Harry Potter and the Circle's End by madscientist


A/N: Ok, the fallout starts. Many, many thanks to Lady Starlight for her gracious help on this, now back at it.

Chapter 21: A Darkness of the Mind.
**********************Hogwarts*************************

October 18, 1997.
2:00 am

Ginny sat up in her bed in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing and looked around. Besides her, only a bandaged third year who had run afoul of a Snapping Stinkweed in Professor Sprout's class and a quietly moaning Andrew Peters whom had gotten in a unsanctioned duel in the hall and had a third foot conjured and shoved, somewhere, were present.

She looked around the room one more time and rolled to her feet, wincing as she stood and holding her ribs. You silly girl you let a Mudblood defeat you...SHUT UP...Harry was yours...SHUT UP, What did I do, why did you have to come back, I was so happy...because you are greater than them...SHUT UP. Ginny looked around, wide-eyed as she fought down a dark voice that had only gained strength in the last week, and in the last year. She slipped out of the Hospital Wing, almost as quietly as one of the ghosts would have managed and crept down the halls. She held to the shadows, pausing behind a tall suit of rusty armor on the fourth floor landing as she heard Filch and Mrs. Norris shambling along. Filch was complaining about the new Head of Gryffindor House, not have the proper respect for his job and Mrs. Norris was merowing at appropriate intervals.

After they passed, Ginny sprinted on cat feet up the stairs until she was in front of the Fat Lady. Ginny stopped to catch her breath and to hold a stitch in her side before muttering the password and slipping into the Gryffindor Common Room behind the sleepy portrait. Thankfully there was no one here at this hour of the morning as Harry and Hermione had their own common room and the rest of the house tended to actually sleep. Ginny slipped up the Girls stairs and cast a muttered spell on the door to her dorm to muffle any squeaks.

She snuck into her own room, feeling full well the incredibility of the actions. Ginny froze as Honor rolled over onto her back muttering something about some boy she was dating. Ginny shook her head as she saw that Gretchen's bed was unslept in and she quickly went to her trunk and opened it. Ginny removed a piece of parchment, and by the light of the full, silver moon shining in the window she wrote a note. She folded the note and tucked it under the edge of her pillow, before returning to her trunk. Jeans, jumpers, all of the Galleons she had saved for a rainy day, several changes of underwear and other sundries disappeared into her pack. With a slight frown she placed one of the Twin's DA issue equipment packs on top of the rest of the gear and synched it closed.

Ginny gave the room a long look before she turned her back on it and left, a pair of silver tracks escaping down her cheeks.

*******************Great Hall**********************************

7:20 am.

Hermione looked up a Harry and gave him a tired smile as he passed her the butter. She put it on her toast and sat back, absently turning the pages of Offensive Offence and making notes on a separate roll of parchment. She was about thirty pages in and had two pages of notes, about normal. As she was about to eat, a tawny owl dropped her copy of the Daily Prophet on her book and glared at her until she dropped a couple of coins in its pouch. It took flight, nearly knocking over her coffee with a errant wing. Hermione set the paper aside and returned to her book, muttering. She took a bite of her toast and looked up, annoyed, as she heard several fifth year girls looking towards her and Harry and giggling.

Just in case her or Harry had accidentally started holding hands or sitting on each other's lap or something, such things had almost happened, more than once, Hermione looked around her immediate area. Even though the duel with Ginny had happened they were supposed to ease into their public appearances... She looked at Harry, his eyes were almost closed as he slowly fed himself, and Hedwig snuck an entire piece of bacon from his plate before leaving after delivering Harry some fan mail, which the owl had just dumped into a large heap in front of her master.

He winced slightly as he moved his arm, stretching for a platter of eggs and flicked his fingers so it came closer. Hermione gave him a worried look as she felt the distant echo of his shoulder strain from his morning, but he waved her off. She glared at a new set of fourth year Ravenclaws giggling at them and went back to her book as Ron and Luna meandered in, only up this early on a Saturday as he had had training with them earlier, and was supposed to have Quidditch practice later. Ron promptly overfilled a plate with eggs, bacon, sausage, and some fried potatoes and started in on first breakfast. "Is that the Prophet?" Ron asked after a couple of minutes highlighted by loud munching sounds from Ron and Luna examining her food for Kneazle prints, or at least that was what Hermione took the sounds from his full mouth to mean. She passed him the paper without a word, too tired to fight. Luna usually eventually got onto him about it, anyway.