinking that I wasn't going to be able to stand still for very much longer and was wishing for a way out, then suddenly I felt the wall go soft.

"To start with I just thought I'd slipped a little against it and found a slightly deeper cranny in it to hide in, but then I felt myself falling backwards!"

"Yeah, I know! You pulled me with you!"

"Hey! Would you rather I'd left you alone to Snape's tender mercies?" Harry asked in mock offence.

"Err, no. Maybe not!" she conceded. "I still want to know how you managed that though."

"I haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid." Harry's brow was furrowed in concentration as he tried to figure out what could possibly have happened. "Did we discover a new secret passage? One that even Fred and George hadn't found?"

"I don't think that's the sort of hidden passage that the twins were looking for, to be honest Harry. I mean, it didn't exactly go anywhere."

"Then what on earth was it?"

"I don't know." Ginny hesitated for a moment. "You know, it was awfully convenient that Silverwood managed to get stuck on that stairway rather than trapping us between him and Snape."

"We were stuck between him and Snape, Ginny."

"Yeah, but imagine if he'd been able to get up the staircase and onto our level - we wouldn't have had any chance to hide at all."

"So what are you suggesting?"

"I wonder if that ritual worked, you know."

Harry opened his mouth to protest that he hadn't felt anything, but she cut him off before he had a chance to say anything.

"I know you didn't notice any difference, but believe me, the floor shook something chronic." A sly look crept into her eye. "You definitely made the earth move for me!" she added with a giggle.

"I just think that it's more than a coincidence that you perform this 'ritual', and the next time we're in trouble the castle blocks off one teacher and provides us with an escape route from another. Not just that, but all the staircases we used coming back here seemed to be positioned perfectly, as though they were deliberately trying to get us back to safety."

Harry huffed a little, but he couldn't think of an argument against what Ginny was suggesting.

If the ritual had worked - what did that mean now? Even though he was sure that Fred and George would have found plenty of use for that knowledge for pranking people, Harry didn't really feel as though there was much point. He already had the advantage of the invisibility cloak and the Marauders' Map, and his one-upmanship with the WWW products had stifled most of the competition - or at least those using products from Zonko's and Gambol and Japes.

He'd not really given it much thought other than something he wanted to try out because Remus and the twins had given him the opportunity.

Now, perhaps he could use that opportunity to help defend Hogwarts, or to assist with his training. He wondered if he should share what he'd done with John or with Professor Gaarder and see what their opinions were on the matter.

He already knew that Moody wouldn't approve, despite distance tonight - Moody would be annoyed that Harry had taken the risk of trying something with unknown consequences, or at least without discussing it with someone first.

His musings didn't seem to lead to any conclusion, so rather than dwelling on it any further he proceeded to make up for lost time kissing Ginny goodnight, even though it was now only about four hours until breakfast.

---

Albus Dumbledore was a worried man. When he'd engaged John Christopher and Fabian Gaarder to help Harry Potter with some of the elements of training that he felt he needed to learn to face up to Voldemort, he hadn't really expected them to take Harry's word quite so literally, and for both they and the boy to take to the task with such vigour.

He was particularly worried about Christopher's insistence on enlightening Harry about being an Agent of Choice, rather than leaving the boy with the assumptions the Headmaster had stirred in him.

He'd spent the past five and a half years trying to avoid telling the poor lad about his likely fate, but the time had come the previous June to explain the prophecy that bound him to the Dark Lord.

Given the fresh psychological wounds inflicted by the death of Sirius Black, Dumbledore hadn't expected Harry to understand and appreciate what the prophecy meant, or indeed that there were any interpretations other than the Headmaster's.

Now, aware that his long-time mentor had been deliberately keeping things from him, Harry had lost his faith and trust in him.

What had seemed to affect him most though, was Dumbledore's refusal to aid the wizarding world. Couldn't the boy see that the magical community had to bind itself together, rather than relying on the actions of the few - in this case Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix - to save their lives?

Of course he regretted the deaths and losses of souls that the people of Hogsmeade had suffered, and those of the students he was supposed to care for.

The latter especially haunted him as he was constantly reminded that it had been his decision to allow the youngsters out of the safety of the castle grounds. The Daily Prophet had yet to pick up on this, but he was sure that once the initial furore over the attack and the capture of Peter Pettigrew died down people would be asking probing questions about Dumbledore's actions.

He knew that they should never have been placed in danger - there should never have been a thought that the children could stand up against the foul beasts - and to that extent Dumbledore worried about the effect that Harry was having on his peers, teaching them to stand and fight when they should be turning and fleeing.

He was reluctant to blame the boy, after all, it had been the Dementors' effects on him that had initially provoked him into seeking assistance from Remus Lupin, but it was easy to see that beyond the image of the Boy-who-Lived there was a dark, haunting determination that others be spared his own fears and worries and that he was prepared to put his own life on the line to save them.

Such chivalrous motives, but ones that were dangerous to encourage in children that knew no better.

They didn't understand that the rule of law in the wizarding world was limited at best, and that it was very much a case of the survival of the fittest. It wasn't only Voldemort and his Death Eaters who promulgated a desire to rid the magical community of its impurities - there were plenty of pureblood wizards in the Ministry who devoted their lives to enacting legislation that favoured purebloods and made it difficult for magical communities to thrive.

But that wasn't the only reason that Dumbledore was worried. Since the morning after Valentine's Day he'd felt a distinct sense of loss; an almost palpable reduction in his power seemed to be accompanied by the feeling that things had gone slightly askew and that he had lost control over something.

He normally relied on his magic to provide the early morning wake-up call that enabled him to be up and about at the crack of dawn to get a jump on the day's issues, yet this morning he overslept by some three hours, not stirring until the rising sun shone high in the sky and bathed his chambers with bright light that reflected strongly off the snow that remained piled outside.

He shook himself mentally and wondered if perhaps he had been overtired the previous evening and had perhaps misaligned his planned alarm call, but he recalled settling down to bed early with a cup of tasty cocoa, not a long night researching or studying, so that couldn't have been to blame.

Even the surprising awakening by Severus's message hadn't really affected him that much - he'd merely slid his feet into some slippers and pulled a warm robe around his shoulders. Fawkes had transported him to the Potions Master's side, only to find that it was a false alarm.

He was slightly more discomfited when he sat down at his normal place in the centre of the teachers' dais to find that the silver cutlery he normally used was absent and he was using the same as the remainder of the staff, though that was still a good deal more expensive than the students'.

He pushed his will out slightly, to try and glean a sense of what was wrong this morning, only to find that the normal feeling of sentience he got from the castle itself was considerably dulled.

A sick feeling entered his stomach as he pondered the possible causes of such an unusual morning.

' It couldn't possibly be part of an attack by Voldemort, could it?' he wondered. If it was, it was a most subtle one.

The wards that surrounded Hogwarts had been built up over many centuries, renewed on an annual basis by the standing Headmaster with aid from the castle's own awareness. If this were the start of an attack on the magical nature of Hogwarts itself, that might prove to be the most invidious attack of all, leaving them all unprotected should a physical attack follow it up.

Dumbledore removed his half-moon glasses with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other, closing his eyes in apprehension. He tipped his head back and looked up at the grey skies above him. Perhaps it was these that sent another shiver of foreboding down his spine as he contemplated the repercussions of an attack by the Dark Lord on a Hogwarts that was undefended and vulnerable to magical attack.

It didn't bear thinking about. The protections surrounding the castle were designed specifically to protect the youngsters, but if they were seriously breached, they would be as open to attack as anyone else. The charms that prevented unauthorised access to the relevant common rooms, the portraits and suits of armour, the magic that the House Elves were able to use. All were linked intrinsically to the castle's magic, and without it they were defenceless.

"What's wrong Albus?" he heard Professor McGonagall enquire from one side as she settled at her own breakfast beside him.

"I'm worried, Minerva," he sighed, replacing his spectacles on the end of his nose. "I fear an attack on the castle's magic. Something wearies me and I feel the magic of the castle slipping from my grasp."

McGonagall was one of the few that knew how strongly the Hogwarts' Headmasters were linked to the magic of the school, being first in line to succeed Dumbledore should anything untoward happen. She paled at the thought of their defences being breached.

"You suspect foul play?"

Dumbledore nodded. "I know not how or where, but something feeds on it, weakens my control of it."

"Does this have anything to do with Severus's disgruntled ramblings this morning?" she asked curiously.

"I don't think so, Minerva. He and Julius were simply impatient to get back to their respective quarters and thought the wait for the staircase to move was rather excessive," he sighed.

"They really should know better," he added, perking up a little at an old memory. "Why, I remember the time, many years ago, that I was stranded on the third floor for a whole day waiting for a staircase that was having a sulk to return," he chuckled.

"And his mutterings about students out of bed?"

Dumbledore gave her a long-suffering look over the top of his spectacles.

"You know my view on that, Minerva. If they are caught then they serve their punishment, if they aren't, well learning your way around the castle is always helpful, and sometimes these nocturnal excursions can build character too."

McGonagall rolled her eyes at the Headmaster's pompous explanation, but a flicker of concern crossed her face.

"What do you mean by 'building character', Albus?"

Dumbledore winced. For the sake of a brief jest he had perhaps uncovered something he hadn't intended to.

"Well, young Mister Potter and his friends seem to manage to encounter all sorts of opportunities late at night, don't they?" he suggested blandly, hoping that his deputy would let the matter drop.

Fortunately for him, she did, but a calculating look appeared in her narrowed eyes before she turned her attention back to the breakfast that had appeared before her.

---

Breakfast that morning was a subdued affair among the students. Many of the older ones had been up late the previous night making the most of Valentine's Day being on a Friday and not having to be up early for class in the morning, and it was no surprise that although the first years were up and about and enjoying their breakfast at the usual hour, they weren't accompanied by the normal cadre of older students.

The further up the school you went, the fewer seemed to be attempting breakfast that morning, though many of those older ones that were could occasionally be spotted half-dozing on the shoulders of their friends between mouthfuls.

As seemed to be the case every February 15^th there were one or two new couples that were still trying to get used to their boyfriend or girlfriend paying them close attention, and there was a slight frisson of tension as the odd sense of unrequited love or ashamed regret permeated the air.

It was into this atmosphere that Harry and Ginny strolled into the Great Hall arm-in-arm that morning, slightly later than was their custom, but as awake and sprightly as any weekend morning.

Harry had wondered about Katie's sanity when she had called a Quidditch practice for the Gryffindor team for before lunch this Saturday, but with the match against Hufflepuff due the following weekend, he understood the reason for it - he just didn't think that most of the team would be in much of a fit state today.

His senses seemed to be working on overdrive this morning. Ever since he had awoken, he seemed to be assaulted by the sights and sounds, smells and feelings from around the school. As he walked through the doors to the Great Hall the gentle smell of Ginny's shampoo, that he had just barely been able to make out as they walked, was replaced by the warm smells of cooked bacon and sausages that wafted through the air and make his stomach rumble at the though of breakfast.

He scanned the room and they made their way over to the first years, settling down between Nicola and Graham, who eyed them warily and with a clear understanding that the two of them were together settling upon them.

Harry smiled as he bid them all a good morning, and glanced around the table.

He picked up a strangely focused and clear understanding of everything that was going on around him as he did so, from the nudge that a dark-haired boy at the end of the table was giving his neighbour as he speared a fried tomato and the gesture of his head in Harry and Ginny's direction to the sniffles that one of the girls was trying to hide as she stared blearily at the plate in front of her.

"You two are together, aren't you?" Nicola blurted out, her normal savvy slightly forgotten.

Harry and Ginny shared an amused glance, before Ginny replied.

"Yes, he's mine," she warned with a smile.

Harry's heart soared at Ginny's proclamation. It wasn't as though he hadn't appreciated her before, but to hear her tell the first years that she was claiming him made him feel warm inside.

Nicola had backed off a little at Ginny's firm statement, but uncowed looked her straight in the eye.

"Make sure you look after him, then," she insisted, "otherwise I might have to challenge you to a duel for his honour."

Harry's eyes disappeared somewhere under his tousled hair at that statement, and he shared an amused grin with Ginny.

"Hey now! There'll be no fighting over me!" he warned. "Besides, you haven't seen how good Ginny is with a wand - she helped me fight off eight Death Eaters, you know!"

Nicola looked a little sceptical, but Harry's sincerity had apparently convinced her that such a threat might not be a good idea.

"Okay," she agreed tentatively. "It's a good job, really," she added with a giggle. "I don't really know much about duelling anyway."

Harry was reminded of his first year, when Draco Malfoy had challenged him to a duel, and how little he had known at the time, and he told the story to the enthralled listeners, ending with his discovery of Fluffy, the three-headed dog.

"So, you see, even then, Harry was a sucker," Ginny teased, to the general laughter of the first years.

"And you faced You-know-Who?" came a small voice from further down the table, which Harry somehow identified as belonging to Ethel Goodbody, the quietest of all of them.

"Well, I had a lot of help from some good friends," he tempered.

They chatted good naturedly about some of Harry's exploits as he ate his breakfast, which tasted especially good this morning - the sausages seemed to be full of rich meaty taste and the bacon crisped just as he liked it, while the toast had a soft nutty flavour that he hadn't previously noticed - and joked about his exploits around the castle with the occasional prompting from Ginny who had already heard most of the stories as well as being involved in some of them.

"I know you're teaching others how to fight, Harry," Graham put in tentatively, "but when are you going to teach us? I mean, it would have been really helpful to actually be able to defend myself against that bully Malfoy."

Harry grimaced. He'd already gotten annoyed at Dumbledore's comments about running away from danger, and here was another that wanted to be able to fight rather than run. He silently cursed the Headmaster as he explained to Graham what the problem with him teaching others was.

"But that's not right!" he exclaimed, affronted by Harry's explanation. "We shouldn't just run away!"

"It's really for your own safety," Harry tried to explain, but was overwhelmed by a surge of protest from the other first years as well.

He looked at Ginny questioningly, but she just shrugged. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and said, "It's your decision - I don't think it makes any difference what age they are, to be honest."

He sighed.

"You don't think they're too young to be learning this stuff?" he asked.

"Not really," Ginny replied. "You can't exactly teach them everything that you're teaching us, but I think they need it just as much as the older kids.

"Besides," she continued, "both you and I should know better - we both had to deal with evil in our first year."

He had hoped that she would suggest that they were too young, but one she reminded him of both his and her own first year, and of the struggle she had put up against the shade of Tom Riddle in his enchanted diary, he wasn't surprised that she was in favour of helping them.

Given all that, she was probably the last person who would suggest that they were too young to learn to defend themselves properly.

He squared his shoulders and addressed the whole table in a quiet but forceful whisper.

"Are you sure?" he asked them, looking around furtively to make sure that Professors Sprout and Silverwood, the only teachers remaining at breakfast, weren't able to overhear him. Neither appeared to be paying them any attention though.

"You want to give up your free time? You want to learn some real spells to defend yourself and some curses to hurt those that try and attack you?" He asked.

Almost all of them nodded fervently. One or two looked a little hesitant, but they were swept along in the emotion of the moment as the first years committed themselves to fighting as a group, committed themselves to Harry as a group.

"Okay then. In that case, I want you to come with me straight after lunch, and we'll find a place to make a start," he told them, to Ginny's slowly developing smile.

"Hey! You're helping me!" he pointed out. "I'm not doing this on my own."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," she grinned.