A/N: This is a 25-chapter novel that I've just completed writing. I wanted to wait until it was done before I posted it anywhere, and now it's ready! I realize that it may seem odd that I'm posting a pre-HBP novel now, but the first half of it was already written before HBP was released. It is a 7th Year fic, but does not take HBP into account.

I'm planning to post a new chapter each week. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Dedicated to Bret, my lovely beta, who asked all the right questions. I couldn't have done it without you.

Prologue

The Gryffindor common room was strewn with wrapping paper and ribbons; a warm fire crackled in the hearth. The handful of students who had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays lounged on comfy chairs or stretched on the floor, chatting and examining their newest possessions.

Fifteen-year-old Ginny Weasley curled up in a chair with Crookshanks, the ugly but cuddly orange cat belonging to her friend, Hermione Granger.

"Where's Harry gone?" asked Hermione, lifting her head from her newly acquired book From Medieval to Modern: A History of the Most Influential Witches in Britain and looking around the room.

"Think he said he was going for a walk," Ginny's brother, Ron, answered from the floor where he was making his way through a box of his mother's fudge and flipping through the latest Martin Miggs comic books he had just received.

"Good," said Hermione, returning to her book, "he looked like he could use some fresh air."

The three of them had chosen to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas this year to keep Harry company. They couldn't bear the thought of him being alone, especially now. It had been a grueling year for him, having suffered horrors that no sixteen-year-old boy should have to endure. The death of his godfather that summer had tossed him through the breaking point, and as he'd started his sixth year, he had withdrawn so far into himself that his friends feared he might never recover. But time has a way of healing wounds, and in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Harry had seemed to respond to the flurry of activity around the castle. Slowly, he began to emerge from the darkness that had shrouded him.

"That sounds like a nice idea, actually," said Ginny, stretching so that Crookshanks leapt off her lap. "I could do with some fresh air too. Looks lovely outside." She climbed the stairs to her room, grabbed her cloak and red knit mittens, and headed for the portrait hole.

Hermione watched as the other girl crossed the room. "Ginny, if you see Harry..." she began in a gentle warning tone.

"I'm not going to find Harry, Hermione, I'm just going for a walk. I won't bother him." Between Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny thought that Harry had quite enough mother hens worrying over him. She didn't need to add to it.

The front doors of the castle opened to a bright, crisp day. Her breath made clouds in the air as she tramped across the frosty lawn, past the Quiddi...

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