The Beginning of The End

Chapter Eight

A Voice From the Past

Dear Tom,

I don´t know what´s going on, I think I´m in trouble.  Strange things are happening all over the school and I think I might be involved.  I´m so scared, I have nobody to talk to, nobody cares except Percy and I can´t tell him.  Oh, I just want to go home and never come back here again.  What´s happening, Tom, am I going crazy?

Ginny, of course you´re not going crazy.  You´re a good girl, you would never do anything wrong!  You´re a good girl, Ginny, a good girl.  What are you, Ginny?

A good girl . . . but I think I´m not myself-

What are you, Ginny??

A- A good girl.

That´s right.  A good girl.  Now, Ginny be a good girl and do something for me.  Will you be a good girl and do something for Tom?

Um... sure, Tom. But-

That´s a good girl!  You must remember this carefully, Ginny, word for word and do exactly as Tom tells you.  Okay?

Yes, Tom.

Go down into the dungeons, take the east corridor as far as you can.  You´ll come to a hidden door that you can only see by the brown piece of stone at the bottom of the gray stone wall.  Understand that Ginny, the brown piece of stone.  Tap the brown stone with your wand and say Alohomora!  Do you understand, Ginny? 

Yes

After you open the door, walk down the passage until you find yourself in a large room. Walk twenty-eight steps into the room and you should be standing on a completely round piece of stone. Tap the stone with your wand, Ginny, and say Alohomora! After you say that, I want you to write to me and tell me what you see, Ginny.  Do you understand, Ginny?

Yes, Tom, I understand

Do you understand, Ginny?

Yes, Tom, I understand

I asked you a question, Ginny!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND??

"YES!" Ginny screamed, bolting upright in bed and gasping for air.  She let out a cry of panic and her eyes darted all around the room.  The diary... where was the diary? 

It´s gone, a voice in her head shouted.  It´s gone.

"Gone," she whispered, grasping her covers.  "Gone."

"Ginny?"

Ginny´s head snapped up and suddenly noticed that all four of her friends were sitting up in bed, their curtains drawn back, staring at her with apprehension on their faces.  "A dream," she managed to gasp.  "It was just a dream."

Unable to stay still, Ginny found herself throwing her covers off and getting out of bed.  She grabbed a pair of jeans and a thick wool sweater from her trunk and pulled them on, almost tripping over the gypsy costume she´d left on the floor after undressing only a few hours ago.  She grabbed her cloak, muttered something about getting fresh air and ran through the common room, along the deserted corridors, down several flights of stairs into the entrance hall and out the doors of the castle. 

It wasn´t quite light outside yet, the sun was peeking out slightly and the fresh morning air was dewy and warm.  Ginny leaned down, pressed her hands to her knees and forced herself to breath deeply.  After her breathing became normal, she sat trembling on the cool stone steps and wrapped her arms tightly around her, slowly rocking herself into sanity.

The feeling that she was being controlled seeped through her veins like ice and Ginny wrapped her cloak around her tightly.  She tried to cry the fear away, but all the sobbing did was make her more exhausted and Ginny knew that whatever she did, she didn´t want to sleep, not ever again.  For the briefest of moments this morning, she´d felt as she had five years ago... that vague, terrified feeling where she couldn´t remember what she´d done or how she had gotten where she was. 

There was a shift in the gravel in front of her and Ginny´s head snapped up.  Her heart positively sank into her stomach when she saw Harry standing at the bottom of the steps, his eyes wide with alarm. A violent humiliation had her eyes sliding closed.  To her absolute horror, Harry was taking a hesitant step toward her.

"Ginny?" he asked and the gentleness of his voice poured into her blood.

Ginny tried fervently to wipe the tears from her face, but her hands were shaking violently and she knew it wasn´t doing any good.  "I´m okay," she said, her voice shivering.  "Really, I´m fine, you can... go on in." 

It was then that she looked at him and noticed that he was dressed in casual clothing, holding a towel and his hair was soaking wet.  His morning swim.  Ginny should have known, she´d watched him from the common room window enough times.  She hadn´t been thinking this morning that anyone else would be outside.  She hadn´t been thinking when Tom Riddle´s voice had been screaming in her head.

Harry did indeed start walking up the steps, but as he got to the landing, he stopped and carefully sat down next to her.  Ginny closed her eyes again.  "Harry, I´m fine, really."  But he didn´t seem to be convinced, or if he was, he didn´t move.  "Go on in, go, I´m fine-"

"You don´t have to pretend," he said very quietly.  He didn´t look at her, but kept his gaze strait ahead.  "I know what it´s like."

They sat in silence for a while, both of them thinking of Voldemort, two very different visions of him.

Ginny found herself speaking then, in a very hoarse voice. "I can never feel that way again. Never."

Harry was nodding; he seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.  "The diary?"

Ginny nodded and Harry remained silent for a while.  "Did you... er, have another dream about it, then?"

"Yeah," Ginny whispered, her throat aching.  "First time since... back at the Burrow."

Harry nodded again.  "You can tell me," he said after awhile.  "...If you don´t want to, that´s okay, too. But... I understand."

Ginny thought she couldn´t possibly tell him what was going on- the last thing she wanted to do was forced him to drudge up all of that.  But she found that not talking didn´t help the tears go away.  In fact, she suddenly felt as though something toxic was clouding her vision and if she didn´t talk about it, she wouldn´t be able to function.

She pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes and spoke in a very small voice, as if she would do anything to curb her humiliation.  "I don´t really remember the details.  I never do, at least I think I don´t.  I think I forget about them after a few minutes of being awake.  But the feelings are always there, the same feelings.  Being controlled ... being scared... not knowing what to do..." She squeezed her eyes shut against the well of tears.  "He´s talking to me in the diary, telling me things to do.  And I have no control over what I´m writing, what I´m doing-" 

Suddenly she sat strait up. "The dungeons."

Harry turned to stare at her.  "What?"

Ginny tried with all her might to remember, but the images were as blurry as the sun in the distance. "The dungeons.  He made me go into the dungeons into some secret passage thing.  I never remembered that until now." Ginny turned to look at Harry in horror.   

"Are you sure?" he asked her sharply and Ginny suddenly felt nauseous.

"Yes," she said weekly.  "I remember it.  And now I remember being there, like it was a different life or something.  I was down in the dungeons alone and I remember walking and walking and it was dark, but there were torches that I had to light-" she broke off and clasped a hand to her mouth.  "Why am I remembering this now? What was I doing, what was he making me do?"

"I don´t know," Harry said quietly.  "I don´t know.  But it´s over now, and you´re fine."

"Yes, but, Harry, I never remembered that. Why am I suddenly remembering?"

"Because it doesn´t just go away," Harry said. Ginny saw the haunted look that was ever present in his eyes deepen.  "I still have dreams about ... about... the night my parents died.  Figured that would have gone away by now... but it didn´t."

Feelings of pure rage filled Ginny to the very core as she turned to look past the cobblestone walkway, past the vast green grounds, trees and shrubbery, to beyond the clouds.  "I hate him," she said in a low, wrathful voice, her eyes welling with fresh tears.  "I hate what he´s done."  Percy´s face floated across her mind and Ginny closed her eyes as more tears fell.  She hugged herself tightly and drew her knees up to lay her head on them.  Beside her she heard Harry sigh softly and they both sat on the cold stone steps in the dewy morning air, as the sun inched its way over the lake.

~*~

The day after Halloween was an abnormal day for Harry.  He awoke to the strange, uncomfortable feelings not unlike the ones he´d experienced at the Halloween Feast the night before.  They weren´t as intense as they´d been the previous night, and perhaps they weren´t the same feelings at all.  But a new unsettledness had begun to creep into the part of himself that Harry had deemed intact.  It wasn´t fear of something that had to do with Voldemort or with the deeds that lie ahead.  Those things he had tried with all of his might to keep separate from his daily life, from his friends and classes... from any romantic feelings he´d ever had for anyone. Not that there had been anyone... except Cho Chang, but Harry hadn´t really spoken to her in years- even when she was still at school.  After Cedric´s death, Harry had found it very difficult to face her. 

What made these feelings so difficult was the fact that he had absolutely no idea where or when they had come about.  Never in all his life had he felt so uncomfortable around the presence of someone he had known for years.  Or thought he´d known.  Harry suddenly realized that he could not truthfully claim to know Ginny Weasley at all.  Clearly he didn´t know her with the absence of his glasses standing across the room. Evidently he didn´t know her in some bright costume with her face all made up and her hair in long curls shining like rubies...

Harry rolled over in his bed, feeling suddenly nauseous.  He did NOT want these thoughts.  There was no way he could justify lying in his bed thinking about Ginny´s hair.  She was Ron´s sister. She was a Weasley, the daughter of the two people who had taken Harry into their home with open arms when he had no other.  He had no right, no absolute right, to be feeling these things about their daughter.  He had to close his eyes as he pictured Fred´s and George´s faces if they could see Harry´s thoughts. Or Bill. A sudden ball of dread dropped into his stomach as he pictured Bill, the protective older brother who had stopped Fred and George from tackling Ginny with a simple look.  And then, as Ron let out a sudden snore from the other side of the room, Harry´s face began to burn.  If Ron had found out about these... irrational ... thoughts Harry was having over Ginny, Harry knew that it would be more than awkward, it would be downright mortifying.

Feeling as if he couldn´t lie there and think about this anymore, Harry got up and gazed out the window.  The sun was peeking its way from beneath the lake and Harry pressed his hand to the window to feel how cold the weather was.  Satisfied that it was still warm enough for his swim, he rummaged through his trunk, found his things and prepared for his swim a bit earlier than usual.

The swim helped, it always did.  The shock of the cold water always cleared whatever plagued his mind, at least for the time being.  Harry hoisted himself out of the lake and dried off an hour later, earlier than he usually stopped, but then he had started earlier.  After pulling on his sweats over his swimming suit, and slinging the towel over his neck, Harry made his way up to the castle, feeling refreshed and somewhat better.

His eyes had been on the castle steps when Ginny had emerged.  He stopped when she burst from the heavy doors and he could see her bend down, trying to catch her breath.  The familiar panic raced through him: Was someone hurt?  Had there been another death?  What was happening?

But as Harry closed the distance between them, as he neared Ginny enough to see her face, he knew something new hadn´t happened. He slowed his pace, almost coming to a halt, and the gravel beneath his feet shuffled slightly.  He saw her look up and Harry knew at once what had happened.  He was looking into the scared, pale face of someone who was reflecting on the past-not the present.

The picture of Ginny in that Halloween costume and all his feelings on the matter had flown out of Harry´s mind when he´d seen her crying on the steps of the castle.  She was little Ginny again, the same young girl he´d seen lying unconscious in the Chamber, the same girl who he always remembered to be polite to because she had a crush on him.

And the need to make her hurt go away overwhelmed him... because he understood it. He understood everything and he wouldn´t wish it on anyone, least of all a girl who should be thinking about girl troubles and school projects and friends.  A sixteen-year-old girl should not be having memories of being possessed.

As they walked back up to Gryffindor Tower, Ginny´s words kept replaying in Harry´s head, everything she´d said about Tom Riddle making her go into the dungeons.  Harry wanted to know why, why he had done that to her.  Hadn´t it been enough that he´d taken her mind over and forced her to open the Chamber of Secrets?  What else had he been trying to accomplish?

"Wait," Ginny said, before they climbed the stairs to the dorms.  "Harry can I ask you a huge favor?"

Harry turned to her.  "Sure." 

Ginny hesitated.  "I know it´s a terrible thing to ask you, but... would it be okay if you didn´t mention this to Ron?  He´ll get worried and tell Mum, and... I don´t want to worry her... or Ron.  It´s bad enough with Dad and Bill off fighting the Death Eaters... and Charlie still in Romania.  It´s bad enough with everything else going on."

Harry nodded after a minute.  "I won´t tell him." 

Ginny sighed with relief.  "Thank you," she whispered gratefully.  "I know how much it costs you to keep something from him."

After he finished changing into his robes, Harry waited for Ginny to come down from her own dorm.  She looked surprised to see him waiting for her.

"Shall we go down, then?" he asked her, trying not to squirm at the way she was staring at him.  Her face showed such naked shock that Harry had to frown.  Did she think it so odd that he wait for her to go to breakfast?  Then it occurred to him that he´d never done anything of the sort before.

~*~

Later on in the morning, Harry stared unseeingly at Professor Figg as she carefully drew something into the air with her wand to demonstrate to the class.  He was seated in the special Defense Against the Dark Arts class and found he didn´t much need to pay attention.  The entire class was focusing on conjuring patronus´s. This was in direct conjunction with the fact that there were a large number of Dementors currently at large. Azkaban had been broken into soon after the first Ministry invasion, making it the second largest episode in the chain of events that had marked Voldemort´s return. 

Harry usually enjoyed most of his classes; they took his mind off of everything else.  However, this class was a terrible reminder that the prisoners who had once been locked in Azkaban were no longer locked up and that walking around Hogsmeade at night could lead to a meeting with one of the guards who had helped set them free. 

For once, however, Azkaban and the Dementors weren´t on Harry´s mind as he listened to Professor Figg explain the origins of the Patronus.  Harry was thinking of the conversation he´d had with Ginny on the steps of the castle.  He kept replaying the words in his mind, trying to make some sense out of them. "He made me go into the dungeons into some secret passage thing."  Harry rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses.  There was something off about that, something he couldn´t quite put his finger on.  Ginny being possessed by the diary during Harry´s second year at Hogwarts had explained a great deal of the horrible things that had been happening all over school, culminating in the revelation that she´d opened the Chamber of Secrets.  There had been no mention of a dungeon.  Could it be that it hadn´t happened and it was only her subconscious drawing up these images? "I remember being there, like it was a different life or something.  I was down in the dungeons alone and I remember walking and walking and it was dark, but there were torches that I had to light."

Harry believed her... there was no reason to doubt her.  Tom Riddle had hypnotized Ginny into venturing down in the dungeons; Harry made himself believe it no matter how sick he was at the thought.  He also knew that he hadn´t given it the proper attention he should have.

When it was time for lunch, Harry muttered something to Ron and Hermione about going to the library, insisting he would meet them in Transfiguration later on.  They looked at him with the looks Harry was used to, a kind of reluctant apprehension.  Harry knew they were profusely worried that he might come to some awful death if they let him out of their sight but he also knew that they wanted to give him his space.  Harry felt a bit guilty for using this as a means to be alone, but he also knew that they knew they were a bit over-protective.

"See you in Transfiguration, then," Ron said and grabbed Hermione´s hand to pull her down the corridor.  Ron was always the first one to give Harry his space, with little or no questions.  It never failed and Harry knew he could count on it.

Harry walked down the hall, wondering how he was going to even find Ginny.  He had no idea which class she had or where she´d be going after class.  When he spotted Colin Creevey coming out of Flitwick´s room, he nodded to him. "Hey, Colin."

Colin glanced at Harry and grinned.  "Oh, hey, Harry, how´s it going?"

"Okay.  Hey, I was wondering if you knew where Ginny Weasley is this time of day?"

Colin peeked back into the classroom and jabbed his thumb towards the doorway.  "In there still."

"Hey, thanks."

"No problem.  See you around, Harry."

Harry nodded and stepped into Flitwick´s half empty classroom. Ginny was cramming books, parchment and a quill into her bag, looking rather harassed and in a world of her own.  Her hair was falling out of her ponytail and her face was flushed.

"Hey, Ginny," he said, walking towards her.

She jumped, glanced up and sent her bag dropping to the floor, books tumbling out.  Her inkbottle crashed and sent ink splattering everywhere.  "Oh, no," she muttered and Harry bent down to help her retrieve all her things.

Professor Flitwick came bustling over to see what the fuss was.  "I´m sorry Professor," Ginny said miserably.  "I´ll clean it all-"

"Not to worry, Miss. Weasley, no harm done!" Flitwick squeaked reassuringly and with a wave of his wand, the shattered pieces of her inkbottle flew back into their original bottle form and the floor was ink-free.

As Harry helped Ginny pile her books into her bag, he noticed that her hands were shaking.  "You okay?"

Ginny rolled her eyes as she swung her bag over her shoulder and muttered, "It´s been a bad morning."

"I actually wanted to talk to you about... your dream."

"I´ve been trying to forget it all morning and it doesn´t seem to be working," Ginny murmured angrily, pushing the hair out of her eyes. 

"I don´t think you should forget it," Harry said slowly. Then he glanced at Flitwick who had retreated back to his desk.  "Come on," he muttered to Ginny.  They stepped out into the nearly deserted hall and Harry turned to her. "I think that we need to tell Dumbledore about the dream."

Ginny looked startled.  "What? Why?"

Harry shook his head.  "I don´t know, I just feel like we should be telling someone about this."

"But if Dumbledore knows, he´ll write to mum.  Harry, I don´t want her to know-"

"But I´m not sure that it´s the right thing to do, keeping it from your mum."

"She has enough to worry about."

"Don´t you think she would want to know if her daughter were in trouble?" The minute Harry said the words, he regretted them. He watched Ginny´s brown eyes widen.  "I didn´t mean that," he said hurriedly.

"You think I´m going to do something again, something I can´t control?" she asked weakly.
"No," he said quickly.  But Ginny´s eyes were staring at him and Harry felt as those they could see right through him.  He sighed.  "Look, Ginny, I´m not comfortable keeping this quiet."

Ginny fixed her gaze to the side.  "I shouldn´t have told you about it," she whispered angrily.  "I wish my nightmares didn´t have to be public knowledge. They´re my problem, not Mum´s, not Dumbledore´s, not yours.  Mine."

Harry hesitated.  "Ginny... I learned the hard way not to keep things like this to myself.  It´s... just not safe now."

She sighed.  "You´re right, of course," she said very quietly.  "Okay. I´ll talk to Dumbledore. I´ll go now."

"Maybe you should eat some lunch-"

"I´m not hungry," she cut him off and turned abruptly, heading in the direction of Dumbledore´s office.  It was all Harry could do to keep up with her.

Ginny stopped suddenly and turned to him. "What are you doing?"

Harry halted, surprised.  "Going to Dumbledore. Aren´t we?"

Ginny´s eyes narrowed.  "I can go to him on my own, you don´t have to come along."

"Oh." He broke off, suddenly uncomfortable. 

Ginny´s chin suddenly snapped up and her eyes flashed stubbornly. 

"Are... you sure?" Harry asked stupidly.

"Yes," she said firmly.

"Okay," Harry said, suddenly aware that she was staring at him very suspiciously.  "Well..."

"Bye, then," Ginny said and started walking back.  Harry thought she might have placed a Speeding Charm on herself-- she was walking away from him so quickly.  He stood where he was for a moment, staring after her, then he turned, narrowed his own eyes in thought and walked the other way.

~*~

Ginny quickened her step down the long corridor and made a sharp turn to the right as she headed for Dumbledore´s office.  She had no idea what had gotten into her back there with Harry.  But she´d be damned if she was going to stand there and watch Harry pity her just like her mother did, just like every single one of her brother´s did.  It was more than she could handle.

She had always resented the fact that Harry had stronger bonds with practically every member of her family than with her. It would have been obvious that Harry would, somewhere down the line, take on the role of just another one of her big brothers.  But he hadn´t.  Perhaps this was due to the fact that Harry and everyone else in her family knew of Ginny´s mad crush on him.  And Ginny had always felt a little sad that Harry wasn´t protective over her like her brothers were.

But Ginny hadn´t counted on this. She never imagined that if or when he did in fact worry about her and care about her like a brother, she would want to pull every hair out of her head. She wasn´t a baby.  She wasn´t the same little girl who had been possessed by Tom Riddle five years ago.  And she´d be damned if Harry thought so. 

It had been bad enough to get over the fact that he had saved her life.  How completely and utterly mortifying to her eleven-year-old self to deal with the fact that Harry Potter, her Harry, had rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets.  Ginny had gotten over it through the years as she´d matured.  She´d come to the conclusion that Harry only thought of her as just another Weasley-the Weasley he knew the least.  And she´d been comforted by that, trying very hard not to let her humiliating problems anywhere near him. 

But that had all changed this morning. 

Ginny let out a frustrated sigh as she came to a halt in front of the entrance to Dumbledore´s office.  Why couldn´t she have stayed in her bed this morning?  Why did she have to parade her feelings outside, for anyone to see? Why hadn´t she thought of his morning swim, she´d certainly sat in the common room window and watched him morning after morning. 

Well, that was all going to stop. It was far time she got over her ridiculous crush on him.  And it was ridiculous. After all, he was going to turn into her big brother any day, now that he was worried about her.  Well, she wouldn´t have that either.  She didn´t need another brother; she had more than she knew what to do with.  And she didn´t need Harry Potter as her protector-

"Miss. Weasley, what can I do for you?" came the pleasant voice of Albus Dumbledore behind her.

Ginny jumped and turned around. "Professor, I... er, I was wondering if I could have a word with you.  If you´re not terribly busy, that is."

"Of course. I was just on my way back from lunch.  Have you had yours yet?" 

"Oh. No, sir, I wasn´t hungry for lunch."

"Something´s bothering you," Dumbledore´s eyes met hers.  "Follow me."

Once inside Dumbledore´s office, Ginny sat down in the chair he gestured to and watched Dumbledore take his seat behind his desk.  "What´s on your mind, then?"

Ginny took a deep breath and told him all about the dreams, mentioning that she´d been having them over the summer.  She told him about the new memories of the dungeons and everything she could remember from the dream.

"I wanted to just forget about it, but Harry said that I should tell you.  He seems to think that they might... they might put me in danger of becoming controlled again."

Dumbledore sat back in his chair and looked very thoughtful. 

"Do- do you think I may be in danger, Professor?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

Dumbledore sighed.  "No. Rest assured, Miss Weasley, I don´t think that you are in any danger of becoming controlled again.  But I do have concern for these dreams.  You mentioned that there might be more to the dream than you remember?"

"Well, I know there is. I forget very quickly what was said in the dream after I am awake, but I know there must be more to them."

Dumbledore sighed again and nodded.  "I would like to ask you to try and do something the next time you have a dream, if you do have another.  I would like you to find a quill and write down everything you can remember from the dream, the moment you awaken. I understand that it will be tough to do this, as you may want to forget it very quickly.  However, it may prove to be useful." 

Ginny nodded. "I´ll try."

"Thank you," he said, nodding and stood up.

Ginny stood as well.  "Professor, I wondered if there is any way to keep this from my parents." 

"Why would you like to keep it from them?"

Ginny looked down at her feet.  "I don´t want to worry them.  They have enough to be concerned with right now."

Dumbledore spoke gently.  "Miss. Weasley, if you do not write to them, I will be forced to.  It shall sound much better, coming from you I suppose. They need to know."

She sighed and nodded. She´d figured this. "Okay. I´ll write to them tonight."

"Very well. Now I insist you go down and have some lunch."

Ginny nodded, planning to do no such thing.  "Thank you, Professor."

That night in the common room, Ginny sat down in a chair the furthest away from the crowds and pulled a piece of parchment from her bag, furious at the thought of writing to them.  In the back of her head, she knew it was the sensible thing to do, but she hated adding to their worries. 

Curling her legs beneath her, Ginny had just begun to write when she heard the portrait swing open and the unmistakable voices of Harry, Ron and Hermione.  She sighed to herself and started writing, wanting to get it done so that she didn´t have to converse with them. She just didn´t want to be around Harry right then.

However, her attempts at looking busy did not work, for all three of them came over to where she was sitting and dropped down in chairs surrounding her.

"What´s up, Ginny?" Ron asked her.  "What are you doing?"

She sighed again and didn´t lift her eyes or quill from the parchment.  "Writing," she murmured.

"Writing what?"

"Ron," Hermione whispered and from the corner of her eyes, she saw Hermione give him a look that said it´s none of your business. 

"What?" he asked irritably.  "All I asked was-"

"I´m writing a letter to mum and dad," she interrupted, not wanting to be the cause of a fight.  And because she felt his eyes on her, Ginny glanced up ever so slightly and met Harry´s gaze.  She broke eye contact rather quickly and went back to her letter, but it broke her heart a little to feel his eyes still on her.  She didn´t want to be rude to him-- she just didn´t want his sympathy.  If Harry was going to start noticing her, Ginny didn´t want it to be because of some bad dream or some problem she was having.  She wanted him to see her for no other reason than because he wanted to.

As she wrote and thought about Harry, it took a moment for her to realize that Ron was still speaking.  "... Let them know that I need a new Divination book? It´s fallen apart again and it´s no good trying to fix now.  Oh, and tell them to send a few of my comic books, will you?  Not too many, just as many as Errol can carry."

Ginny stifled the urge to grab her wand and curse her brother.  Instead, she replied in a very calm voice, "Why don´t you write them a letter for yourself?  We can send them both together."

"Well, why should I if you´re writing one? You can mention it, can´t you?"

Ginny sighed again, thinking of the meaningless `PS´ she´d have to tack onto her emotional letter.  "I suppose."

"Good," Ron said, leaning back in his chair and looking pleased.

Wanting to wring his neck for being so stupid, Ginny didn´t feel at all upset about the little white lie she was writing to her parents, informing them that Ron knew about the dream and was being very helpful. 

Tap, tap, tap!

Ginny jumped and turned towards the window for the source of the noise.  A huge white owl floated like a spirit next to her. 

"Hedwig." Harry jumped up and helped Ginny open the window.  Hedwig soared into the room and landed onto the armrest of Harry´s chair. 

"Have you got something for me?" he asked her with affection, petting her gleaming white feathers. Ginny´s lips curved slightly at the tone of his voice. 

Hedwig let out a squawk and nipped his wrist.  Harry untied the letter attached to her foot and to Ginny´s surprise; Hedwig remained where she was, rubbing her head on Harry´s shoulder as he opened the letter.

Ginny watched the contentment on his face disappear as he read the letter.  His green eyes turned intense and anxious as they scanned the letter.  Hermione and Ron sat up in their seats and leaned forward and Harry silently handed them the letter.  They read the words and looked up at Harry, three pairs of eyes exchanging the same knowing look. 

But they didn´t speak.  They stayed silent, communicating with looks, every so often glancing back at the letter.

At once, Ginny folded her un-finished letter and gathered her things.  Curbing the sudden ball of resentment that was burning in her chest, she sent them a casual smile.  "Good night, everyone."

Hermione glanced up and sent her smile as well.  Ron continued reading the letter, his eyes devouring the words.  And Harry watched Ron intently, not having heard or noticed anything from Ginny. She walked up to her dorm, closed the door and threw her bag onto her bed angrily. 

She just couldn´t win.

To Be Continued...