Tested In Fire

For Jess, because the only time that she ever gives up on me is when I promise to call her. I'm lucky in having a friend like her, and I hope she knows just how much I appreciate her.

Chapter 19: A Dire Moment, A Kiss, A Meeting, And A Password

Harry waited, but the pain never came. Instead, the ray broke in front of him and nothing happened.

"That's odd," he mumbled.

"Harry Potter! You scared the life out of me. Next time you have to be so damned heroic, will you notify me so that I can..."

"It stopped, didn't it?"

"Don't you dare grin at me that way. I can't stay mad at you when you do that. Honestly, I just don't know whether to kiss you or slap you."

"Well, I'd prefer the former," Harry muttered underneath of his breath.

"Oh really?" Ginny sounded intrigued.

"Um, yes."

"Well, then," Ginny mumbled, "that's something to keep in mind."

As Harry's face fell into a look of disappointment, Ginny tried to hide her joy. Harry Potter looked disappointed! Disappointed because she hadn't kissed him.

"Look, something's happening," she cried.

Harry nodded as his eyes took in the sight. The ivy around the room was crumbling, and was soon nonexistent. The room swerved, and Harry and Ginny found themselves on the ground in the middle of the room.

"Harry and Virginia Potter," said a warm male voice. "It seems you have passed the test."

Then there was silence.

When Harry and Ginny continued to look blank, the voice went on. "Harry, you've proven your feelings for the girl, and your Gryffindor bravery. You're a true heir of the Potter house. Therefore, it is only right that you should have this."

A book fell from the ceiling. There was one word printed on its cover. Lily. Ginny reached over and traced it with her pinky finger.

"Ginny, is there a reason why a lot of things seem to fall on us?"

"Must be your magnetic personality," Ginny said with a shrug.

Harry snorted, and then took in a deep breath. "Well, this is uncomfortable."

Ginny looked up, and on her face she had a mischievous smile. "How so?"

"Well, we just had a voice tell us that I obviously have feelings for you. I'm assuming that's pretty uncomfortable for you- knowing that I have feelings for you." Harry stopped abruptly when he realized that he was essentially saying the same things over and over again, and then found that he starting all over again. "Not that there was ever any doubt that I was the true heir of the Potter house, but the feelings part must have been awkward..."

"Not really," Ginny said nonchalantly. "I had it worked out on the way over here."

"Did you really?" Harry asked, his gaze keen on her face, as if he felt he could peel the truth off of her.

"This is a very interesting book," Ginny said swiftly, clearing her throat. "It has your mum's name on the cover."

Harry grinned. "Ah, I thought so."

"You knew that this book would have your mum's name on it?" Ginny asked innocently. "Here I thought I was the Seer..."

"No, I knew that you didn't know that I had feelings for you."

"Well, I'm assuming that that's what they are, you know, feelings," Ginny almost whispered. "Not anything important, or anything."

"That's what you think, hmm?"

"Yes." This time Ginny did whisper. "Harry, don't you think we should concentrate on the book, or something..."

Harry was still examining her face carefully, and his close scrutiny caused her to flush a deep red. "Or something."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," he stammered hastily, when he realized he had almost said something foolish. "What do you think... that is to say... um... what do we do?"

"I don't know." Ginny grabbed the book and tried to open it.

"Ginny, did you mean what you said?"

"What?" Ginny nearly dropped the book. "What thing that I said?"

"When you said that you didn't know whether to kiss me or slap me, and I said I would rather have you do the former, then you said it was something to think about?"

"Oh, that?" Ginny's mouth twitched upwards. "Hmm, well, yes, I suppose so."

"Well, have you thought about it?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

"No."

Harry's face fell.

"But that was only because there really hasn't been much time, you know."

"Well, if there had been time, would you think about it?"

Ginny grinned, and put the book in her robes, as she thought they wouldn't be needing it any time soon. "Yes, I think I would."

"Okay, then." Harry took a deep breath, leaned over and touched his lips to hers. Ginny gasped.

In all of her daydreams, she had never dreamt that the first kiss she would share with Harry would be on the cold stone floor of an unplottable room in Hogwarts, with a glowing book sitting in between them. The rest of it, she had imagined, but she realized now that she had no idea. The way she felt was indescribable... "You think this is bad," she thought to herself, "imagine if he were actually touching you..."

The door opened with a creak, and a set of figures stepped through to the room.

"Harry! Ginny! Are you all right? What's going on in there?" Hermione burst through the door and saw them cross-legged on the floor with their hands intertwined. "Oh, for Merlin's sake. This has not been my day," she groaned.

Harry and Ginny pulled away from each other.

"Harry," Ginny managed, even though she was breathless, "do you know that you're bleeding?"

"No." He looked down at his shirt and looked amazed. "Imagine that."

"Come to think of it," Ginny inhaled, "I don't feel so great myself."

"Ginny, are you going to be all right?" Remus's voice sounded like it was coming from the end of an aluminum can. "She looks like she's going to..."

Ginny was just barely aware of mild cursing and shuffling before she hit the ground.

"...faint."

**

"Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey!" Anna kept shouting at the top of her voice.

"For goodness sake, girl, I'm not deaf. What's going on? Ah, it's you. It's been a while since I've seen you, Mr. Potter."

"Not quite long enough for me, Madam Pomfrey."

"Yes, I'd imagine so. What seems to be the matter with Miss Weasley?"

"Well, she fainted."

The look that Madam Pomfrey shot Harry made him feel very stupid.

"Obviously. What made her faint, Mr. Potter?"

"Well, we'd all like to know that," Remus said tiredly.

"I most certainly agree." The voice was female, tired, and had just a hint of a Scottish highland.

"Professor McGonagall!"

"I hope there is a reasonable explanation for this."

"Put Miss Weasley in that bed next to Mr. Potter. We'll have to wait until she decides to join us again. It doesn't look like anything serious, just shock. You, Mr. Potter, on the other hand, are bleeding. Wait here."

"Ginny?" Ron's voice from two beds over was sleepy and not very coherent.

Hermione answered him in a no-nonsense voice. "Yes. She'll be fine. Go back to sleep, Ron."

"Hermione! What's happening?"

"We're waiting for Harry and Ginny to explain themselves," Anna said sternly. "Well, we're waiting for Harry to explain himself, because your sister has made herself temporarily unavailable."

"Get Sirius," was all Harry would say. "I'll explain this once, with everyone here to listen. That way I can go to sleep directly afterwards."

"That sounds like a plan. You look awful," Hermione agreed.

"Thanks, Hermione." Harry's voice was sheepish, and Hermione had the good grace to blush.

"I'll just run and get him."

"That won't be necessary." Professor Dumbledore had entered the room. "I've already fetched him."

Harry nearly gaped. He would never work out just how Professor Dumbledore seemed to know everything that went on at Hogwarts.

Sirius walked in through the door and his hair was abnormally messy. His eyes were wild with some emotion that was not easy to pin down. Hermione nearly shuddered. She hadn't seen him this roguish looking since his escape from Azkaban.

"Sirius! Oh my goodness... something terrible must have happened. What is it?" Anna was in her brother's arms in a minute, stroking his back in a soothing pattern. Neither of them said a word, just held on for dear life.

Remus stood back for a minute, but when brother and sister had released each other, he grasped Sirius's shoulder in a display of support. There would be time for a more intimate conversation between the two of them later.

Sirius closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them there was determination there. "Remus, Anna, Elizabeth is dead. I received word earlier this evening."

Anna gasped. "Oh no."

Remus's face turned to stone. "I'm sorry, Sirius."

Hermione, feeling a bit distressed, went and sat on the edge of Ron's bed. Her boyfriend welcomed her warmly, and Harry watched as they seemed to melt to one being with her back against his chest. Every now and then Ron would run a comforting hand up and down her arm.

"Harry, please, tell us what happened this evening," Professor Dumbledore broke through the silence.

"Well, it started with a dream that Ginny had," Harry started.

About midway through the story, Ginny's eyes flickered open.

"We managed to get the door open, and when we did, something started shooting at us. It destroyed the stones above us, and the debris started to fall on us."

"So this great genius..." Ginny took over and made everyone realize that she had come to. "...jumps in front of a ray that's headed straight for me, because he thought it would hurt me."

"Well, apparently, that was the right thing to do," Harry shot back. "The rays stopped firing, or whatever it was they were doing."

"You are correct, Harry. I helped set up the defenses for that room myself when Lily and James were about to leave Hogwarts," Dumbledore started to explain, but then stopped himself. "Please, continue. There will be time to hear all other sides of the story later."

"Then a voice came from nowhere and told Harry he was the true heir of the Potter family," Ginny resumed. "And he called me 'Virginia Potter'. That's odd. I didn't notice it at the time."

Harry grinned, but refrained from saying anything. Ron might not be able to walk yet, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't find a way to inflict punishment on his best friend if he thought Harry was taking advantage of his little sister.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "He would. He was always a great one for humor. Watching your reaction must have been the most entertaining thing he's seen in decades."

"Anyway," Harry picked up after it became clear that Dumbledore wasn't going to say anything further on the subject, "this book just dropped from the ceiling."

"I have it," Ginny piped up.

"It has my mum's name on it," Harry followed.

"Do you care to let us see it, Ginny?" Remus's voice was carefully neutral, as if he was afraid to be too hopeful.

"I couldn't get it open when I tried." Ginny said as she pulled it from her robes.

"It's probably guarded by a password," Anna mumbled. "Lily was always good at locking charms.

"Sounds reasonable to me," Ginny agreed, then held the book up for inspection.

"White leather," Anna said as she examined the book. "Gold lettering. Worn pages. It looks like Lily's book."

"The one that she started to keep after she and James started that project?" Sirius looked up sharply at his sister.

"Yes."

"This could be the answer, if we could open it," Remus mused.

"Think," Hermione said out loud. "There's got to be a logical answer to this puzzle."

Ron hugged her from behind, and whispered in her ear. "Not everything's logical, you know."

"Hush," she whispered back.

Dumbledore started to voice his thoughts aloud. "Lily wouldn't have chosen anything obvious, in fact she would go with something that would be totally unexpected, especially for her."

"That's right," Anna agreed. "You could never tell with Lily."

Sirius jumped up. "Loch Ness."

The book opened, and the same male voice that had spoken to them in the chamber greeted them again. "That is correct."

Anna looked at Sirius, confused. "How did you know?"

Sirius shrugged. "It was a private joke between Lily, James, and I. No one else would know, and those of us who were in on the joke would have never thought that she would have chosen 'Loch Ness' as the password. So, naturally, she did."

Hermione read a bit of the book, and shook her head. "This is amazing. No, this is brilliant." Her face glowed. "Harry, I think you've found the answer."

**