Harry still beamed when he remembered that moment a week ago when he caught the snitch. People were still patting him on the back for it and Malfoy was still trying to hex him at every opportunity. When news got around what had actually happened to Ginny, Harry was raging. He went looking for Malfoy and actually tried to kill him. If it wasn’t for Ron's brute strength and Hermione's tears, Malfoy would probably be dead and buried by now.
On the morning of the quidditch game, Malfoy had arranged a meeting for the Slytherin team. He had told them his entire plan. When Gryffindor scored their first goal and the game was into play again, everyone was to aim at Ginny and send the ‘Stupefy’ spell at her. He was planning that no one would notice until Dumbledore saved her, as he did to Harry in his third year. But Dumbledore didn’t notice until well after Harry and Harry had already saved Ginny when Dumbledore tried to. You’re probably wondering why the spells affected Ginny if she was wearing her locket. Well, the fact that there were seven spells hitting her might have affected her a little, but it wouldn’t have knocked her off her broom. The thing that happened was that someone had a bit of a bad shot and hit her broom, which was ‘knocked out’ and the flying charm was ruined. Her broom fell and so did she.
‘I'll kill him!’ Harry shouted and Malfoy stood, apparently confidently, behind Crabbe and Goyle.
‘He’s not worth it, mate. He’s just vermin. Look at him standing there, the coward!” Ron had told him but Harry lunged at Malfoy. Ron grabbed him in the nick of time and pulled him back. With help from Dean and Seamus, Ron managed to keep Harry back. Amidst tears, Hermione tried to tell Harry that he was head boy and just simply couldn’t do that sort of thing.
‘He tried to kill Ginny!’ Harry screamed. ‘I just can't let him off with that!’ but he relaxed his muscles and marched off to his dorm, probably to wonder which way would be best to kill Malfoy.
Harry didn’t leave his room that day, and no one bothered him. Partly because they didn’t want him to know about the REAL reason behind Malfoy’s weird and demented plan. But he would have to find out sooner or later.
He found out sooner. It was at breakfast the next morning when Harry had told his friends that he was going to leave Malfoy alone. Torture him in another way. But even the reformed ‘calm’ Harry couldn’t help but notice that an abnormally large amount of people staring at him that morning.
‘Right guys,’ he said, putting his knife and fork down, ‘What's going on?’
‘Oh, nothing.’ Hermione tried.
‘Hermione, stop lying and tell me what is going on or I'll go over there and ask Malfoy myself.’
‘How do you know that it’s something to do with him?’ Ron said.
‘I guessed.’
‘Oh,’ Hermione said. ‘Well Harry, don't get mad but Malfoy DID have a bit of a plan. See, once Ginny had got close enough to the ground, he was going to speed down to her, rather like you did, and save her life. He waited until you had gone up pretty far then he made his move.’
‘WHAT?’
‘I'm sorry Harry but its true. Malfoy still likes Ginny.’ Hermione sighed.
Harry stood up. He was too pissed off to eat.
‘Harry, where are you going?’ Ginny asked.
‘For a walk.’ He grunted. ‘I won't be long.’
Ginny tried to stand up to go with him but Hermione pushed her back down. ‘Look, Gin. When Harry does that it means he wants to be alone. Ron and I have learnt to deal with it. You should too. I expect he’ll be doing it a lot this year, what with Voldemort after him and Malfoy making his life hell. I think he will need a little time to think, and I think we should be polite to give it to him.’
Ginny leant in close to Ron and whispered, ‘I didn’t need a speech. She could’ve just told me to leave him alone right now!’
Ron grunted and turned back to his bacon.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Harry circled the lake for the third time in the past hour. He hadn’t meant to be short with his friends but Malfoy was really getting to him. And then there was the added pressure on him to be powerful and of course, to eventually defeat Voldemort. It was a lot to take in for a seventeen year old orphan who had lived nine years of his life completely in the dark about magic and about his parents. His evil uncle and his not-so-evil aunt treated him like shit and he was bullied by his overlarge cousin.
But all in all, he turned out to be pretty normal and he arrived at Hogwarts, innocent and ready to learn. But since that moment he walked through the large wooden doors, his life changed drastically. He was no longer the equivalent of a piece of dirt that his ‘family’ could not rub off, but he was a celebrity. Everywhere he went people pointed and shook his hand. It was all so strange.
Then, in his second year, he discovered that he could speak Parseltongue and that most of the school suspected him as the heir of Slytherin. But he proved them wrong and he defeated Voldemort for the third time in his short life.
In third year, he found his godfather, a convicted (yet innocent) murderer and met his fathers other two best friends, Remus Lupin (a teaching werewolf) and Peter Pettigrew (a supposedly dead rat and a traitor).
Then in his fourth year, he was unwillingly entered into a deathly competition and witnessed the ‘rebirth’ of Lord Voldemort. Then he watched as the man who killed his parents, kill his school mate, Cedric Diggory. Then, he found out that the DADA teacher was really an impostor who was Voldemort’s most faithful servant.
In his OWL year, Harry struggled to come to terms with the fact that he shared a bond with Voldemort, but the band had saved lives, and lost them.
Harry witnessed the injury of Arthur Weasley and had it not been for him, Mr Weasley would be dead. But Voldemort also fooled Harry into thinking that he had Sirius and Harry rushed to his rescue. Voldemort then sent his death eaters to kill Harry and five other classmates. They all survived long enough for Sirius to arrive with backup. Then Harry watched with Remus Lupin as Sirius’ cousin, Bellatrix killed him. That was Harry's most painful memory.
Then, last year, Voldemort placed an attack on Hogwarts, killing a large percentage of the students, but Harry was able to fight him off as Dumbledore and the teachers fought the death eaters. Voldemort taunted Harry, showed him images of his parents death and their mangled bodies. Yet Harry defeated him by showing him the image of the baby boy who stripped him of his powers. Voldemort fled when he saw all his death eaters had been captured with Minerva McGonagall guarding them. Harry escaped once more.
That was Harry's life story. Escaping from the clutches of evil Lord Voldemort no less than six times! It sounded like a fairy tale, but it was very much real.
Harry also knew that the final battle between good and evil would come soon enough; it would probably be before he left school, Dumbledore had told him.
But now Harry was sitting in The Hideaway, walking around it, looking at all the etched messages in the trees, written to him from his dad and godfather. Harry missed Sirius so much it was unbelievable, but he was grateful for Remus and Tonks, who were excellent. Harry prayed everyday that Sirius was not dead, every night before falling asleep he would lie awake and pray that behind that veil, Sirius had not met his death, but was merely biding his time, waiting for the ministry to realise that he was there…OR SOMETHING!
Harry began to cry. It was at times like these he really needed to talk to someone. Someone close to him, but also someone older. He thought of Dumbledore, but he didn’t want to annoy the headmaster just because he was feeling low. Then he had a brainwave.
‘Why didn’t I think before…?’
Harry ran up the grand staircase and right up to the seventh floor. He ran up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. It was good to see her after a little while.
‘Well, Mr Potter. I hear you are head boy, I don't think I got the chance to congratulate you. Well, congratulations.’
‘Thanks, it feels good to be up here again. It gets really quiet up in my dormitory.’
‘I bet it does. Am I to believe that it is Miss Granger sharing with you?’
‘Yes. And Ron and Ginny. There’s a new tradition now that the head boy and girl get a personal prefect. Sort of like a secretary, but don't tell Ron or Ginny I called them secretaries. They are officially called the deputy head boy and girl.’
‘I don't think I understand but if it was an idea of Professor Dumbledore’s then I'm not about to doubt it!’
‘It is quite a good idea. It sorts of halves the work Hermione and I would have had to do, and it makes it a lot more fun up in our tower.’
‘I bet it does. I seem to remember that young Ginny had a bit of a thing for you? Has it developed?’ the fat lady grinned. She obviously knew that it had.
‘Well, er…yeah.’
‘Wonderful! And tell Mr Weasley and Miss Granger that I wish them well also.’
‘I will, and thanks.’
‘Nothing to an old friend, eh? Now, why are you up here today?’
‘Oh, I'm just coming up to see someone, presuming it alright with you.’
‘Of course it is. I will always be happy to see you here, Harry. Password please.’
‘I think its flutterby?’
‘Correct!’
‘Thanks, I hope I'll be seeing you soon.’
‘Me too, Harry. Me too.’
Harry stepped through the familiar portrait and made his way into the common room. When he entered a sea of little faces turned and grinned at him, they were all probably still happy about the Gryffindor win over Slytherin.
The common room was a lot less crowded than Harry remembered it. Thanks to Lord Voldemort. There were only a few students occupying the seats Harry Ron and Hermione used to sit in beside the fire. Harry stared into the fire, remembering the time in his fifth year; Sirius had come to visit him, just to see how he was.
Harry walked around talking to most people and shaking everyone’s hands, but he couldn’t find who he was looking for. He walked over to Seamus and whispered something into his ear.
‘Oh yeah, she’s probably up in her dorm. She's a real hard worker, that one. We hardly ever see her down here.’
Thanks Seamus, but how can I get up to the dorm?’
‘Harry? Don’t you know that the head boy can go up there?’
‘I can? Why wasn’t I told about it?’
‘I guess Dumbledore thought you knew. Almost everyone knows. Remember the time I wanted Percy to go up to Lavender’s dorm to tell her that I didn’t want to go out with her, I didn’t want to do it in public.’
‘Oh yeah. But he wouldn’t, remember?’ Harry chuckled. But inside he felt angry at Percy, who had still not reconciled with his family.
‘Yeah. How could I forget? Half an hour later she came down and dumped me…IN PUBLIC!’
Harry laughed. He missed those moments when you shared one common room with everyone. They all felt like a big family, sure there had been little arguments but what family doesn’t?
He thanked Seamus and started off up the girls’ stairs. He cast his mind back a few times to the time when he and Ron tried to get up to Hermione. When they turned the corner, the staircase turned into a large slide and they fell all the way to the bottom. As Harry turned the dreaded corner, he went carefully, just in case Seamus had been taking the piss. But he got safely past and met the first door. On the boys’ side, this was for the first years, but it might be different over here. He knocked on it. A few girls giggled and he heard a little set of feet make their way to the door. She opened it and screamed.
‘It’s a boy!’ she cried as one of her friends rushed over.
‘That’s not just any boy, Louise. That’s Harry Potter. And he’s head boy so I guess he can do this.’ This girl seemed very calm. Harry was impressed.
‘Yeah I am’ he said and he leaned in and asked the calm girl a question.
‘Oh yeah, she’s on the top floor, obviously! How come you’re so stupid, yet your head boy?’
Harry was taken aback. He didn’t have a clue that first years were so cheeky. ‘Thanks…bye.’ He proceeded up the stairs. He kept walking up the spiral steps until he got to the very last door. He knocked it. Lavender opened it.
‘Ohh, look Parvati, it’s a boy!’ she joked. ‘Hi Harry, how are you?’
‘I'm good thanks Lavender. Is it alright if I come in?’
‘Just hold one sec, please.’ she shut the door and Harry pressed his ear up against it. He heard a hurried whisper and a few more girls scuttled around the room. Then the noises calmed down and Lavender opened the door again. ‘Sorry Harry, we were just tidying up a little.’
‘No need to tidy up on my account. Anyway, don't the house elves do that?’
‘They’re supposed to but we’ve asked them not to. All through school it has just been us two and Hermione and well, we didn’t really want house elves moving our stuff around.’ Lavender said. Parvati hadn’t spoken yet.
‘So where is she?’ Harry asked.
‘She’s in the shower right now but you’re welcome to wait. I've told her you’re here.’ Lavender said.
‘You went into the bathroom while she was in the shower? Eugh!’
Lavender sighed. ‘You’re so immature, Harry. All girls are the same!’
Parvati looked away and muttered something about needing the toilet and she scurried away.
‘What's up with her?’ Harry asked.
‘Can't tell you. Best friend stuff. Always keep secrets is rule number two.’
‘What's rule number one?’
‘Never bitch.’
‘But you’ve bitched about Parvati before, and she’s bitched about you!’
‘Yeah, but we’ve made up since then. We’re only humans. We make mistakes. And besides, what she doesn’t know won't hurt her.’
‘You know, Lavender. Most people call you two “the plastics”.’
‘Really? What does that mean?’
‘Have you ever had a Barbie doll?’
‘No, but Parvati has. She said that she used to play with them when she was little.’
‘Yeah, well. Barbies are little plastic dolls and they look perfect, in every way.’
‘Thanks!’
‘It’s not really a compliment. But it’s not bad either. Every school has plastics. They’ve got a reputation for…not being really…well...intelligent. But I think that you and Parvati are the most intelligent plastics I have ever met!’ Harry said, hoping that it would even the score a bit.
‘You are so sweet, Harry! Being called perfect and intelligent all in one day is quite an achievement.’
Lavender was a typical plastic. She didn’t have much common sense and she was quite ditzy.
At that moment, the person Harry had been looking for came through the door. Lavender looked up and said that she would leave them alone and take Parvati with her.
‘Bye, Lavender. Thanks!’
Harry turned around and looked into the newly-young face of his only living relative, his mother’s sister, Petunia.
‘Well, Harry what's on your mind?’ she said, sensing that Harry was deep in thought.
‘Oh nothing much.’ he said. ‘I just fancied a chat with my favourite aunt.’ He grinned.
‘Your ONLY aunt!’ she chuckled. Harry was happy to see that he was happy.
‘So, Miss Evans, how had your last few months as a seventeen year old been?’
‘Well, I'm not quite seventeen yet. I'm only fifteen. I'm doing my OWLs at Christmas and then by February I should in your class.’
‘That’s great Petunia. I haven’t talked to you properly since we came here. I've been so busy with head boy stuff and quidditch stuff and bloody Malfoy, I'm sorry.’
‘No need. I've been busy too. Mostly with school work but that Lavender and Parvati are quite two characters. Parvati fancies you, you know.’
‘How do you know?’ Harry said, utterly embarrassed that his aunt knows that someone fancied him!
‘We had a game of truth or dare in here a few weeks ago. Just us three. It was quite fun. I suddenly felt like I was seventeen again.’
Harry laughed. ‘Yeah, you’re in danger of becoming a plastic.’
‘A what?’ Petunia said, perplexed.
‘A plastic. It’s a girl like Lavender and Parvati. Just a little too giggly and very, very girly.’
‘I was always a girly girl. Lily was a tomboy, I used to try and give her my dresses that had gotten to small but sometimes she just laughed and told me that there was no need for a skirt. She was a truly amazing girl, Harry. You should be proud.’
‘I am.’
‘Good, good. So Harry, I know you came up here for a reason. What is it?’ she said, placing her motherly gaze on Harry’s scar.
‘Oh, I was just in my little place there now and I suddenly got really upset. I was thinking about Sirius and…well…I really, really miss him. He was the only decent father figure I ever had and I practically killed him.’ Harry sniffed.
‘Harry, I've been warned about this and under no circumstances are you allowed to blame yourself, and nor are you allowed to feel sorry for yourself. You have an amazing sea of friends and people who care about you. Just look at Remus and Tonks. Two truly astonishing people!’
‘Yeah, I know I am so much better off than so many people in the world, but I don't know. I just can't help it. Sometimes I feel trapped and there's no way out. I'm stuck in this circle of responsibility. I have to protect myself against Voldemort, protect the rest of the world from Voldemort, head boy responsibilities, you know, just everything is piling on top and I can't sort it out.’
‘Harry, just think it through. First of all, you can't do anything about Voldemort until you are fully into your powers, and if I understand correctly, you are going to wait until Voldemort attacks you, which will almost certainly not be in school again, so get that out of your head for the time being.’
Harry smiled weakly.
‘And about head boy duties. All you have to do is organise Hogsmeade trips and oversee the Christmas decorations. Lily told me, it was nothing. I think you are just letting things get to you. And about that Draco Malfoy character, I saw his dreadful behaviour at the quidditch match and we all know that whenever it come down to it, you are much stronger and powerful than he is and nothing can change that.’
‘Yeah, I know that I'm all that, but it’s just that malfoyfanciesginny.’ He said quickly.
‘Sorry Harry, I didn’t quite catch that last bit.’ Petunia said.
‘Malfoy fancies Ginny.’ Harry mumbled.
Petunia gave off a loud cackle. Harry made a rather embarrassed face. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I'm sorry but really Harry, do you honestly think that Draco-bloody-Malfoy had a chance?’
‘Well, I didn’t think so, but Ginny made this bet with him which kinda made me doubt it.’
Petunia chuckled again. ‘Look Harry there is a simple explanation for this. Ginny Weasley, she is the youngest child, only daughter and very much loved little sister, yes? Okay, so all her brothers think you’re fine to go out with her, just as long as you treat her good. If they ever found out that Ginny was even considering Draco Malfoy, they’d be around here like a shot to kill him, but that’s only the good side to Ginny choosing him. But that won't happen, you know why?’
Harry shook his head.
‘Right, Ginny has fancied you ever since your first year, when she saw you off at the train. Okay, she might have given up hope for the past few years but she was still madly in love with you.
Do you know why none of her other boyfriends lasted?’
Harry shook his head again.
‘Because she kept making comparisons. She would compare them to you and none of them ever reached the standard she holds you in. And Ginny being Ginny couldn’t find it in her heart to string them along so she finished with them. So why would Ginny Weasley dump the soon-to-be most powerful wizard in the world for an almost-there death eater?’
Harry grinned, ‘She wouldn’t.’
‘Exactly. Even the most powerful of men need their explanations simplified.’
Harry chuckled and told Petunia that he needed to go and see Ginny.
Petunia scribbled something down on a scrap of paper and handed it to her nephew. ‘Harry,’ she said. ‘If you ever feel like this again, just look at that piece of paper. It will explain everything.’
Harry stood up and hugged his aunt. ‘Thanks, for everything.’
When he got outside the door, he looked at the paper. ‘You are Harry Potter.’