Revelations and Romance

Revelations and Romance chapter 8

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8: Of Maps and Mysteries

January 15th

Saturday morning passed quietly. Lavender and Parvati were looking at Harry even more nervously, and Harry assumed that meant that Raine had now passed on the message about duelling practice if they continued spreading rumours about Hannah and Ernie, as well as Hermione and himself.

Ron and Ginny were in a different part of the common room, talking to Angelina and Katie about Quidditch. Hermione had borrowed a copy of Which Broomstick from Katie, and was frowning at the order form and writing on a piece of parchment. She was going to have to ask her parents for the money to buy a broom, so she was converting all the prices in the magazine from Galleons into pounds.

'Do you want to borrow from my vault?' asked Harry. Hermione wasn't as sensitive about money as Ron was, as her parents' practice earned quite a lot.

'I don't, thanks. I'm just wondering how expensive a broom I can really ask my parents to get. Prices always look so much worse when you convert them to pounds, don't they?'

'I've never had to. I don't even know what the conversion is. The Dursleys never really trusted me with money, so the first time I had any was when Hagrid took me to my parents' vault.'

'Ron claims the vault looks more like a gold mine than a real gold mine would,' she said, smiling.

'I wish I could get his parents to accept something when I stay with them. I almost got them to take something for wrecking Mr Weasley's car, but they said to leave it until the end of the year.'

'Well, what happened at the end of the year?'

Harry sighed. 'By then, I'd rescued Ginny from the Chamber, and they said they owed me, and I didn't owe them anything.'

'I can see their point, but I wish they'd accepted your offer earlier.'

'I don't even know how much is in there. I'm trying not to spend it too fast, but I wouldn't mind giving them some of it.' He thought, 'At least I got Fred and George to accept the Tournament money.' He hadn't even told Ron or Hermione that -- if he had, Ron would have known where the money for his new dress robes came from.

'Do you ever wonder if you're richer than the Malfoys?' she asked with an impish grin.

Harry sat there, surprised. 'I'd never thought about it. Draco Malfoy always acts so rich, I assumed his family had lots more money.'

'And you act so normal that we like you a lot better.'

He smiled. 'Thanks. Even if I knew how much was in there, I wouldn't know how much the Malfoys had. I suppose they've got their manor house, too. My parents' house was wrecked by Voldemort -- even if I knew where it was, it wouldn't be worth anything now.'

'You don't know? Couldn't you ask Dumbledore or Sirius?'

'I've only just thought of it. I'll ask Sirius, I think.'

After lunch, Fred and George came over to the four of them, and sat down next to Ron and Ginny. Fred glanced at Ginny as though he wasn't sure if he should say something in front of her.

'Hello,' said Ron. 'Why are you visiting us today?'

'We ... er ... wanted to look at something of Harry's,' said Fred. He glanced at Ginny again.

'Fine, I'm only the baby, I'm not allowed to hear anything!' said Ginny, standing up.

Harry grabbed her hand, making her blush. 'What do you want to look at, that you can't tell Ginny about?'

'You know -- the map,' said George.

'What's so special about a map?' asked Ginny.

'Why can't she hear about it?' asked Harry. 'Do you think she's going to tell everyone?'

'I suppose not,' said Fred. 'OK, Ginny, you don't have to go.'

'Great, I've got permission to sit right here as usual,' she said, sitting back down. 'Thank you, oh mighty lord and master.' Ron grinned at her.

Harry took out his wand, pointed it towards the boys' stairs, then paused. 'What happens if you use a Summoning Charm on something that's inside a trunk?'

'It'll find a way out,' said Hermione.

'Without getting damaged at all?'

She hesitated. George replied, 'I've used Summoning Charms to get things from behind locked doors, and they've never been damaged.'

'I am not going to ask,' said Ron.

'You just like to assume the worst about us, don't you?' asked Fred.

'It does save time,' replied Ron.

Reassured, Harry pointed the wand and said 'Accio Marauder's Map!'

'Whose map?' asked Ginny. She looked round, to see a piece of parchment flying through the air at them. 'You know, if you and Hermione keep bringing things downstairs that way, you're going to hit someone.'

'Just because you don't know how to do that spell,' teased Ron.

'Of course I know! We did Summoning Spells last term. Accio Bertie Bott's!' she said, pointing her wand at the girls' stairs. There was a squeal, and the sound of books being dropped down the stairs, then a paper bag came into sight, zooming towards Ginny. She caught it and looked sheepishly at the others.

'If you keep bringing things downstairs that way ...' began Hermione with a grin.

The younger girl glared at her, then looked at the table, where Harry had spread the blank-seeming parchment with its fine-grained side upwards. 'So this is a map of somewhere nobody's been yet?'

Harry touched the tip of his wand to the map and said, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'

'Doesn't surprise me,' said Ginny, but then she looked in amazement as the lines started to appear on the map, becoming a map of Hogwarts castle. Harry pointed to an area on the seventh floor, and she leant closer. 'It's got my name on!'

George stood and walked round to stand behind Ginny, then back again and sat down. His name on the map moved to match. Ginny pulled out her wand. 'Are you sure this is safe? Dad always says, "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain," and I wish I'd paid more attention then.'

The twins looked puzzled, as they didn't know about Tom Riddle's diary, or what Ginny had done in her first year at Hogwarts.

Harry said gently, 'It doesn't think for itself. It doesn't talk back to you like ... some other things. Fred and George used it for years, and it didn't do anything to them.'

Ginny cautiously put her wand back into her pocket. 'Who are these people? "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs"? They're not Death Eaters or anything, are they?'

'Nobody knows,' said Fred. 'But they must have been students here, to get this much detail into the map.'

'Filch is in his office,' said George, who'd been checking the map.

'You're just checking that so you can go and report to him, of course,' said Harry, grinning.

'Of course!' said Fred. 'We couldn't possibly have any ulterior motive for knowing where he was.'

'It doesn't have the Chamber of Secrets, does it?' asked Ginny, looking at where it would have been on the map.

'Nobody knows where that is, except Harry,' said George.

'I know too!' said Ron indignantly. 'But Harry's the only one who can open it.'

'Why?' asked Ginny. 'Didn't Harry tell you how?'

'Ginny knows where it is, too -- remember, Harry rescued her from there,' said Hermione, hoping Ginny wouldn't give away the fact that she'd released the Monster of Slytherin. Out of consideration for Ginny's feelings, Harry had only told Ron and Hermione about that, as they already knew most of the story anyway. Percy still didn't know who had been used by Riddle to Petrify Penelope, and the twins didn't know either -- after the ways they'd tried to cheer her up in her first year, Harry had assumed they'd tease her about it. Their parents, who also knew, apparently agreed, as they'd never told Percy, Fred or George the true story.

'Sorry, Ginny,' said George. 'I knew you'd been in there, but I forgot you'd know where it was. If it had been on the map, we could have found you when you were captured. We did look, just in case, but you weren't anywhere on it.'

'Wormtail is a Death Eater, though,' said Harry. 'It was mainly due to him that Vol ... You-Know-Who got his body back last year.'

'You know who he is?' asked Fred, startled. 'How did you find out?'

With interruptions from Ron and Hermione, Harry explained about Professor Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, and how Lupin's three friends had learnt to become Animagi to keep him company.

'Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot ...' said George, amazed. 'You met all three of them?'

'We met Moony, and never even knew!' said Fred, disappointed. 'He taught us! He could probably have taught us so much more, if we'd only known!'

'But you don't know who Prongs is?' asked Ginny. 'You never met him, or her?'

Harry hesitated. So that he wouldn't have to answer, Hermione said gently, 'Prongs was James Potter, Harry's father. We'll never be able to meet him, because Wormtail betrayed Harry's family to You-Know-Who.'

The others were silent at this news. Harry said to her, 'Thanks, now I don't have to say that.'

'You met Wormtail, too,' said Ron to Ginny and the twins. 'He was hiding out as Scabbers.'

'Scabbers?!' exclaimed Ginny. 'In our own house?'

'Crookshanks didn't kill him,' said Hermione. 'Because he was an Animagus, not a real rat, he faked his death so that Crookshanks would be blamed and Sirius couldn't find him.'

Fred, George and Ginny already knew that Sirius was Harry's godfather, and that he had been cleared of all charges.

George looked at Fred. 'This changes things.'

'How?' asked his twin.

'Remember when we had the map, and used to wonder about the people who'd made it? One thing we wondered was whether four people would have made only one map.'

'Right. We never thought then that it mattered if there were more -- it just meant more fun for other pupils. But if one of the four is a Death Eater, and there were four maps, You-Know-Who could know where Harry is all the time he's at Hogwarts,' said Fred.

'And by watching him go off the edge of the map on a Hogsmeade weekend, he'd know when Harry was outside the area you can't Apparate into.'

'Oh, no,' said Ginny. 'He's in danger again.'

Harry grabbed a blank piece of parchment that was lying on the table from some homework he'd been doing earlier. 'Well, I can find out if they only made one map, anyway.' He started to write rapidly.

'How?' asked Ginny.

'Writing to Sirius?' Hermione asked Harry, answering Ginny also.

'Yes,' he replied. He stopped and read the letter aloud. '"Dear Sirius, sorry this is such a short letter, but I need to know if you made more than one Marauder's Map. If you did, is it possible that Wormtail has one, and Voldemort can use it to spy on us here at Hogwarts?" Do you think I should ask anything else?' He touched the map with his wand, said 'Mischief managed!' and put it back into his pocket while waiting for an answer.

'What about where your parents lived?' asked Hermione.

'I'd rather talk to him in person about that.'

'Ask him if we can meet him!' said Fred eagerly.

'That can wait for another letter,' said Harry, smiling. He signed his name at the end, and went out of the common room to find Hedwig in the Owlery.

Fred and George went off to sit together and discuss these revelations, having forgotten about whatever mischief they'd been planning. Ginny picked a bean out of her paper bag. 'This looks like the tuna one I had. Do you want it, Crookshanks?'

'You haven't even tasted it yet,' said Hermione.

Ginny nibbled the end of it cautiously, then smiled. 'Sorry, Crookshanks! It's strawberry ice cream, not tuna.' She ate it herself.

Hermione stroked her cat. 'Would you like a strawberry ice cream bean? Oh, well. I didn't get any last week.' She raised her wand, pointing it at the girls' stairs.

'Oh, no,' said Ron. 'How many accidents this time?'

'Accio fudge!' said Hermione, ignoring Ron.

Another paper bag came flying through the air from the dormitory stairs.

'Why don't you hit anyone?' complained Ginny.

'I don't want to,' said Hermione, grinning at her and taking a small piece of fudge from the bag.

'What happened to those Stringmints, perfect for dentists' daughters?' asked Ron.

'I don't have any left,' she replied.

'I'm going to try that trick,' said Ron. He pointed his wand. 'Accio Chocolate Frog!'

'Hit someone, hit someone, hit someone,' muttered Ginny. She was disappointed. Ron caught the Chocolate Frog and grinned at her. He opened the packet and slowly ate the frog while looking at the card.

'It doesn't have you two on again, does it?' Ginny asked him.

'No, it's got you on,' he replied.

'Don't be silly!'

'OK, it's Morgana again. You know, all the people on these cards were our age once. They're on cards now. One day, maybe we could be.'

'A real one, and not my fake?' asked Hermione. 'If we help Harry defeat You-Know-Who, we just might be on cards like this.'

Harry came back into the common room and sat down. 'Chocolate eating time?'

'It's Ginny-teasing time really,' said Ron.

'I'll join in with the chocolate eating, anyway,' said Harry. 'Accio Chocoballs!'

Ginny waited hopefully, but the bag of Chocoballs zoomed into Harry's hand without hitting anyone. He took one from the bag, grinned at her, and held the bag towards her. 'Want one?'

'I've still got some of mine left,' she replied, pointing her own wand. 'Accio Chocoballs!'

Books tumbled down the stairs to the girls' dormitory, followed by Olwen sliding down on her stomach. The bag flew into Ginny's hand, and she slumped down into the chair in hopes of not being seen. Ron was laughing, while Harry and Hermione were both trying not to. 'It's not fair!' pouted Ginny.

'It's not her week. She doesn't look hurt, anyway, just embarrassed,' said Hermione.

Harry had something else on his mind still. 'I hope this is the only copy of the map.'

Hermione nodded. 'I'd hate to think that You-Know-Who can watch us moving around the school.'

Harry glanced at Ginny, and didn't make the comment that occurred to him, about Ron and Hermione being in each others' dormitories. He'd never used the map to check on them, and never intended to, but he imagined Hermione was thinking about how Voldemort might have watched their movements on the map. They had, after all, been the only two pupils in Gryffindor Tower for part of Christmas, and they'd taken advantage of that fact.

Something of his train of thought must have shown on his face, as Ginny patted his arm and told him, 'I'm sure it's all right, Harry. Dumbledore's here, after all.'

'He can't stop everything,' he said, thinking of his second year.

Ginny sighed. 'No. He didn't stop the Basilisk -- but Riddle didn't dare to take me into the Chamber until after Dumbledore was suspended, did he?'

'No, I suppose he didn't,' Harry replied. He'd feared for a moment that Ginny might have guessed his thoughts, but that was silly; she couldn't read his mind. Despite Ron's careless talk, and the frequent absences of the two lovers, she still hadn't guessed they were sleeping together. She must have an unshakable belief in her brother's and Hermione's innocence.

'It's an interesting map, though. You say your dad made it?' Ginny asked him.

'Yes -- well, I don't really know which of the four made it.' A sudden thought struck him. 'Oh, no. Even if there was only one -- suppose Wormtail knows how to make it, and can make another one for ... You-Know-Who?'

'Let's hope he doesn't know!' said Ron.

'McGonagall said Wormtail wasn't in the same league as your dad and Sirius, didn't she?' asked Hermione. 'So I think he probably wouldn't know how they made it.'

'I hope Sirius thinks of that question too, and answers it,' said Harry. 'It'll be good if there's only one map, and if Wormtail doesn't know how to make another.'

'If it's yours because your dad made it, why did Fred and George use it for years? Did you lend it to them?' asked Ginny.

Harry explained how the twins had got hold of the map and given it to him.

'That was nice of them. I'm surprised,' she said. Ron laughed. She glared at him. 'Well, they must really like Harry -- did they tell you about it? I bet they didn't tell Percy, and they didn't want to tell me just now!'

'No, Harry told me about it. First I'd ever heard about it.'

'I wonder who had it before them. Who did Filch confiscate it from? I wonder if it was Bill?' mused Ginny.

'Or Mum and Dad,' said Ron with a grin.

'I don't think your parents could have known about it,' said Hermione. 'They'd left Hogwarts before Sirius and the others started, hadn't they?'

Ron thought about it. 'Yes, they had. Oh well, they can't have had the map then. Bill might though; no, he must be about twelve years younger, so he'd have started here years after they'd left.'

'It would have been fun asking them about it,' said Ginny wistfully.

'Though he could have got it from someone else who got it from the Marauders,' suggested Hermione.

'Are you all trying to take my mind off You-Know-Who and whether he has a map like this?' asked Harry.

'I wasn't,' said Ginny. 'Did it work, though?'

'If it worked, he wouldn't have just said that,' said Ron impatiently.

Hermione stretched and looked at her watch, as Gryffindors were starting to leave the common room by the portrait hole. 'Have we really talked until dinner? We have!'

The four of them joined the general exodus towards the Great Hall and dinner.

*

On Sunday morning, Harry, Ron and Hermione were down in the common room early, as were the twins. It happened to be not only Ginny's fifteenth birthday, but the twelfth birthday of Heather Kelly, a first year. Some gifts for Ginny, including Harry's toy cat, were wrapped and sitting on the table where they usually did their homework. After a while, the four fourth-year girls all came down together, and went to where some square tables had been pushed together to make one larger one. Presents from the others in her year were on that table, and Harry, Ron and Hermione went over to watch her open them all, as did the twins. It soon looked as though Honeydukes had moved into the Gryffindor common room, she'd been given so many sweets.

'Thanks, everyone! I'd better not eat any of these yet, it's almost breakfast time,' she said. The three girls who shared her dorm helped her collect them all together and carry them upstairs to their dorm.

In the Great Hall, Ginny saw Raine standing around near the entrance. She hugged Raine and thanked her for her present, which Raine had given to Fen to give Ginny.

Breakfast was noisy near Ginny and the other fourth-years, and Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins didn't try to talk to her. As breakfast drew to a close, several of the Gryffindors took jugs of pumpkin juice to take up to the common room.

Back upstairs, the twins produced some bottles of Butterbeer they'd bought the previous weekend, and that and the pumpkin juice, combined with the sweets, seemed to make the morning go quickly. At lunch, more jugs of pumpkin juice were carried up, and the birthday celebration continued.

'Honestly, some people have no thought for the poor house-elves,' said Hermione crossly, as she collected about a dozen empty jugs and put them beside her chair. 'Why don't people ever take these down when they go to lunch?'

'You didn't,' Ron pointed out.

'I took the one we'd finished! These are from all over the common room.'

Harry looked round. Ginny was still the centre of attention, and nobody else was near enough to hear them.

'When you said yesterday that you didn't want You-Know-Who using a map to watch you moving around the school, did you mean generally, or did you mean the times when you and Ron were in the same dorm, or the bathroom together?'

'I didn't even think of that!' said Ron, aghast. 'Even my family doesn't know; I definitely don't want him knowing!'

'I don't like the idea of him watching us at any time, but I did think of that as well,' said Hermione. 'I couldn't say so, with Ginny here.'

'No, I know,' said Harry. He sighed. 'It's going to feel like ages before I get Sirius' reply.'

The party seemed to be slowing down, and Ginny came over to see them. 'You're hiding!' she said accusingly.

'We're scared of fourth years,' joked Harry.

She sat down, and looked at the gifts on the table. 'Are these mine too?' The others nodded. 'All my teeth will fall out by the end of the week,' she said, undoing Ron's gift. It turned out to be Chasing the Quaffle by Tamsin Roberts.

'But you can't have got this after the trial results,' she said to Ron. 'Were you that sure I'd get it?'

'I was hoping we both would. I was going to ask if I could borrow it back, if I'd been made a Chaser.'

Ginny grinned. 'Well, you're still a reserve Chaser. Thanks, this is supposed to be a good book for Chaser techniques, isn't it?' Ron nodded.

The next gifts she unwrapped were Hermione's. She'd given Ginny two bottles of ink and two bags of sweets.

'The ink's a very practical gift,' said Ginny.

'Yes, sorry Ginny, I couldn't think of anything better.'

'It's fine, really. I was going to have to get more ink soon, anyway.' Ginny opened the first bag of sweets, and giggled. 'Toothflossing Stringmints? You're trying to make sure I've still got teeth left next weekend. So that's why you didn't have any left yesterday?' Hermione nodded, grinning. Ginny opened the second bag, and looked shocked. 'Cockroach Cluster? Hermione?'

Hermione laughed. 'No, I asked my parents to send me them. They're from a Muggle shop, and they're actually peanut clusters. I thought you could have some fun with the similarity.'

Ginny grinned. 'Now I have to get some Cockroach Cluster. I can offer Fred one of these, and then if he wants any more, offer him the cockroaches.'

She turned finally to Harry's gift, and opened it. The toy cat meowed at her as soon as the box was opened, and she laughed. 'Oh, it's sweet!' She pulled a wand from her pocket and held it over the cat, to see if it would jump up at it. It did, bending and then breaking off the end.

Harry stared at the cat. 'It's not supposed to do anything like that! I'm sorry, Ginny, really -- I'll buy you a new wand.'

Hermione leant forward to look at the cat, then picked up the end of the wand and ate it.

'Hey, that was my wand!' said Ginny, smiling.

'Liquorice Wand. I should have realised!' said Harry, shaking his head.

'It was nice of you to offer, anyway,' Ginny told him.

'Wait, can you do that again? In a minute?' asked Ron, trying to find something in his bag. He pulled out something flat, which he unfolded into what looked to Harry like a camera that had been bent in half.

'Is that a Trollaroid?' asked Ginny.

'Yes. So if you play with the toy cat and the wand again, I'll take a photo,' said Ron.

Ginny held the Liquorice Wand over the cat again, and Ron took a photo. There was a faint humming sound, and Crookshanks poked his head up above the edge of the table to see what the noise was. Then he saw the little cat, jumped up onto the table, and sniffed the toy, which Ginny grabbed.

'I don't think he'd hurt it,' said Hermione. Ginny carefully held it out towards Crookshanks, who sniffed at it again and sat back down on the table, looking almost puzzled. Ron took another photo of the real and toy cats together.

'Just as well there's enough light for that,' said Harry. 'You couldn't use an electronic flash gun here.'

'What is a Trollaroid?' asked Hermione. 'There's a type of Muggle camera with a similar name.'

'It's called that because they claim it's so simple, even a troll could use it,' explained Ron. 'Their slogan is "Point. Click".'

'Like Fred's comment about speaking Trollish just by pointing and grunting,' added Ginny.

'And then it makes a picture only a minute or two later.' He put the picture of the toy cat jumping up into Ginny's hand, and continued, 'It doesn't matter about the light, Harry. There's a bag of flash powder you get with the film and, when you take the photo, if it's not light enough, the powder burns to give a flash of light.'

'That sounds like the old Muggle cameras in an old book I read,' said Hermione.

Ron took the photo of Crookshanks and the toy cat from the back of the camera, and gave it to Hermione. She smiled at it.

'I'm going to call this little cat Widdershins,' said Ginny. She took a bite of her Liquorice Wand.

'Do you like it then?' asked Harry,

Ginny smiled and nodded, not wanting to speak while eating.

'A camera. How interesting. You were talking about wanting one during the holidays. You wanted to take pictures of looking at snow, or something like that,' Hermione said to Ron.

'And now I can, if nobody minds,' he replied.

'Why would anyone mind?' asked Ginny, who'd finished her bite of wand.

'Imagine if Ron had just hit you in the face with a snowball, and then took a photo of you. Would you mind?' asked Harry.

'I'll try that!' said Ron.

'Don't you dare!' said Ginny, sounding very like their mother. 'If you did ... Harry, would you teach me some of the spells you and Hermione were duelling with?'

'Ah. Well. I have been friends with Ron for a few years now. I wouldn't want to see him in little pieces all over the snow,' Harry replied.

'How about big pieces?' Ginny offered.

'Big pieces. Yes, that sounds like a good compromise.'

'"Friends" he says. A friend who wants to see me spread out in big pieces?' said Ron.

'How about Aphasic?' asked Hermione. 'That stops the target talking.'

'Oh, perfect! How easy is it to learn?' asked Ginny enthusiastically. 'Do you think Percy would know how to block it?'

Harry laughed. Hermione looked at Ron, and said, 'I think perhaps we should talk about that later, Ginny.'

Ginny turned to say something to Harry, but stopped when she saw he was frowning at the wand he was holding. 'What's the matter?'

'I'm trying to remember two of the spells from the Weighing of the Wands last year. All our wands were checked before the Tournament's first task,' he answered.

'Why are you trying to remember them?'

'Mr Ollivander cast two particular spells to check our wands. I think I can remember one of them. Orchideous!'

A bunch of flowers shot from the end of his wand. Harry caught them in mid-air, and handed them to Ginny, saying, 'For the birthday girl.'

'Oh, thanks Harry.'

'I've never seen that one before. I wonder if Dad knows it,' mused Ron.

'What was the other spell?' asked Hermione.

'I can't remember how to cast it. It produced a fountain of wine,' Harry replied.

'Harry! Remember the Ravenclaws and the alcohol they had in their common room for New Year's Day?'

'What? You didn't tell me about that!' said Ginny.

'Well, we've already been suspected. We might as well be guilty,' Harry said.

'We can't! We're Prefects -- we're supposed to set an example, and that example isn't how to get drunk!' she hissed.

'I don't know how much wine you have to drink to get drunk. Do you?'

Hermione blushed. 'Well, I know two glasses aren't enough.'

'Why are you blushing?' asked Ginny. 'What do you get up to in your dorm?'

'Nothing!' exclaimed Ron. Then he went red too.

'Ron? How do you know?' Ginny asked.

'I don't -- I'm just sure Hermione wouldn't drink alcohol. Then I realised how it sounded, and it was embarrassing,' her brother answered.

'Really? Anyway, Hermione, how do you know?'

'We went on a holiday to France, and they have wine with their meals there. I was thirteen then, and my parents said I could have some too. Apparently children do, there,' Hermione explained.

'They do?' asked Harry. 'I wonder if that applies in Spain, too? That's where the Dursleys go.'

'I don't know,' Hermione replied. 'My parents are thinking of a holiday in Spain this year. They wrote asking if I'd like that.'

'What did you say?' asked Ron.

'I said I thought it was a good idea,' she answered, blushing again.

'What's in Spain?' asked Ron. 'Don't tell me -- Viktor Krum is going there on holiday too? So you're going to write to him, and arrange to see him while you're there?'

'I don't know where he is!' she snapped. 'I don't care where he is! Why don't you trust me? This has nothing to do with him. I did say other things in the letter, about you. Not about Viktor, about you. All right? You might have liked what I wrote. But there's not much point in telling you if you can't even trust me!'

'I do trust you. Sorry. Really, I'm sorry,' Ron paused, and added, 'What did you write about me?'

'Maybe I'll tell you later. When you really do trust me again.'

Ginny looked at Harry. Both of them were feeling embarrassed about Ron and Hermione arguing like this. Ginny asked, 'So, do you think it would be OK if we just tried some wine, if we didn't have more than two goblets each?'

'I suppose it would. Perhaps just one goblet. I don't think McGonagall is going to come in now and catch us. Hermione, are you really that bothered about it being a bad example? You seem to be the only one of us who's ever had wine before,' Harry said.

Hermione sighed. 'I don't suppose I can stop you anyway. What would I do, give you detention?' Ron grinned at the memory that brought back to him. 'Stop that,' she said, noticing his expression. 'I'm still annoyed with you, so no detentions.'

'That doesn't make any sense,' complained Ginny.

'It probably does to them,' said Harry, who remembered exactly why Ron was grinning. 'Anyway, I don't think the wine idea is going to get anywhere. I remember Mr Ollivander made a fountain of wine come out of the wand, but I can't remember what the incantation was. All I can remember is something like vinniefurious, and I don't think that's right.'

'If there's much, you'd better point the wand into one of these empty jugs first,' said Hermione, picking up one of the jugs she'd collected together. 'Maybe it needs washing first. I'll wash it upstairs in the dorm.'

'Well, as long as you're so completely opposed to the idea, thanks,' said Harry, grinning at her. She stuck her tongue out at him, and went upstairs with the jug.

'She must really hate the idea, if she's taking it up to wash,' said Ginny, watching her go. She looked back at the moving picture of Widdershins jumping up at the wand. She stroked the toy, which meowed again. Crookshanks, who was still sitting on the table, turned to see where the sound came from.

'It's Widdershins, Crookshanks,' Ginny told him.

Hermione returned a few minutes later, with a clean pumpkin juice jug. She shooed Crookshanks off the table, so he jumped up onto the chair beside Ginny and sat looking at Widdershins.

'At least these will make it less obvious. You'd better drink the wine slowly, too,' Hermione said, as she placed the clean jug on the table in front of Harry and then sat back down.

'Thanks,' he said, 'but I still can't remember the incantation.'

Hermione suggested, 'It might be Vinifluvius. But that should be a river, rather than a fountain. You ought to be ready with a Finite in case.'

'And just how do you happen to know a spell to create wine?' asked Ron.

'I don't, I'm just guessing. We had to learn some Latin for Ancient Runes.'

Harry pointed his wand into the jug, and moved it as he remembered Ollivander doing, while saying 'Vinifluvius!'

Wine flowed from the end of the wand, and stopped just as Harry was preparing to end it. The jug was almost full.

'That's good, Harry,' said Hermione. She sniffed at the jug. 'It smells a bit like the wine I had. Oh! I should have washed those goblets, too!'

'I'll do that,' said Ginny, reaching for them.

'No, I will,' said Ron, grabbing them first. 'It's your birthday, after all.'

Ron returned a few minutes later, and Harry poured wine into each goblet.

They each tried some of the wine. It made Ginny cough at first, but the others all decided it was good.

'We'd better wash the jug and goblets again, so nobody notices,' said Hermione.

'OK, it's my turn,' said Harry.

'But you "brought the wine",' she said. 'I'll do it. Besides, I was collecting the empty jugs before, so if anyone notices me going up and down the stairs with this, they'll just think I'm saving the house-elves some work.'

'The truth is finally revealed,' said Ron. 'S.P.E.W. was only a ploy so that we could drink wine without being suspected.'

'It was not!'

'Oh, say it was and keep him quiet,' said Ginny. 'It would have been a very long-term plan if he was right.'

'I'll do the goblets again, anyway,' said Ron.

The two of them took the jug and goblets up to their respective dorms, and returned them, now clean.

'That was very useful, wasn't it Ginny?' said Ron.

'Useful? Why?'

Ron grinned. 'Now we've got blackmail material on the Prefects, and they can't do anything to us.'

'I think that's the first time this year I've broken a school rule. I am setting a good example!' said Harry.

'Can we make you carry these empty jugs down to the Great Hall? It's dinner time already,' said Hermione.

The four of them took eight of the jugs downstairs to leave on the Gryffindor table, where the house-elves would bring them back down into the kitchen. After dinner, they returned to the common room and relaxed. Ginny collected together one of each of the types of sweet she'd been given, and slowly worked through them. Some of the other fourth years came over to talk to her. All except Colin and Fen thought that someone had given her some Cockroach Cluster.

After a while, Ginny curled her legs up under her on the chair, and turned so that she was sitting facing Harry. 'Now we're both fifteen,' she commented.

'You'll have to stop calling us "old people" then,' said Harry.

'Hey, good point!' said Ron. 'I can get some respect from my little sister. At least, a lack of disrespect.'

'Oh well, I can still call Hermione an old person,' said Ginny, pouting. 'No, I was going to say something else. Harry,' she blushed and glanced at Ron and Hermione, but then continued, 'how do you really feel about me?'

'I like you. Is that what you mean?'

'But you don't take my feelings for you seriously?'

Harry sighed. 'I would do, but I take You-Know-Who very seriously. I was lucky last year, because he wanted to show his Death Eaters that I couldn't defeat him again even if he gave me a chance, and because he didn't know something about my wand.' Ginny looked as if she didn't think this was really an answer. He added gently, 'Ginny, he'll probably attack me again. Next time, he might be the lucky one, and I'll be killed.'

Nobody spoke for a few minutes after that.

'You shouldn't have to think of things like that at this age,' said Hermione. 'I know you have to, but it's wrong.'

'Do you think it matters to me if you die?' asked Ginny. 'Oh! I don't mean it like that! Of course it matters. But are you going to ignore every girl who looks at you because you might die and leave her?'

'I told you I'm worried about Hermione, in case he thinks she's my girlfriend and decides to attack her. Any other girl could be in danger if she really was my girlfriend. For instance, you.'

'I've had to face him before. I bet I know things about him he doesn't think I know,' Ginny said defiantly.

'Don't take this the wrong way, but when you faced him before, he possessed you and made you do almost everything he wanted,' said Ron softly.

'Like attacking Hermione, you mean.'

'I told you, I've forgiven you,' said Hermione. 'It wasn't your fault. And even if we didn't know enough to realise you'd been possessed, I don't understand why Percy and the teachers didn't spot it. After all, Percy was in the sixth year then -- six years of DADA, twelve years you'd been growing up together; why didn't he notice why you were having nightmares, instead of blaming them on the twins?'

'It's not Percy's fault!' snapped Ginny.

'And it isn't yours, either,' said Hermione gently.

Ginny thought about it for a moment as she ate one of the Chocoballs and stroked Widdershins. Crookshanks jumped up onto the arm of her chair. When she spoke again, she wasn't snapping. 'Does that mean You-Know-Who is the only reason you don't like me better?'

'Yes, it does,' confirmed Harry.

'So what happens if you get luckier next time? Or if the Aurors catch him? Or he just falls over dead because he's old? Then would you like me better?'

'Then, I promise you, I will grab you and hug you, and see if Fred and George's room is still nice and comfortable, if you show me where it is. Is that all right?' He noticed Ron's frown, and hastily added, 'I mean, as long as you're sixteen by then. And only if you haven't got fed up waiting and found someone else, of course.'

'Why isn't the bit about her being sixteen "of course"?' Ron wanted to know.

Harry ignored him. 'The twins will have left by then. Nobody else will know about that room.'

'These two will,' Ginny said, indicating Ron and Hermione with a nod towards them. 'Ron will be sixteen by then, and they'll be able to stop pretending.'

'What?' asked Ron. Hermione managed to turn her smile into a yawn.

Ginny grinned at Ron. 'It's all this trying to get the gossipers to talk about you two. Kissing and so on, vanishing off somewhere in the evenings so that people will think you're up to something. If you keep pretending like that, nobody will even notice when you start doing it for real!'

Ron did a remarkable impression of someone who wanted to talk but had been hit by Aphasic. He didn't manage a single coherent word.

Ginny shook her head, and said, 'Oh, I know you're not. You aren't sixteen either, and I know Hermione wouldn't go breaking the law like that.' Hermione couldn't help blushing. 'Oh, don't blush just because people say nice things about you.'

'Talking of Ron being fifteen,' said Harry, desperately trying to change the subject before he started laughing at Ron and Hermione's expressions, 'why are you fifteen today?'

'Because it's my birthday. It's a very complicated thing involving being born and the calendar,' Ginny replied.

'No, I don't mean that. But it's, what, a month and a half before Ron's sixteenth birthday? Ten and a half months younger than him doesn't seem very long. I thought kids were born further apart than that,' Harry said.

'It's a personal thing,' said Ron quickly.

'I don't mind telling Harry. I already told Hermione last summer, anyway. I was born nearly three months premature. I ought to be about thirteen months younger than Ron, but something was wrong. So I was born early, and I hadn't finished growing. And yes, that is why I've always been small for my age. The mediwizards fixed the other things that are wrong with premature babies, and I'm healthy now, but I'll always be small.'

'We've tended to be a bit protective about her because of that,' said Ron. 'Hermione's right -- with four older brothers at Hogwarts back then, at least one of us ought to have realised why she was acting oddly at the time, instead of after we found out what had happened.' He noticed the look on Ginny's face, and hurriedly added, 'I mean, Harry and Hermione and I found out -- I haven't told Percy or the twins.'

'You worried me there!' said Ginny. 'But I suppose I didn't really think you would.'

'Well, I'm going to be a strict, no rule-breaking Prefect and tell you all it's time to go to bed,' said Hermione with a grin. 'Except Harry, because I can't order him.'

'I'll agree with her anyway,' said Harry, checking his watch. The four of them gathered up their bags, cats and sweet bags and went up to bed.