Harry Potter and the Brothers of the Wolves

Chapter IV: Meeting and Re-Meeting

After everyone reacquainted themselves, Sirius stood up and bade them all to take a seat.

"Now, in the two or so weeks since the Resurrection, a good deal has gone on, and not all on the part of Voldemort." Harry noticed that Ron and Ginny still flinched at the name, but everyone else seemed at least slightly accustomed to hearing it. "Albus has gathered as many of the old crowd as could be found. There have been some losses, of course, most noticeably your parents," he gave Harry a sympathetic nod.

Moody now spoke. "Everyone has worked around the clock, trying to gather as much information about the returning Death Eaters, as well as the new recruits. The most surprising thing so far is that there have been no summons, no gatherings of any sorts. There may be communications between Voldemort and his Inner Circle, but the Dark Mark has yet to burn the flesh of a loyal servant of the Dark Lord."

He stopped to let this sink in. "However, the main reason we are here today is to start a new task force, one within the walls of Hogwarts at all times. You four," he said pointedly to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, "will be heading and controlling this task force. One of you will be the Head while the three others will be reporting to him or her. And, of course, this is optional, but we all here wish that you join up on this because we feel that it is necessary to have this group and that you are the best people for the job."

"Especially," Remus piped in for the first time since the meeting started, "since we WILL need prefects, and two of you are prefects..." With this, a flash of feathers glided through the window and dropped letters into the laps of the four Hogwarts students.

Harry looked at the three other teenagers, who stared vacantly around to each face.

A blink of the eye and they all tore at the envelopes. Harry gasped. The new Gryffindor prefects were Hermione Granger, who shouted with glee, and-

Harry Potter.

Ron got up and patted Harry on the shoulder. He could tell that Ron was a little bitter, once again being in Harrys shadow, but Ron had now learned to control his jealousy and Harry was once again amazed at how much had really changed.

"We all agree to sign up," Harry said.

"And the Head?" Moody asked. Everyone looked at Harry and he shrugged his shoulders in agreement.

From there, the meeting proceeded to the more uninteresting discussions of features of security around various unknown headquarters that made Harrys head swim. Instead of sinking like before, Harry had a drifty feeling and all he could see through his glazed eyes were the soft features of Ginny across the table...

*    *    *

"Harry?" A soft voice in his ear, a gentle nudge on the shoulder. Harry grinned as his eyes opened to Ginny as they had closed on her.

Harry was on the couch (which still smelled of cats) and it was dark outside. Harry looked at his watch to find it was right around two in the morning.

Harry involuntarily raised his hand up to caress Ginny's cheek. Her eyes widened in surprise but soon grew content with his soft touch. Harry shook himself awake and brought his hand down to sit up on the couch. Because he had been so tired, Harry had lost all of his inhibitions and just did what felt right.

"Er, Ginny, what are you doing up so late?"

Ginny blushed a little and looked sheepishly at Harry. "I-I was watching you sleep since, well, since when you dozed off in the middle of the meeting." She finished her sentence quickly and looked to Harrys eyes for signs of approval with those ridiculously beautiful eyes of her own.

He raised his hand back up to her face and traced her jaw line. "Do you know how beautiful you've become, Ginny?" Her jaw dropped and she squealed with joy as she embraced him.

"You-you think I'm pretty?" she managed to squeak out.

"Pretty?" he almost exclaimed. "You're not only pretty, you're absolutely gorgeous," he whispered the last of this in her ear, as he had been drawing closer and closer to that destination with every word.

Ginny looked as though she would faint if another word crossed his lips and she managed to prevent this by taking his face in her hands and, with a moments hesitation, kissing him deeply.

Harry was surprised by this fortunate turn of events. Not only was this his first true kiss, it was to a beautiful girl (woman, he corrected himself) who was no doubt as much in love with Harry as she was in her early Hogwarts days.

Thinking of this as he pulled back from the luscious kiss, Harry went back to whispering in her ear. "Ginny, I think I'm falling in love with you." With that, Ginny fainted with ecstasy into his arms.

Harry gently lifted her light frame and placed her on the couce opposite of Harrys. He assumed that if Ron woke up the next morning to find Ginny in Harrys arms asleep, he might jump to sudden and angry conclusions. He knew he would have to break it to him gently, and finding them like that wouldn't be rather gentle.

Harry silently crept back to his couch and fell asleep to the sight of Ginnys perfect curves rising slowly up and down with her breathing...