Hope and Fear

Part 1. Planning for the Future

***

"Miss Weasley!"

Ginny stopped dead in her tracks as the cold voice hit her like a blow. There was no doubt as to who was calling her. "Yes, Professor Snape," she answered softly.

"You will accompany me to my office at once," Snape hissed and turned to glide off down the hall.

Wondering what she was in trouble for, she meekly fell in step behind him.

It wasn't as if she was exactly an innocent; she was a Weasley after all. But her escapades tended to be more low key than the rest of her family, with the possible exception of Percy. How much trouble she was in depended on what had been discovered. There was the surveillance the Gryffindors would keep on Filch by a charm on the suits of armor, of course. Then there was the jinx she'd put on the mirror in the girl's bathroom closest to the Slytherin's dungeon to make the viewer look ten pounds heavier. While those were mischievous pranks, none of them seemed to merit this treatment.

She followed him into his dim office and stood in the center of the room.

In a swirl of black robes, the potions master seated himself behind his desk. "Sit down!" he barked, and folded his fingers before his face. "Where were you between the time you finished lunch and the beginning of your charms class yesterday?" he asked, glaring over his fingers.

Ginny thought for a moment and then a cold feeling crept into her stomach. She had been making out with Harry behind the student's greenhouse. "The library, I think. I don't remember," she stammered.

"And last Sunday after service? You seemed to disappear then too," he hissed.

She gulped and fingered the necklace Harry gave her. They had been behind Hagrid's hut while Hagrid had stayed late practicing with the choir as he always did. "In my dorm room, I guess," she tried to look innocent.

"In fact, during the past month there have been several occasions when you were nowhere to be found." Snape smiled thinly over his fingers

Despite her best efforts, fear was starting to show on her face as she shrugged in what she hoped looked like a confused way.

"Do you know what is most amazing about your periodic vanishing?" he asked in a smooth voice.

Ginny shook her head

"It would seem that during each of your mysterious disappearances Mr. Potter could not be found either." Snape's wicked smile revealed his self assurance.

"So that's it," she thought. "he's after Harry, well he's not getting anything from me."

"Sir," she stammered "I really don't know..."

"Do not insult my intelligence, girl!" he bellowed, suddenly inches from her face. "The staff is fully aware of your amorous rendezvous with the energetic Mr. Potter! We know about the acrobatic antics of your brother and our Head Girl as well!" He sat back down but didn't lower his voice. "Professor Dumbledore has knowledge of every tryst, lurid meeting, and vulgar get together in this school." His disdainful tone led Ginny to suspect that his anger was fuelled more by jealousy than propriety. "The headmaster's policy is to let these relationships take their natural course, and only interfere with those that he feels are destructive or dangerous."

Snape fell silent for a moment, giving Ginny a chance to consider what this meant for Harry and her. He reached for a standard spell book sitting on his desk and opened it to a marked page. Relief flooded her as she recognized the page with the contraceptive charm on it. "This must be Snape's idea of a warning to be careful," she thought " I wonder if Professor Dumbledore told him that it hasn't gone that far."

He folded his hands over the book and looked at her with a completely neutral expression on his face. "Tell me Miss Weasley, how much do you know about how Mr. Potter's family died?"

She blinked feeling like she had just walked in on a new conversation. "I ... uh, know his parents were killed by You-Know-Who, and he's living with his aunt and uncle who are muggles."

"Aunt and uncle on his mother's side. Do you know why he is living with his mother's family?" he asked in a neutral tone.

She thought for a moment "Um.. no, not really" she answered, wondering where this could possibly be going.

"Mr. Potter comes from a very old and powerful line of wizards, some of the purest of pure blood ran through his father's veins." He paused for a moment "But that is not why the Dark Lord wants him dead. When he was attacked as a child Harry was given some very special protection by his mother. He also has within him a great power that little is known about. These abilities are part of him, they are in his very blood. I believe that henceforth all of his descendants will inherit these aptitudes."

"So that's why You-Know-Who has tried to kill him so often," Ginny answered, nodding her head, but still confused as to where this conversation was going.

Snape sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "My feelings toward Mr. Potter and his father are no secret, but even I must admit how important he is to the wizarding world," he said, averting his eyes.

Ginny felt her heart begin to quicken. This discussion didn't seem to be about school, but she had never seen Snape look so serious. He might not be out to get them after all but these vague references about Harry and Riddle were starting to worry her.

Snape stood and faced the small window near the ceiling. "The Dark Lord has many reasons, both magical and political, to fear any Potter still alive in the world," Snape couldn't hide the sympathy and fear that were in his voice. "Harry's line must not be allowed to die with him," he said in a harder tone.

A small hollow space opened up in Ginny's stomach. "D...die? Harry's not going to die," she stammered.

He turned his head to look at her and she could almost see pity in his eyes. "You are young Ginny, the young can never see death even when it is right behind them."

"But Professor Dumbledore, he still has hope. He said that if we..."

"Professor Dumbledore has an endless supply of hope and trust," he said in a sad voice. "But hope and trust do not always win the day."

Ginny felt the hollow space inside of her growing and there was a prickling sensation in the corner of her eyes. "Harry's not going to die," she said defiantly, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

"I have already had this conversation with the headmaster and he feels the same way you do." Snape lowered his head, and when he spoke again there was a note of compassion in his voice that Ginny had never heard from him before. "I have seen the forces arrayed against Harry. I do not see how even his skill and luck can save him. Even if we were to win, the Dark Lord would still find a way to kill him."

"You...you're wrong! Harry can do it!" she said, crying now.

Snape reached into his pocket and handed her a small white handkerchief and touched her shoulder. He then straightened himself and took a seat behind his desk. "Enough of this. I have called you here for a reason." He took hold of the spell book he opened earlier and turned it to Ginny. "Do you know this spell?"

"Yes," she said, wiping her eyes "It's the contraceptive charm. Professor McGonagall has already covered that with the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw girls last year..."

"No, not that one," he said, and pointed to the bottom of the page where the reverse spells were given "This one."

She stared at the page. She had never given that spell a second glance before. "The fertility charm?" she said, confused.

"Harry's line must not be allowed to die with him," he said, again looking at her meaningfully

Ginny put all the pieces together in her mind and thought surely she must have misunderstood him. "Are you asking me to ...?"

"I am not asking you to do anything" he said flatly "I am merely informing you of the situation, and despite the headmaster's explicit instructions," he took a deep breath "suggesting a course of action."

A new shock hit her. Not only was he speaking to her against Professor Dumbledore's orders, but he was telling her he was doing it against orders.

"I am placing myself in your hands, Miss Weasley. Dismissal will be the least of my concerns if word of this conversation were to reach the headmaster." He let these words sink in before adding, "And all of that would be nothing compared to what would happen to me if Professor McGonagall were to find out."

Ginny looked up surprised by the statement and almost heard a hint of amusement in his voice. It made her feel a little better. "Sir, I'm only sixteen," she said trying to be reasonable. "I still have another year of school after this one. Shouldn't Harry and I wait just a little while?" The irony of having to argue this point with a professor added to the surreal feeling of their talk.

Snape inhaled deeply. He looked as if he didn't want to scare her again but that he had no choice. "Ginny, in less than a month Harry will be leaving the safety of this school for the last time. Soon after that he will begin his training as an Auror. The Dark Lord would have to be a fool to allow him to begin that training."

She felt the urge to start crying again but wiped her eyes in silence. "As for your education," he said firmly, "You have my guarantee that I will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that you finish your time at Hogwarts."

Ginny sat stunned holding tight to her necklace and staring off into the corner. "My family will be very upset," she said finally.

"I have taught six of your brothers, I have no doubt that they will take care of you." Snape thought for a moment. "And if for some reason they can't, other arrangements have been made."

Snape opened the drawer of his desk and brought out a small box. He opened it and removed a silver ring with a simple black stone in it. Tiny writing that Ginny couldn't read covered the shining band. "This was given to me a long time ago by someone whose name you don't need to know." This earned a raised eyebrow from Ginny. "It has a powerful spell on it that should temporally protect you from most curses. Also, if you should ever feel the sudden need to get away from it all," he took the ring out of the box to show her "turn the stone a half circle, speak the name of the one you love the most and push the stone in." She stared at the ring with a mixture of wonder and fear. "When you do that, you and whoever you are carrying will be taken far away to a place I do not know. There you will be taken care of by someone of great power."

"Who?" she asked in bewilderment.

"I'm afraid I don't know that either, but it is someone that you can trust." He handed her the ring, and she took it carefully. "Don't worry, the stone can't be pressed until after it is turned."

"Why not just give this to Harry?" Ginny asked looking at the powerful artifact.

"Because it can only be used by a woman in love." He answered in the same tone of voice he used to describe potion ingredients.

She sat limply in the chair for a moment staring at the ring in her hand. "Sir, I... I can't..."

"A great responsibility is before you, Miss Weasley. I have every confidence that you will make the right choice," he said, reverting to his normal cold voice.

Ginny didn't miss the note of dismissal in his tone and stared at him a moment before rising to head to the door.

"Miss Weasley," he picked up the quill from the ink well in front of him and pointed to the phoenix necklace she had been holding during their conversation. "I don't believe jewelry of that type is allowed in the school dress code. That will be five points from Gryffindor," he said looking down.

She closed the door behind her, and he waited until she was gone to drop his quill and hold his head in his hands.

***

On a Saturday morning most Hogwarts students should be happy, but Harry was about to scream.

For months now it had been either a crisis or a load of schoolwork clamoring for his time. He had never been a stranger to hard work, but this time it wasn't the intensity of the work that made things stressful. What really made it unbearable was that he no longer had Ron's help. He had recently lost most of Ron's assistance. The worst part of all was that he lost him to his other main helper, Hermione.

Harry realized it was stupid to be jealous of Hermione taking what had been his time with Ron. Feeling like the odd man out was new to him and he didn't like it. This change in the relationship with his two oldest friends came at a time when everything else in his life was shifting too.

On the bright side, Ron and Hermione weren't the only things that had changed in his life. As strange as it seemed to him, someone had chosen to get close to him in a completely new way. A smile crossed his face unwittingly as he thought about Ginny.

It was a new feeling to be part of a couple and it was wonderful. It wasn't just the making out he liked, although that was amazing, but just being with her felt good. In the two months they had dating he had gotten so close to her so fast that it scared him a little. Part of him wanted to go back to the way they had always been, and another part of him wanted to see how far this new relationship could go. Harry knew that it could be extremely dangerous for him and Ginny to pursue this relationship, but for now he didn't care. The truth was that it was already too late to go back to the way things had been. Ginny had become too much a part of him. When he was around her everything made sense. Harry found that he wanted to try for more of that feeling. He wasn't sure Ginny was ready for this, but he trusted her judgment and would accept whatever she had to say on the subject. "For now at least. Unless she gets so mad that she never speaks to you again," he thought with a shudder. Part of him did feel that he was going too fast, but everything in his world was going too fast, if he didn't keep up he might well never get the opportunity. He would never forgive himself if he let the best thing in his life slip through his fingers, so he altered his course slightly to the Owlery.

"Hi Harry,"

"Hello Neville," Harry sighed.

"You busy?" Neville asked walking up. He was still wearing an earth stained robe, having come from the greenhouses.

"No, not really. I was just heading up to the Owlery, what do you need?" Harry responded, keeping the disappointment out of his voice.

"Luna and I are finished in Greenhouse Ten if you wanted to work on your Herbology project," Neville said.

"I guess I'd better, the last time I looked at my furry ferns they were getting a little brown," Harry sighed.

"They need brushing more often. I think they're lonely," Neville said, as they headed down the hall.

"Well, with you and Luna locked up in the student's greenhouse so often, I haven't had much of a chance." Harry gave Neville a knowing smile.

"I've been helping her seed her pouncing tiger lilies," Neville said, turning a little red while trying to sound innocent.

"That doesn't explain why you have as much dirt on the back of your robes as the front," Harry said slyly. An embarrassed glare was Neville's only response. "Well, if you and Luna are finished seeding, do you think you can give me a hand with the ferns?"

"Yea, sure," Neville said, a crooked grin breaking across his face.

***

As Ginny walked blindly down the hall a thousand fears and questions raced through her mind. Could Snape be right? It was obvious he thought he was. "No, he's wrong! Harry is not going to die," she thought defiantly. "Maybe I'll lose him someday, but not now. We are still so young."

She needed to talk to someone to get a sense if this was a real threat or just Snape being paranoid. The one she really wanted to talk to was Harry, but she knew better. Harry wouldn't want to worry her and would never agree to put her in that situation no matter how important it was. "That means he can't know what I'm doing," she realized and shuddered at how hard this would be.

She made the decision not to talk to him just in time. Looking up, she saw Harry coming down the hall ahead of her. Two emotions instantly filled her, the desire to run up to him and bury her head in his shoulder, and the urge to run and hide. The latter impulse won out. She ducked behind a suit of armor. She was afraid that he would see her hiding when Neville came to her rescue. He stopped Harry in the hall. They talked for a minute and then both headed toward the greenhouses. Forcing herself to breathe calmly, she realized that this couldn't wait much longer or she would break down and tell him everything.

If she couldn't talk to Harry, then the next best thing would be talking to Ron and Hermione. They were close to the front lines with him and would have a pretty good idea how much danger Harry was really in. She could also find out how bad it was without telling them what she was up to.

She hadn't seen them in a while and didn't want to wait until they turned up, so she began to search for them. A few hours later, after looking in all the usual places, Ginny was getting frustrated. Nearing desperation, she found Dean and Seamus who were, like most of the seventh years, studying in the library.

"Have either of you seen Ron?" she asked, sitting next to Seamus. "I can't find him anywhere."

A noise came from Dean that was either amusement or disgust; Ginny couldn't tell which.

"Sorry Ginny, we haven't seen much of Ron lately except in classes. You might have to wait until Monday," Seamus said, an odd expression on his face.

"Oh ...why is that?" she responded, wondering how dorm mates could not see much of each other.

"Because," Dean interrupted in an annoyed voice, "during the past two months he's had his face buried in either Hermione or a book."

Ginny's mouth dropped open at this. "Just a tad bit jealous, are we?" she asked in a sarcastic voice.

"Yes!" they responded together.

"I'm glad they finally got together and all ... God knows it took long enough...," Seamus started to say.

"Well Seamus, you really only have yourself to blame." Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Did you really think Lavender and Parvati wouldn't talk to each other, they are best friends."

Dean interrupted Ginny before she could dress Seamus down for his misdeed. "But Ron has taken the best study partner in the year and won't give her back. I'm trying to get through this mess and all I've got for help is him." He nodded toward Seamus.

"Thanks Dean, you've been a bottomless pit of support yourself," Seamus growled.

"And you, Dean," Ginny turned her attention to the other miscreant "when are you going to get off your bum and ask Padma out? It's not like we have forever." Her eyes went dark.

They both glared daggers at her. "All right then," Ginny said remembering how irritable Percy had been just before his NEWT's. "Just tell him that I need to talk to him when you see him tonight," she said, getting up.

"Uh... Ginny," Seamus said and waved her to come back. She sat back down next to him as he looked over his shoulder to see if anyone else could hear. "I'm not sure we can." Ginny gave him a puzzled look. "I don't know where they've gone," he said in a very low whisper. "but neither Ron or Hermione have slept in their beds in over two weeks. I'll probably see them in class, but we might not be able to talk."

Dean shrugged and said, "I think Harry must know where they are, try him."

Talking to Harry was what she wanted to talk to Ron about, so the sick feeling she had in Snape's office came back when she got up and left the library.

***

Next: Part 2. A Family Talk

***