The Knights Of Walpurgis

Chapter Seventeen: Christmas At Hogwarts

Harry stood beside the lake and wondered whether other people had this many problems trying to find a girlfriend.

Cho was in mourning for Cedric, he thought, throwing a stone at the water. It sank with a plunk. And now I've been all but ordered to spend my time with Susan because she may be the key to finding out about these dreams. And I have to touch her, as well.

Harry was honest enough to admit to himself that the idea of spending time touching Susan in itself was not particularly upsetting, but he felt as though he were being used, and even worse, as though he were using Susan.

She doesn't deserve this, he thought, watching as another stone dropped heavily into the lake. A second later he ducked quickly as the giant squid that had made the lake its home tossed the stone back out at him. It cracked into a tree behind him, dislodging the last of its leaves. Harry retreated from the edge of the lake and crunched through the snow that had been falling all afternoon. Taking shelter beneath the tree, he stared up at Hogwarts, its lit windows glowing faintly against the darkness of the clouded evening sky.

"Harry?"

Harry he turned to face Susan, who was wrapped up warmly against the cold. She was pulling a scarf from around her face, and pushing the hood of her coat back from her head. Harry smiled at how pink the tip of her nose was inc comparison to the paleness of the rest of her face.

"I'm sorry to make you come out here," he said.

"It's okay," she said. "It's nice to get out of the common room. Ernie's had the house-elves piling logs onto the fire all day long, and it's absolutely stifling in there."

She stepped closer to him, and leaned in to kiss him. He pulled back, leaving her looking a little hurt.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, looking at him with concern.

"I... No," he said. "Listen, I have something that I have to tell you, okay?"

"Have you been having another adventure?" she asked, smiling until he raised his eyes to meet hers.

"What's wrong?" she asked, more seriously.

*

"So, what you're saying is, you think that your kissing me has made you see Helga Hufflepuff in your dreams?"

Harry shrugged. "That's what Dumbledore thinks."

"Dumbledore knows that I've been kissing you?" Susan said, looking highly embarrassed. Her cheeks were almost as pink as her nose.

"Probably," he said. "Sorry. I didn't hide it very well."

"It's... okay," she said, after a while. "I mean, you're not the first boy that I've kissed."

"I'm not?" Harry asked.

"No. Well, there was Jacob Connelly when I was nine, but that probably doesn't count," she said, smiling. "And I went out with Justin for a while after we went to the Yule Ball together. Auntie Amelia knows about him. It was much worse than my Mum and Dad finding out."

"Why?"

"She was all set to run a full background check on him," Susan said, laughing. "She's very... protective of me."

"Are you going to tell her that we... that we're, er..."

"Probably. I don't think she'd mind that we're 'er'. She was very impressed with you."

"She was?"

"Oh, yes. The way you stood up to Cornelius Fudge, and setting up the DA under Umbridge's nose last year. She's hoping you'll apply to be an Auror."

"Oh."

"So, was that what you wanted to tell me?" Susan asked.

"Sort of. You see, everyone seems to think that if I can't find out who the heir of Ravenclaw is, and I can't go near the heir of Slytherin, than I should try and find out more from the heir of Hufflepuff."

"Which everyone thinks is me?" she asked in awe.

"Yeah. I have to dream more about the final battle, and the only way that I know how to do that which might work is by touching you."

"Well, I--"

"And I just feel that I'd be using you," Harry said, cutting across what Susan had been about to say. "Like I'd be doing it to find out more. I don't want to do that."

"Harry," she said, taking his chin in her gloved hand, and lifting his gaze from the snowy ground to meet her eyes. "Stop trying to be a hero."

"I'm not--"

"Yes you are," she said, cutting across him in turn. "Listen to me. Do you like me?"

"Yes."

"Do you find me attractive?"

"Yes."

"Good. Did you enjoy kissing me yesterday?"

"Yes," Harry said, emphatically.

"Good. I enjoyed kissing you as well, Harry. And I like you, and I find you very attractive. I'd like to kiss you again, if that's okay with you. And if that helps you find out more in this dream, then that's fine. I'm glad that I can help you. You won't be using me, Harry," she said, forcefully. "We'll be doing something that I've wanted to do for a long time now."

"How long?"

"Since last year, around the time that Umbridge found out about the DA. I knew that you were nice, and brave, and all that, but seeing you with that house-elf, remembering to take care of him while everyone else panicked... I was very impressed," she added with a smile that both mischievous and embarrassed.

"Oh," Harry said. He felt a surge of gratitude for Dobby, and wondered whether he'd be able to find more socks to add to the house elf's Christmas present.

"So, if I've dealt with all your objections about kissing me again..." Susan said, her grin becoming more and more mischievous. She seemed to be highly amused by Harry's discomfort.

"Yeah, I reckon you have," Harry said. Feeling as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he bent forward to kiss her.

*

Harry, Neville and Ron stood with Hagrid and waved as the Hogwarts Express pulled away from Hogsmeade Station. It was just possible, through the great clouds of steam that the engine threw up, to see Susan, Hannah and Hermione hanging out of a window and waving back as they headed home for the holidays.

Eventually the Express rounded a corner and was lost from sight. Ron gave a small sigh and turned away. Harry and Neville exchanged a knowing glance, and Hagrid was struggling to keep from grinning widely.

"So, what do you want to do then?" Ron asked. "Suppose we ought to do some homework or something. Hermione's probably already writing me a letter to remind me that McGonagall's essay is due in on the first day back."

"Ron," Hagrid said. "Are yeh feeling alrigh'?"

"Yeah," Ron said listlessly. "I'm just..." He looked around, and seeing that they were alone on the platform, carried on. "I'm just worried that I'm not going to see her again."

"Why wouldn't you see her again?" Harry asked.

"You saw the Prophet this morning," Ron said, with a frown. "More attacks, all of them homes of Muggleborns who should have been heading home for the holidays. Not a very merry Christmas for them, is it?"

Harry shrugged, understanding Ron's point. "Hermione'll be okay, Ron. The Death Eaters always lay low after they make an attack. Everyone else can relax."

"I guess," Ron didn't sound convinced. "Not a lot of use to Ginny's friend, though, is it?"

The black mood that they had tried to ignore while seeing the girls off settled over them again like a heavy rain cloud. Ginny's friend Sian Peters had somehow slipped past Professor McGonagall when she had summoned a number of students from their dormitories early that morning. Instead, she had found out that her parents had been tortured and hospitalised by Death Eaters from the front page of that morning's Prophet, and the whole school had seen the normally happy-go-lucky girl collapse to the floor in a pile of disbelief and tears. Sian had been one of the girls that Ginny had asked to help Harry during their intensive series of lessons the previous week, and Harry found it incredibly cruel that in such a short time Sian had gone from being vibrant and upbeat to being in Madam Pomfrey's care, under sedation until Dumbledore and McGonagall were able to make arrangements for her nearest relatives to take her in.

Harry suspected that the memory of watching Sian crumple to the floor as her world died around her was one that he would take to the final battle with Voldemort, should the day ever come. He was worried, too, about the editorial that had appeared in the Prophet. For the first time, it had questioned Diggory's capability to do the job, albeit fairly mildly.

"Now then," Hagrid's voice broke through the fog that seemed to have settled around Harry's mind. "I know that today hasn't been the best day ever, but I could do with a bit o' help, if yer interested."

"What is it?" Neville asked, finally looking away from the faint plume of smoke, which was all that could be seen of the Hogwarts Express.

"Got some, er, big work left to do before our guests arrive for Christmas," Hagrid said. "Wouldn't mind a few extra pairs of hands."

"But Hagrid, you said that we weren't to go into the Forbidden Forest," Harry said, as they began to make their way back to the school. Ron was filling Neville in on the imminent arrival of the group of renegade giants. He took it fairly well, apparently pleased that he was now being trusted with so much information that in previous years he wouldn't have been aware of.

"That's right. And you still ain't. I wouldn't put you in there with them ruddy centaurs, believe me. No, I need a bit of help putting up some wards around the forest edge, just in case one of our guests decides to take a wander. Don't want 'em bangin' at the castle doors, asking for food, do we?"

"I guess not."

"What are the centaurs going to do?" Ron asked, as the three friends struggled to keep up with Hagrid's long, loping strides.

"Like it or lump it," Hagrid said, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore tried, and Professor Firenze too, but the centaurs aren't happy. They don't like us being in there so much setting things up for our guests, they didn't like Firenze leaving the herd, they didn't like what Hermione said to them, bless her, they didn't like Dumbledore going in and pullin' that Umbridge woman out of there about a minute before they stuck her full o' arrows, and they've never got on that well with Grawpy. Ah well, it's a big forest. Even with a crowd of giants livin' in it, so long as everyone sticks to their patch, it should be fine," he added, not looking entirely convinced with what he was saying.

"So, you think that the giants will all stick to their patch, but we're putting up the wards anyway?" Ron asked, as they reached Hagrid's hut.

"Er, yeah," Hagrid said, going into the hut to fetch his pink umbrella, which contained the pieces of his wand. "Yeah, that's right. Just in case, you know. I mean, accidents can happen, right?"

Hagrid had never been very good at trying to appear innocent when he was hiding something, and Harry and Ron exchanged a despairing glance as he strode off towards the edge of the Forest to begin creating the wards.

*

It had been interesting enough, creating the wards. Professor Flitwick had been helping them, and had set Neville and Hagrid to work together, as neither of them was particularly good at Charms. Neville was at least able to prove that the wards worked when he accidentally stumbled through one of them. He looked angry with himself as he stepped back outside the ward, and waited for Flitwick to silence the loud klaxon that had erupted as soon as he passed through it.

Harry and Ron had each worked to create the wards by themselves, although neither had managed to cover the great sweeping areas that Flitwick managed with a simple flick of his wrist.

"It's all in the little finger, boys," the diminutive Professor said, as he waved them off. The three of them trudged across the snowy grounds back to the castle, glad that they were at least being excused from Flitwick's holiday homework.

"So, what do you reckon?" Ron asked. "Do you think the giants will manage to stay inside the Forest?"

"I can't see it," Harry said. "Maybe they'll be alright, though."

"Maybe the wards aren't just there for the giants," Neville suggested. "You heard what Hagrid said - the centaurs are upset."

Harry shivered as he remembered standing back to back with Hermione, certain that a volley of arrows would greet his next movement.

"Nah," Ron said. "The centaurs are on our side." He looked at the other two. "Aren't they?"

Harry didn't answer. Instead, he looked back at the forest, and wondered whether he'd hear the klaxon again.

*

Harry, Neville and Ron woke on Christmas morning to the usual piles of presents at the ends of their beds. Ron was already halfway through opening his presents by the time the other two awoke, and Harry noticed that one present, a rather lumpy looking Gryffindor-red jumper, had been laid off to one side.

"Did Hermione knit you that?" Harry asked. Ron blushed hotly, before nodding.

"What did Susan get you?" he asked in reply.

Harry, who hadn't expected to get a present from Susan, looked through his pile. To his surprise, the largest present had her name on it. He opened it carefully, and to his further surprise found a deluxe broom repair kit inside.

"Wow," Ron said, clambering off his bed to get a closer look. "Thos're really expensive. Guess she must really like you, Harry."

"Yeah, I guess..." Harry said. He had been looking at the kit in the Hogsmeade branch of Quality Quidditch Supplies on Saturday afternoon, but had dismissed it as being too expensive for what it was. He knew that Draco Malfoy used the kit as well, because the Slytherin liked to boast about how he and his family were used to the very best. Harry had never understood quite how Andorran broom wax was supposed to be superior to the Scottish brand found in the normal repair kit, and had contented himself with deciding to pick up the standard kit the next time that he went to Hogsmeade.

"I suppose that she must be pretty well off," Neville said. "Her family's really old. The Bones name goes back hundreds of years."

"So does Weasley, though. Family age is no guarantee of money," Ron said, without any trace of the bitterness he had once felt when talking about his family's lack of wealth.

Harry, who had been thinking the same thing, was also aware of how feeble his present to Susan would seem in light of her very generous gift.

"What'd you get her?" Neville asked.

"An enchanted hair clip," Harry said. "You know, it styles your hair however you want it. Ginny's always saying how much she'd like one, so I thought that Susan might as well."

"I'd say that that's okay, if that's what you're worrying about," Ron said, shrewdly. "I mean, you've only been together a few days, anyway. If she wants to go mad and spend loads on that broom repair kit--"

"You're not helping much," Harry said. Ron waved him into silence.

"--you can always offer to take her out for dinner next Hogsmeade weekend."

"You're right, I guess," Harry said. Neville smiled, and went back to his presents. "Another memory?" Harry asked quietly.

Ron shrugged. "I can't always tell what's me and what's this other wizard."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"Not really. It did at first. The first few nights, I could barely sleep because it was almost like the other memories were trying to make themselves into my memories. But I got past that. Dumbledore reckoned that it was because I'd had more practise being me," he said, shrugging. "Now it's just, you know, I might recognise something even if I haven't seen it or done it before. It can be weird, sometimes, but I'm getting better at dealing with it." He looked at the covers on Harry's bed for a moment, and then up. "It helps, having told you."

Harry nodded, understanding the value of a problem shared. He had felt a lot less weighed down by his problems since deciding to be more open with his friends.

"You could probably tell Hermione, too," he said.

"I know that I should," Ron said. "I just wish..."

"What?"

"I just wish that the brain I had had grown up in this century," Ron said, a rueful smile on his face.

"Why?"

"Because he might have known how to kiss a girl before he gets married."

Harry frowned. "But you said he went on dates and stuff."

"A date. And he proposed at the end. There's probably a wedding and stuff, but I haven't seen that. Anyway, he didn't kiss her."

"So you and Hermione haven't..."

Ron shook his head.

"Have you and Susan?"

Harry nodded.

"But you and Luna did, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I didn't start that. It was always her."

Harry wondered if he could say anything that would be helpful, but decided against it. He didn't have the greatest track record at kissing girls, even with Susan he had a feeling that he had been rather led into kissing her than that he had taken the initiative.

He settled for giving Ron what he hoped was an encouraging smile, and wondered whether he ought to write to Hermione and suggest that she talk to Ginny and Susan... But he rather thought that Hermione would hex him as soon as she arrived back at Hogwarts if he dared write to her about anything along those lines.

With an amused smile that he was careful to keep hidden from Ron, Harry returned to his presents.

*

"Thanks for the present, Harry," Ginny said over lunch. She seemed very taken with the neat plait that lay precisely down the middle of her back.

"Well, you seemed to quite like them, so it seemed like the obvious thing to get you," he said. "Thanks for all the help you've been giving me recently."

"It's okay," she said. "But I have to get Susan alone once she comes back."

"Why?"

"Well, now I'm curious. I want to know how you rate as a boyfriend."

Beside them, Ron nearly choked on a mouthful of roast potatoes. Neville banged him on the back until his face returned to a more normal colour.

"You... you what?" Ron asked.

"Oh, Ron, shut up will you?" Ginny said. "I thought you'd learned--"

"--that I have not right to get involved in your love life. Yeah, I know that," Ron said, looking rather irritated. "Did I say anything to Dean about the two of you?"

"No," Ginny said.

"Well, then."

"Then why the big fuss?" Ginny said.

"It's just..." Ron cast a way eye down the table at which all the Hogwarts staff and students were sharing their Christmas lunch. Pansy Parkinson sat imperiously at the far end, holding court to a very bored looking Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Look, you need to be careful what you say nowadays," Ron said. "Remember what it was like when Rita Skeeter was hanging around here? Well, she's back, and she's in Slytherin, and she's sitting at the end of the table."

Ginny started, before looking at the far end of the table and realizing what Ron meant.

"Do you think that I give a gnome's arse what Pansy says or does?"

"You should," Ron said. "Between her or Malfoy, half the school seems to think that Harry's some kind of over-energetic love cheat. Do you want Pansy hearing you say that you want to know what Harry's like as a boyfriend? Imagine what she'd make of that!"

Ginny leaned back and set her cutlery down carefully on her plate.

"I see what you're saying," she said, clearly choosing her words carefully. Harry didn't blame her. It wasn't often that Ron became so focused and insistent, unless Quidditch was involved. "But I think you're wrong to care so much about what Parkinson and Malfoy think. And if the rest of the school believes them, then what use are they? If we spend our lives watching what we say because we're worried what other people will think, then we're another step closer to calling Voldemort He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named again, and I don't want to go there."

"Just... Look, there's no need to call trouble on yourself, is all," Ron said. "I couldn't give a gnome's arse what Malfoy thinks about me, either, but it was all over the school on Saturday night that Harry and Neville like to swap girlfriends, and there were plenty of people who believed it."

Ron lapsed into a moody silence that settled over the four of them for several minutes. Harry hadn't heard the rumour about himself and Neville, and by the expression on Neville's face, it appeared that he hadn't, either. It appeared that either the rumour mill had lost some of its drive, or someone had deliberately prevented Harry and Neville hearing about it. He wondered if Susan had heard the rumour -- if she had, she hadn't said anything to him.

"Cracker?" Neville said, eventually, offering Harry one end of his. "I guess we can share this without anyone making anything of it."

The resulting explosion left an admiral's hat and a moving model dragon on the table, and the scramble to claim the latter dispelled much of the tension between Ginny and Ron. The group pulled more crackers and shared the presents out around the table, and Harry thought that the strange discussion had been forgotten. On the way back to Gryffindor Tower, however, he noticed that the two siblings were very careful to make sure that Harry and Neville were between them, and it wasn't until Ron went to the trouble of going down to the kitchens again to get everyone some hot chocolate that evening that things between himself and Ginny seemed to thaw out somewhat.

Harry went to bed that night wondering if Weasley family Christmases were always so combustible.

*

Harry stood atop a tall hill, the highest point as far as the eye could see. A rolling landscape surrounded him in all directions, and a rich, dark, pre-dawn sky spread out above his head from horizon to horizon.

He felt confused, as though someone was speaking just outside his hearing, moving just outside his range of vision. Distantly, he thought, there was the clash of metal on metal, but it was hard to be sure.

He knew where he was, he realised with a jolt. But he didn't know how he had got there, or how he would get back.

He looked around, curious for any hint of what had brought him to the place, but everywhere was empty. Something in the distance caught his eye, and he turned to face it more directly. It existed at the very limit of his vision, and he felt frustrated as it seemingly taunted him. With a deep sigh, he decided to make his way in that direction, and looked about him for a path down the steep hillside.

"You should wait," came a voice from behind him. He looked around and saw a very pretty blonde woman standing there.

"I'm going to look," Harry said. "I can't wait around here."

There was a pause, and then the blonde woman nodded.

"She's right," she said. "Whatever that is, we'll be at our strongest with the four of us here."

"I'm strong enough as it is," Harry said. "He's not coming. You know that. No one has heard from him in nearly a month. For all we know, he's dead."

"Don't say that," the blonde woman said, looking upset at the idea."

"I'm sorry, but it's probably true," Harry said. "We shouldn't lie to ourselves. He's gone, and that's that."

There was another long pause. The blonde woman seemed to be listening to something, but Harry couldn't decide what.

Harry turned and looked back across the valley, straining his eyes to make out any sort of detail.

"You should say something to them," the blonde woman said. She laid a hand on his arm and pulled him gently towards the other side of the hill. "They've come here on your word. You should tell them why, Godric."

Harry found himself looking down once more on the massed ranks of the tens of thousands of wizards gathered at the foot of the hill. It was amazing, almost inconceivable, that so many wizards existed in Britain, but here they were. The clash of metal upon metal he'd heard earlier was identified as the sounds of armoured warriors clashing swords together, or against shields. As Harry watched, the sword one man was holding vanished, leaving him holding a wand that he used to cast a fiery lasso at his opponent, yanking away his shield. The other man yielded and the two shook hands.

Harry remembered Hermione saying that wizards were much more common at this time in history, and he was only slightly surprised to see that a number of wizards had apparently become knights of the realm. Harry supposed that this was a time in which wizards and Muggles had mixed freely.

He turned back to the blonde woman, who seemed to be nodding in agreement with something that someone else had said.

*

"Harry Potter. Harry Potter sir. Harry Potter must wake up, sir."

Harry's eyes opened to the sight of a very recognizable shape.

"Dobby?"

"Yes sir. You must be waking up, sir," Dobby squeaked.

"Why? What's wrong?" Harry was fully awake now, and scrambling for his glasses and wand. He nearly poked his eye out in his tiredness, but managed to get glasses and wand the right way around at the second time of trying.

"Nothing's wrong, sir. Dobby wants to give Harry Potter his Christmas present."

Harry blinked several times at the eager house elf and then looked at his bedside clock.

"Dobby, it's ten past three in the morning," he hissed.

"Yes sir. Harry Potter's Christmas present is just arrived, sir."

"What? What do you mean? What's just arrived?"

"The giants, sir," Dobby said, bouncing up and down on Harry's bed in excitement. "The giants has arrived, sir, just as Dobby is coming up here to clean up, and Harry Potter will see them if he hurries."

Harry swung his legs out of bed and stood up. "They're here now?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, where are they?"

"They is at the front door, sir. Harry Potter will be able to see them from the clock tower."

"Okay, Dobby. Thank you. I'll get Ron and Neville up and we'll see you down there."

"Yes sir. Dobby will go and make sure the windows there is clean."

With a snap of his fingers, Dobby disappeared, and for a second Harry wondered if it had all been a bizarre dream, but then he remembered what he had been dreaming, and shook his head.

He hurried over of Ron's bed, and shook his friend's shoulder.

"Wstgftaf?"

"Ron? Ron, wake up!"

"Wstfgaftgf."

Harry tried Neville next, but got even less response from him than from Ron. Deciding that neither was about to wake up, he was about to run out of the door when he remembered his Invisibility Cloak and quickly grabbed it from his trunk.

Harry was about to leave through the portrait hole when he heard a voice coming from the girls' staircase, nearly making him jump.

"Harry, where are you going?"

Ginny stood at the foot of the stairs, looking sleepy.

"Ginny? What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't get to sleep. I came down to see if there was any hot chocolate left. Where are you going?"

Harry beckoned her over, and when she was standing beside him, he whispered: "The giants are here! Dobby just came and woke me up so I could go and see them."

Ginny grinned, her eyes lighting up.

"What are we waiting for?" she said, and grabbing Harry's hand, led him out through the portrait hole. Harry just had time to wrap the Cloak around them before the Fat Lady saw who was leaving the Tower at quarter past three in the morning.

"Dobby said to go to the clock tower," Harry whispered as they hurried through the silent halls.

"This way, then," Ginny said. "It's a shortcut." She led them down a dusty corridor that didn't seem to have been swept for months, or maybe years. Harry noticed that there was a clear path trailed through the dust on the floor, however.

"What is this place?" Harry asked.

"It's a... shortcut," Ginny repeated. "To the clock tower."

"Why do people need a shortcut to the clock tower?" Harry asked. Ginny put her hand to her mouth, and didn't answer for a few seconds.

"Harry, do you need more lessons?" Ginny sounded amused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I thought that even you... Look, people go to the clock tower when it's too cold to go to the astronomy tower, okay?"

Realisation dawned on Harry and he felt suddenly reluctant to go with Ginny to a place with such a reputation. She must have felt his hesitation because she pulled more firmly on his hand.

"Come on, Harry," she said. "I mean, it's not like anything is going to happen. Especially after all the time that I spent setting up you and Susan, right?"

"No, I know," Harry said. "But if someone saw us..."

"Harry," Ginny said, stopping and turning around. "You listen to Ron too much. Stop worrying about what other people think, would you? You've had a lot worse, and I don't care, because I've already been about as low as any person can go, do you understand me?" she asked, forcefully. "Besides, who's going to see us? The school's virtually empty. No Prefects around, and," she save a tug at the silvery material that swirled about them, "we have an Invisibility Cloak."

Harry grinned. "You're right. But Ron's right, too. We've had enough rumours this year. It's not fun, and it doesn't matter how tough you are."

"Well, be that as it may, I still don't care. Besides," she added as she turned around and set off again. "Maybe I like the idea of being in a love triangle with you."

Harry grinned in the darkness, pleased with how Ginny could find humour in such a situation.

Dobby had indeed cleaned the windows of the clock tower in the short time that it took Harry and Ginny to make their way there. He beamed as Harry pushed the hood of the cloak back and his and Ginny's heads appeared in mid-air. With a final "Merry Christmas!" he disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

The glass glinted in the faint light of the full moon, and Harry's thoughts turned to Remus. He hoped that the Order was taking care of his former teacher, and that he wasn't spending Christmas alone.

"What's up?" Ginny asked.

"Remus, and my dad, and Sirius" Harry said, feeling a weight settle on his shoulders. "Twenty years ago it would have been them standing here, but now Remus is spending his Christmas night curled up in a locked room, and Sirius and my dad are dead."

Ginny's hand slipped into his and squeezed gently.

"Didn't you say that they wanted you to have fun?"

"You're right," Harry said, and the weight lifted again. He wondered if he would ever be completely free of it.

"Come and look," she said, pulling him towards the window.

Harry let the cloak drop to the floor as they found places to stand amongst the clock's moving parts. Looking through the glass, Harry's jaw dropped at the sight before him on Hogwarts' front lawn.

Almost thirty giants stood on the lawn, and each seemed to be carrying a weapon of some sort. Harry spotted huge axes, swords that could have cut the Knight Bus in half, and troll-sized clubs that nestled like pencils in the giants' huge fists. Each of the giants was massive. Although it was a little hard to say, Harry didn't think that any of them were under twelve feet tall, and most were a good bit taller. One was standing almost directly beneath Harry, and he could make out the giant's sparse, wiry hair, which was sleaked across the giant's balding skull. Each individual hair seemed to be several times thicker than human hair, and it was almost as though the giant had a mophead for hair.

The giant's heavy looking clothes were, Harry realised after a few minutes, entirely made of animal fur. What Harry had taken for buttons on the giant's shoulders were actually the hooves of whichever poor animal had had the misfortune of meeting the giant at the wrong moment. Looking across the crowd, Harry saw that another giant had a stag's horns resting on top of his head. Harry tried to imagine his Patronus amongst the giants, but the image broke down as he couldn't think of a happy thought that would be powerful enough to cast the spell. It was hard to be anything but terrified with the huge giants so close at hand, especially as none of them seemed to be in a good mood.

But apparently unaffected by the fear, albeit almost lost among the crowd, were Hagrid and Dumbledore, who despite their own height seemed almost miniscule compared to the full-sized giants surrounding them. One giant in particular seemed to take affront to Hagrid and took a huge swing at him with his axe, but Dumbledore stepped deftly between the two and the giant stopped the huge weapon from slicing the Headmaster in two by a few inches. Dumbledore continued on, apparently unconcerned, while Hagrid and the belligerent giant exchanged a look of mutual surprise.

"Why didn't Professor Dumbledore use magic?" Ginny asked faintly, from somewhere over to Harry's left.

"The giants don't like it," Harry said. "They don't trust most wizards. They probably only trusted Hagrid and Dumbledore because the alternative was joining Voldemort."

They fell back into silence, and Harry had to squint to follow what was happening. Dumbledore and Hagrid led the giants into the darkness of the grounds, the only light provided by the guttering, wind blown torches that they were holding. The group paused at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where Harry assumed that Dumbledore was lowering the wards to allow the giants access. Harry wondered whether the giants were aware of the wards. He supposed that they had to be - if they found out later that they were being guarded by magic then it seemed likely that they would make a great deal of fuss about it. Harry was glad that it wasn't his problem.

"Wow," Ginny said at last, as the last of the giants made their way into the forest. "That was something."

"Yeah," Harry said. "It was. Not often you get to see thirty giants standing on the lawn outside. Even for Hogwarts, that's weird."

"Yeah. I'm glad that I got the chance to see it. Thanks for bringing me with you."

"Thank Dobby," Harry said, shrugging as he picked up the cloak. "I wouldn't have been here if he hadn't woken me up."

"Well, thank you anyway," she said, smiling as she came over to join him. "I know that you'd probably rather have had Hermione and Ron along, but it was nice to be on one of your adventures."

"Hermione and Ron are my oldest friends," Harry said. "And I tried to get Ron to come along tonight -- he was sleeping, and so was Neville. But you're my friend as well. I like being around you, Ginny. You know lots of things that I don't, you've got a good sense of humour, and you're a great Quidditch player."

"Well, that's high praise," Ginny said, smiling lopsidedly.

"I mean it," Harry said, taking her hand in his. "I know I must have seemed at times that I didn't care about you, but, well, I've learnt better since then. I know how important it is to have good friends, and I'm glad that you're one of mine."

Ginny smiled up at him, a little uncertainly, or so it seemed to Harry. Her pale face shone in the moonlight, and Harry found himself trying to count the freckles that lay asymmetrically across her nose and cheeks.

"That's a start, I suppose," she said, almost to herself.

"Besides, if you hadn't taught me all about girls, I wouldn't be with Susan," he said.

Ginny's mouth tightened, and she looked away. "It's after four. We should get back to bed," she said.

"Yes, you should," a voice from the shadows announced. "Or, at least, you should have done, but sadly," Pansy Parkinson stepped out into the moonlight, a victorious grin on her face. "Sadly, you appear to be on my patrol route."

Harry let go of Ginny's hand and wondered if there was any way that he could avoid this becoming another rumour on the grapevine.

"Dear, dear," Pansy said. "Potter and Weasley, in the clock tower. You're out of bounds and it's after hours. Oh, it's almost more than I could have hoped for. It appears that dear Ernie was right after all. You really do play the field, don't you Potter?"

"This isn't what it looks like," Harry began.

"Credit me with some intelligence," Pansy snapped, her demeanour suddenly angry. "Potter and his long-time groupie, alone, moonlight, two inches from kissing each other? What else could it be? Now, I want to get this right: Are you dumping Bones already, or is Weasley just stopping you from getting bored over the holidays?"

"Shut up," Harry snapped back. He felt suddenly furious, and felt momentarily grateful that his wand was sitting on his bedside table. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd felt so angry.

"For your information," Ginny's cool voice interrupted his thoughts, "we're just friends. We weren't about to kiss. The whole idea is ludicrous. I don't know how Slytherins choose to conduct themselves while in a relationship, Pansy, but Harry is dating Susan Bones. That, at least, you have correct. Harry wouldn't cheat on Susan, and I wouldn't betray her by trying to steal her boyfriend. Also, surely even you must have noticed how closely my brother watches who I date. Can you imagine how hard it would be for me to try and date Harry? It would be impossible. As for me being Harry's groupie, as you call it, I will admit that I was attracted to him when I was younger, but that ended two years ago, and since them I've dated other boys. In short, Pansy, your allegation is groundless and frankly ludicrous. No doubt you will try and concoct something from it, but those people whose opinion I care about will know the real truth."

Harry stared at Ginny in unabashed admiration. She had completely demolished Pansy, and he wondered whether the Slytherin girl would be able to make anything of at all of this encounter.

"Well, well, well. Your idea for late night patrols seems to have paid fruit, Miss Parkinson," came a silky voice from the shadows. Harry let out a long breath and almost without thinking raised his Occlumency defences.

Professor Snape stepped into the moonlight, and the clock tower platform seemed suddenly very crowded indeed.

To be continued...