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SIYE Time:6:24 on 29th March 2024
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Friends, At Least?
By werekitten

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Category: Pre-OotP, When Ginny Met Harry Challenge (2007-1)
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape
Genres: Fluff, General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 138
Summary: ** Honorable Mention (tie) in the When Ginny Met Harry Challenge **
Ginny Weasley is disappointed by her first view of Harry Potter, but quickly realizes that she is more than ready to forgive. She starts a pen-pal correspondence in hopes of becoming friends with Harry, and then perhaps more...
Hitcount: Story Total: 59725; Chapter Total: 6242





Author's Notes:
Here's the next chapter, and I actually have people to thank for this one!
Thanks to Spencer, my wonderful new beta, who managed to review all 8 chapters in such a short period of time, and to Erik, for unofficially pre-beta-ing my first chapters.
Thanks also to everyone who had reviewed in the past, I'll try to be better about responding. And finally, thanks to whoever nominated me for the DSTA, although I'm not sure how my story is a romance. :D. That makes me feel so good.
All the other chapters are edited, so feel free to re-read them! :D Also, if you didn't already see, I forgot pretty much the most important part of the last chapter the first time that I posted it, so you may want to read that.




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Ginny swooned with pleasure when Hedwig brought Harry’s reply to her first letter. She may not have really swooned, but she told herself that she did; it sounded poetic and, honestly, a bit romantic.

Ginny eagerly sprinted up to her room when she received the letter, having realized that there was no way that Hermes had already reached Hogwarts bearing her second note.

It was two days after Christmas, but the Weasleys had already returned to Ottery St. Catchpole. Ginny flopped down on her bed to read, glad that it was her own bed and not Bill’s transfigured sofa.

Her excitement grew as she read the first few lines. Harry Potter cared enough to answer her question, her inexcusably rude question! She held in her hand the key to Harry’s past, to the shadow behind his eyes, to his lonely look as he had boarded the train with no one to kiss him goodbye.

Ginny continued to read the letter fervently, but her enthusiasm slowed as she got farther into the letter, deeper into the horrors of Harry’s past. Who could do that to a little boy? To beat a defenseless child for doing chores incorrectly? Ginny had thought she had it bad when her mother lectured her or scowled at a job done wrong, but at least Ginny came out of those encounters whole!

Ginny was filled with a new determination to save Harry. Maybe she was being extreme, but she didn’t care! Those Muggles needed to be taught a lesson.

Ginny smiled a cruel, calculating smile that did not fit a girl of her years. The Dursleys must get what they deserved, and she knew just whom to ask.

---


Three days after Christmas, as the morning post came in at breakfast, Percy scanned the nearly empty Gryffindor table for troublemakers. His eye caught something very different. His owl, Hermes, was perched on Harry Potter’s goblet. Percy frowned, wondering why Hermes could be near Potter. Then he saw that Harry was untying a scroll from Hermes’ leg.

Freed of his burden, Hermes left Harry and flapped over to Percy. The owl hooted impatiently for attention, and Percy got an irritated peck in the arm when he continued to stare at Harry.

“Sorry, Hermes,” he said quickly as the owl prepared to peck again. He offered the bird some toast while he wondered why Hermes had a letter for Harry.

---


Harry couldn’t believe it. He had told his secret, his past, to a little girl all for nothing! He had to admit that he hadn’t minded telling when he’d thought that he needed to make up for lying to Ginny. Even if it wasn’t a lie, it was still a half-truth, which was just as bad, he told himself firmly.

But now, Ginny was apologizing to him and saying that he could keep his secret! That changed the situation completely. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ginny, but he’d only told her of the Dursleys for a stupid, noble reason: never tell a lie.

Harry sighed. Ginny could be so – he searched for the right word – infuriating. Yes, that was it, infuriating. A little girl who could apparently see right through him, who asked just the right questions to get under his skin.

But at the same time, Harry had to admit that this whole pen-pal idea wasn’t as bad as he had feared. Although the Dursleys were a tender topic with Harry, some of Ginny’s notes were funny. He would have to ask Fred and George about the Canary Cream Puffs. And Ginny liked to fly! Hadn’t she also said that she could cast the Bat-Bogey Hex wandless? That was no small feat! Ginny was amazing, and Harry realized that she was becoming his friend.

As soon as he recognized the friendship, Harry pushed it aside. Why would Ginny Weasley want to become friends with him? After all, she’d probably only owled Harry because she was bored, or because he was famous.

But Ginny had also proved to be smart, imparting to him valuable information regarding Nicolas Flamel. Harry was stunned that she had seen the answer first, even though it had been staring him in the face. Merlin’s beard, he slept with Dumbledore’s card next to his bed! All those nights when he had stayed up late wondering about Flamel and what Fluffy was guarding, why hadn’t he realized that he had the solution right next to him?

Harry sighed. He should go tell Ron and Hermione about Flamel, not ponder a girl whom he barely knew and who lived so far away.

Grabbing Dumbledore’s Chocolate Frog card, Harry headed down to the common room where Ron and Hermione were finishing up the last of their holiday homework. The other students wouldn’t be returning for four days, but the threesome had decided to finish their homework early so that they could enjoy the final days of the winter holiday.

“Hey, guess what?” Harry said, pretending that he couldn’t care less about Ginny.

They looked up. “What?” Ron asked.

Hermione looked at him. “Are you going to tell us why you’ve been so quiet since you opened Ginny’s latest letter?”

Harry looked at her in surprise, then sighed. He kept forgetting that Hermione was clever and insightful.

“Well, it’s just that I told her about the Dursleys, but this letter says that I needn’t have!” Several days ago, Harry had decided that if he could tell Ron’s little sister about the Dursleys, then he could tell Ron himself. “Ginny thinks it was really rude of her to ask in the first place.” Which it was, Harry thought to himself, then immediately regretted it. Harry hadn’t liked Ginny’s last letter, but he supposed that he had set himself up for it.

“But there’s more,” Harry continued. “She knows about Flamel!”

Hermione stood straight up, not caring that a pile of previously well-organized notes fell from her lap into a clumsy heap. “Ooh, Harry! That’s wonderful! How did she learn?” Hermione was less upset by the mystery of Flamel’s identity that she was by her inability to locate Flamel in the school library.

For an answer, Harry held up the Chocolate Frog card. Ron’s eyes widened. “Blimey, Harry! I’d never have thought to look there, but she’s right!”

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. “Would someone please explain what’s going on here?” Because of her dentist heritage, Hermione rarely ate Chocolate Frogs.

Harry read the card aloud. “Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.”

Hermione gasped and ran up the stairs to her dormitory.

Ron and Harry exchanged confused glances, but before they could say anything, she was back, carrying a large book.

Ron whistled when he saw it. “Hermione! What could possess you to read that?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “I checked it out ages ago for a bit of light reading. No, don’t say anything!” she added, seeing Ron’s incredulous look. “It has more information on Flamel!” She hurriedly started flipping through the pages.

“Here we are!” she said when she had apparently found the right one. She skimmed the page. “Yes, I thought so! He’s the only known maker of the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Ron and Harry were confused again, so Hermione explained all of the stone’s special properties. When she was through, the trio decided that Snape was definitely after the stone, and that they would do anything to stop him.

---


Ginny had gotten into the habit of using other people’s owls. Errol was so unreliable that he had not returned from Hogwarts, even though Hedwig had come bearing Harry’s letter. So when she began to plot and realized that she needed an owl, she chose Hedwig because the owl was not only dependable, but gorgeous as well.

The Dursleys had harmed Harry, and Ginny had no intention of letting them get off free. But she didn’t even have a wand yet, so Ginny knew that she needed some help. An idea was forming in her mind. It would be the most daring thing she had ever attempted, if she managed to pull it off. And that was a pretty big “if.”

Ginny got out a fresh scroll of parchment, a quill, and some ink.

Dear Fred and George, . . .
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