Harry Potter and the Legend of the Four Founders

Chapter 2

Ask And You Just Might Receive

Harry dreamt strange dreams that night; he saw Sirius emerging from behind the veil in the department of mysteries, holding the broken pieces of the mirror, which he had given Harry. Sirius made a fist, squeezing the shards, but instead of blood, red feathers dripped from his hand and landed on the floor. In a flash of light, Fawkes the Phoenix appeared at Sirius' feet and then flew to his shoulder. The marvelous bird shed tears on the pieces of glass that Sirius held, and they magically joined back together into the mirror. Sirius then laid the repaired mirror on the floor and stepped backwards, back into the veil, which fluttered violently for a second, only to become still again. Fawkes was now doing something strange, his body seemed to be elongating, morphing into something else. After a few seconds Harry recognized the emerging form of a hippogriff, Buckbeak to be exact. He bent his scaly knees, sank to the floor by the veil, and began to sob. Harry found it a pitiful sight, as the hippogriff cried louder and louder; and with a start Harry woke up.

It was still night and darkness pervaded the room; Harry could hear Ron's light, but even breathing in the next bed, but he could also still hear Buckbeak's sobs. Waking enough to get a grasp on reality, Harry knew it couldn't be Buckbeak who was crying. The sounds of some distraught person were coming through the wall, at the head of Harry's bed. The rest of the house was silent, not even a squeaking floorboard could be heard. With a small start, Harry realized that the next room belonged to Ginny.

Quietly, Harry slipped out of bed and padded to the door, which he opened slowly, trying to dull the squeaking, and slipped out into the hallway. He knocked lightly on Ginny's door, and after a few moments of no answer, he pushed it open slowly. The room was illuminated softly by a nearly burnt out candle, which was sitting on the nightstand next to the bed. Ginny was curled up on the bed, facing away from him, but clearly crying. She looked over at him and quickly turned away,

"Go away."

But Harry was not going to go away, not until he knew Ginny was alright. "What's wrong, Ginny?"

"Nothing, go away!"

Harry took a few more steps into the room, and closed the door lightly behind him.

"Well something is wrong," he stated, "don't worry, I won't tell Ron or anyone else."

"It's stupid, just go away," came the muffled reply.

"Why are you crying, Ginny?"

Ginny propped herself up on her elbows and turned to face Harry. She wiped her eyes on the sleeves of her pajamas and said shakily,

"If you must know, I just got a letter from Dean saying that he doesn't want to go out with me anymore, cause he met someone else already." Harry fought the urge to laugh as say, "Is that all?" Instead he went with a more consoling,

"I'm sorry." He stood there for a few awkward moments and was just about to turn around and go back to bed, when Ginny surprised him with a question.

"How did you react when Cho ditched you?"

"Umm, well, she didn't really officially ditch me," replied Harry, feeling himself go red, "it was more of a mutual thing. Why are you asking, you survived breaking up with Michael Corner last year..." Harry trailed off.

"Yeah, but I was the one doing the ditching then," said Ginny thickly, "it's much different when you become the ditched."

"Well, you have me beat in experience," commented Harry, sitting down at the foot of her bed, "the only thing I know about dating is from Cho, and we know that didn't end all that well."

"What exactly did happen?" she inquired, "if you don't mind me asking, that is?" Harry had dodged a similar question on the train back from school a few weeks ago, but somehow, sitting there in the semi-darkness with Ginny he didn't mind the question.

"Well, she was kind of jealous of Hermione to begin with, I think. And then when her friend told Umbridge about the DA, she got mad at Hermione for putting that spell on the parchment. When I stood up for Hermione, she didn't care for it much, and we went our separate ways after that. Looking back, I guess we really didn't have all that much in common to begin with."

"Well, there will be other girls," said Ginny brightly. Harry knew full well that a couple years ago Ginny would have given anything to be one of those girls, "I mean with you being famous and all."

Harry laughed, "Yeah, that really makes them line up for me."

"You know what I mean, after this whole thing with You-Know-Who is resolved..."

"Voldemort," said Harry automatically correcting Ginny, causing her to wince at the name.

"Honestly, you were brave enough to fight against his Death Eaters, and he was even there at the end, but you won't say his name."

"Old habits are hard to break," replied Ginny, "but I'll try to start saying his, I mean, V-Voldemort's name."

The wick of the candle finally gave out, and the room was plunged into darkness. Ginny started rustling around in a drawer next to the bed for another one, but Harry saved her the trouble by saying,

"Don't worry about it, I should be going back to bed now, and I'm sure you're tired. Besides, I don't mind the darkness, all those years in the cupboard under the stairs, kind of made me used to it."

"Oh, it must have been horrible growing up like that Harry," said Ginny almost apologetically.

"No, it wasn't fun, though I'd rather have grown up like I did, than have grown up like Malfoy; thinking I was the greatest thing to hit the wizarding world since Quidditch."

Ginny giggled, "I can't even begin to imagine you like Malfoy."

"What, you can't see me as a blond?" asked Harry, pretending to be affronted. Ginny laughed even harder, but it turned into a large yawn at the end.

"Well, I really should go back to my room now," added Harry, "now that I know you are all right and everything." He yawned too.

"Thank you Harry," replied Ginny as she stifled another yawn, "you are always making sure I'm all right."

"You can hold you own," returned Harry, slightly flattered, "I mean, you fought as well as any grown wizard, when we were at the Ministry."

"Yeah, but only because you taught me all that stuff in the DA. And when I was in my first year, you saved me from the Chamber of Secrets, and you've saved Ron lots of times. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him. Then, last year you saved Dad's life as well." Harry was glad Ginny couldn't see him blush in the darkness.

"I had lots of help with those things, and a lot more luck." He yawned again. Ginny's bed was made entirely of feather down, and was insanely comfortable. He yawned yet again, and Ginny did the same.

She giggled, "I guess yawns really are contagious."

"Yeah, I wonder why that is?" replied Harry, stifling yet another yawn.

"I don't know," replied Ginny groggily. They continued to make snippets of conversation back and forth, growing more and more tired, until they both fell silent.

Harry wasn't sure what woke him from a very deep sleep, but when he opened his eyes the sun was shining into the room and bird song could be heard outside. Judging from the amount of light, it must have been late morning by then. He heard running feet outside in the hall, and the door was suddenly thrown open, causing Harry to jump.

"Ginny, wake up, I can't find Harry anywhere..." Ron stopped dead.

It was only then that Harry realized he was not in his bed, nor even his room, and there was something warm curled up next to him: Ginny.

"You slept with my sister!" Ron exclaimed, his voice taking on a slightly higher pitch and waking up Ginny. Harry had not even formulated a come back by the time Ginny sat up and replied,

"It's not what it looks like Ron."

"Oh yeah, well to me it looks a lot like my little sister and my best friend in the same bed!"

"Ron, I swear, nothing happened," explained Harry.

"Yeah," added Ginny, "I was upset last night and Harry heard me crying, so he came in to check on me. We started talking, and I guess we just fell asleep. It wasn't planned or anything."

Ron looked from Ginny to Harry, apparently trying to decide whether or not to believe their story. He still looked suspicious when he said,

"So that was all?"

Ginny and Harry nodded their heads in agreement. "Though it would still be nice if you didn't mention this to Mum or Dad," put in Ginny.

"Or well, anyone else for that matter," added Harry, who wasn't sure if he was embarrassed, or amused, by the situation. One thing he knew, though, he didn't want Fred and George to find out, or he would never live it down.

"I won't," promised Ron, "but you can at least get up, or are you going to lounge all day?" Harry and Ginny both hopped out of bed quickly, and Harry made his was back to his room, followed by Ron. Once the door was closed behind them, Harry finally made up his mind that the entire situation was, in fact, hilarious, and started laughing out loud.

"What's so funny?" demanded Ron.

"Just the look on your face when you walked in," replied Harry, "it was priceless."

"Well I'm glad you think so," retorted Ron, who was obviously still not happy about what he had just witnessed, "so, what was Ginny crying about anyway?"

Harry paused half way through pulling on his jeans. "I promised her I wouldn't tell you."

Ron glared back at him.

"Sorry," added Harry, "but a promise is a promise, ask Ginny yourself."

After getting dressed, they went downstairs to the kitchen, for a breakfast of cold bacon and toast. Mrs. Weasley had cooked earlier that morning for Mr. Weasley and Percy, before they went off to work and before she went out to do the day's errands.

"There's a meeting this afternoon," said Ron casually, "so, naturally, Mum is going to find something for us to do on the other side of the house, to keep us from spying."

"I think I'm going to ask Dumbledore if I can join the Order this year," replied Harry absentmindedly.

"Do you really think he will let you?" asked Ron.

Harry shrugged, "It's worth a try. With all that has happened since last year, maybe things will be different."

"Yeah, and then I'll be left all alone," said Ron gloomily, "cause there is no way Mum is going to let me join. She still won't let Fred and George join, and they are out on their own now."

They whittled away the morning and part of the afternoon by playing games of Exploding Snap and thinking about who they thought would be their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the coming year. At a few minutes before three o'clock, they ventured downstairs in hopes of catching Dumbledore arriving so that Harry could ask him about joining the order.

There were already a few people milling around the entranceway, waiting for the meeting to start, but Harry did not recognize most of them.

"Whatcha doing?" asked Ginny, joining them at the top of the stairs.

"Waiting for Dumbledore," Harry answered, "so I can ask him if I can join the Order."

"Ohhh," replied Ginny, sounding more intrigued than the situation warranted.

They did not have too much longer to wait; at almost precisely three o'clock, Dumbledore knocked on the front door and was let in by Mrs. Weasley. Professors McGonagall and Snape followed him.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to walk down the stairs, in what he hoped looked like a mature manner.

"Uh, Professor Dumbledore, may I speak with you for a second?"

Dumbledore looked over at him, and for a split second Harry was afraid he might say no and immediately enter the room, where the meeting was to be held. Instead he smiled and replied,

"Certainly, Harry," and once Harry had finished descending the stairs added, "I'm glad to see that you got here safely."

"Um, thank you," mumbled Harry, "uh, Professor, I, uh, wanted to ask you if there was, umm, any chance if I could, well, join the Order this year?"

Harry held his breath, waiting for an answer, and wishing Dumbledore had a more readable expression.

"Ahhh, I thought that may be what you wanted to talk to me about. Well, I myself can not just let you into the Order, it must be voted on before the entire group, but I will bring up the subject during this meeting." He excused himself and entered the meeting, followed by a few latecomers, including Tonks.

"Well?" asked Ron, as Harry climbed back up the stairs.

"Well," replied Harry, "I didn't get shot down, but it wasn't a resounding yes either. He said he would bring it up during the meeting; so the Order can vote on it. I guess I'll find out in a few hours."

The next few hours, however, crawled by about as fast as an eon. Ron retrieved his chessboard and set it up at the top of the stairs, where they had a clear view of the entrance below. Four games later, Harry having been beaten by both Ron and Ginny, and the meeting still hadn't been adjourned. They were about to give up waiting there and go raid the kitchen for a snack, when the door opened and Order members began filing out, talking quietly with each other. Most left immediately, but others hung around the entranceway, waiting for people who had still not exited. Tonks and Mad-Eye waved before leaving, (well, Mad-Eye nodded briefly;) Lupin exited with Mrs. Weasley and they went into the kitchen. Dumbledore was one of the last to leave the room. Harry got up quickly, and forgetting any dignity, practically ran down the steps. Dumbledore saw him coming and turned to meet him at the bottom of the steps.

Before Harry could even enquire about the vote, Dumbledore told him, "We voted, and nearly everyone voted for you to be inducted..." Harry's heart started racing, "but only if..." Harry should have known there would be a 'but,' there was always a 'but.'

"But only if you complete your Occlumency studies with Professor Snape. Most of the Order feels, and I agree with them, that Voldemort can still get into your head and possibly find out Order secrets if you know them."

Harry wasn't overly thrilled with the deal, but he would do anything to get into the Order, even if it meant more personal lessons with Snape.

"Ok, I'll do it if Professor Snape agrees to as well."

"We've already discussed it; your first lesson will be right after the meeting next week."

Despite more one on one time with Snape, Harry still couldn't help feeling enthusiastic, as he thanked Professor Dumbledore and hurtled back up the stairs, to tell Ron and Ginny.