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Elemental Force	By : aikakone Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 3427 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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CHAPTER 2:

Caught in the Act
When you come to cover me with your kisses

Fresh like a daisy chained up in a lion´s den

The sooner, the better now!

~Neil Finn

In the following week, Harry had been summoned to McGonagall´s office, and he wasn't completely sure of the purpose. He had not been made head boy, no matter how popular and skilled he actually was. It still goaded him that in fifth year Ron was made prefect, not that he didn't want Ron to have that, but there was no possible way to share such an honor without being from separate houses. Knowing that and also knowing that he had been up to no mischief, Harry was apprehensive when he walked in to his Head of House's office.
Harry stood in her office and studied the various objects on display as he was waiting for her to appear.
"Sit down, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said brusquely upon entering.
He jumped at the sudden sound of her voice. "Oh, excuse me!" he stammered.
She looked at him critically and declared, "Some would say you have a guilty conscience."
"I'm sorry. It's just that..." He hated to admit it, but most of the time he had reason to feel guilty. He continued to assert that it was not that he was busy finding trouble, but that trouble had the nasty habit of finding him.
"Harry, if you are going to become an Auror, you have to be much more aware of your surroundings. You can't let anyone sneak up on you unawares," McGonagall admonished.
"Is that why I am here?" he asked nervously. His palms were even sweating. This must be what it felt like to be Ron.
"Yes. After the debacle with that Umbridge woman, I promised to make you an Auror even if I had to train you myself, and I meant what I said," she said with a look of steel in her eyes. "You did well last year, all things considered."
Professor McGonagall moved to her desk to take out several papers. After looking at one in particular, she said, "You still need to work on your Potions marks."
The older witch held up her hand to still him before he could even begin to protest. "You will have to be very good at everything you do if you are to succeed, including that one."
"But I am good at Potions! If we had a different professor who was actually fair, I could prove it to you!" Harry huffed indignantly.
"Life is decidedly not fair, Mr. Potter. If it were fair, you wouldn't have Voldemort as your worst enemy, and we would not be in the middle of another war." She folded her hands together in a way that made Harry think of a praying mantis.
"If Professor Snape is as strict with you as I know him to be," McGonagall continued, "and you do successfully complete your NEWTs, that part of your Auror training will not be difficult for you whatsoever. Though it may seem insurmountable to you now, Professor Snape's exacting training will be a help to you later."
Harry respected Professor McGonagall because she was fair to all the students, even with the ones of her own house. Choosing to follow on that respect, he did not make a comment.
"The rest of your classes do seem to be in order for now, but you will not be allowed to slack in your academic work. As dearly as I love Quidditch, your studies will have to take precedence."
Harry shifted in the chair but again did not speak.
"Are you able to balance your role as captain of the team with your studies?"
"Yes," he finally said in a sulky manner. "I have no other things to occupy my time such as having been a prefect or head boy." He looked at her through the fringe of his hair.
She looked at him for a few seconds but did not reply to that point. Instead, she addressed his personal life. "Miss Weasley may have something different to say in that matter. I do not usually meddle in the affairs," here she smiled at the double-entendre, "of students, but I must ask you if all is well in that matter."
"Yes, quite well!" He was truly surprised by the question and not sure what she really wanted to know.
"Good. And now on to other matters other which are most exciting for the both of us," McGonagall said with a very enigmatic and fittingly cat-like smile. "How fares the prospects for our winning the Quidditch Cup this season?"
Harry visibly relaxed. Here was a comfortable area of discussion. "The team is great! I am working them so hard that the plays are becoming instinctual."
"That's good to know," she said methodically. "And how is it going with the new student press?"
"Actually, I have an interview for the student newspaper with David Tompkins. He and Colin will be doing profiles of all the players in all the house teams."
"Potter!" McGonagall said sharply, making him jump again. "You are not at liberty to discuss any team secrets." She had a twinkle of mischief in her eyes as she spoke.
"As if I would!" he said with the authority of a leader.
"See to it that you don't," she concluded and dismissed him from her office.
~*~*~*~
After the Quidditch practice on the last Saturday of the month, Harry and Ginny were walking back to Gryffindor Tower holding hands and talking about game strategy. Before they entered the castle, Harry stopped to sweep Ginny into his arms like a dancer. She giggled at the graceful move and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a kiss. Harry felt the temperature suddenly rise around him, and he wasn't sure if it was because he was kissing Ginny or if the weather had suddenly changed. One thing was certain–he suddenly felt unbearably hot, and he had to remedy the situation.
Draco Malfoy was at the same time walking from the greenhouse back to the castle with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle and could not miss Potter and Weasley's public display of affection.
"Oh, look," he said cynically, "Weasley's already trying to start the next generation of Mudblood lovers."
As Harry was at that time trying to slip the jumper over his head, it certainly looked to the Slytherins like they were witnessing the beginnings of a Gryffindor mating ritual.
Not one to pass up an opportunity to rattle Harry's cage, Draco went over to them with his trademark sneer firmly in place. "Potter and Weasley at it again, I see. We poor, innocent students can't get through a single day without you two trying to shag each other's brains out in front of us. Give it a rest, will you?"
Harry, who was interrupted at the midpoint of undressing, stopped what he was doing and tried to find his wand. His arms were still tangled in his clothing, but he pointed at Draco's general direction.
Draco gave him a bemused glance. "Not so impressive now, are you, Potter?"
"Go away, Malfoy. I don't have the time to be annoyed by you."
"But you do have the time to be undressing in front of the castle, do you?" Draco's eyebrow raised inquisitively.
"Bugger off!" Harry spat.
Draco mocked, "Oh! I'm hurt."
"Go away, Draco. Leave us bloody well alone!" Ginny fumed.
"We can go where we please because we are taking herbs back to our Head of House. You, on the other hand, are loitering and making offensive public displays. I am surprised the hospital wing isn't completely filled every time you two try to kiss. I know it makes the rest of us sick." Draco smiled sweetly again while Crabbe and Goyle laughed on cue.
"Have you ever actually seen your own girlfriend?" Ginny asked acidly. "If you did, you might be petrified because her face is worse than a basilisk."
"Oh, you want to go there, Weasley?" Draco stepped closer and leered. While still looking at Ginny, he provoked Harry.
"Potter, what does your girlfriend do for you that she hasn't already done for half the boys in the school?" He then looked to Harry with mock curiosity. "Does she spread wide underneath you and moan your name? 'Harry! Oh, Harry!' Maybe I should go ask Michael Corner or that Longbottom fellow. How sad for you, Potter, that you couldn't be her first." Draco made a show of wiping invisible tears.
Ginny gasped as if punched in the solar plexus and paled, making her freckles stand out distinctly on her face. Meanwhile Harry, who had by this time righted his clothing, made to move as if her were going to hit Draco squarely in the nose. "Malfoy, if you don't be quiet, so help me, I'll..."
"What, Potter?" he taunted. "You're all talk and no action. Do something!"
Harry shook from head to toe in frustration, and suddenly the sleeves of Malfoy's robes were on fire. Malfoy was so shocked he stepped backwards into Crabbe and Goyle, making them drop all over the ground the package they had brought from the greenhouse.
"How dare you!" Malfoy was shedding his burning robes as quickly as possible while trying to hold Harry in his wand's aim.
Harry looked dumbstruck at the flames, while Ginny stepped between the boys. "Well you told him to do something, you arse-rag! Now why don't you slither on back to your dungeon like a good little boy?" She looked at him with complete contempt.
"I am not going to stand for this!" he shouted.
"Fine," she looked back to him with an attitude of acceptance. Ginny then shoved him at both shoulders, making him fall completely into the herbs and his smoking robes on the ground.
Draco jumped back up, but before any more insults could be traded, Ginny took Harry's hand. Together they raced back into the castle away from Draco Malfoy.
~*~*~*~
When they made it away from the Slytherins, Harry and Ginny headed toward the Great Hall for some much needed lunch. They departed quickly to avoid other Slytherins, especially Severus Snape.
As they were making their way back to Gryffindor Tower, Harry spoke about the incident with the Draco and his minions. "I am sorry, Ginny. Malfoy's a stupid git, but he shouldn't be insulting you when he wants to get to me."
Ginny nodded with reserve. "I should expect no less, Harry. It doesn't mean his comments don't hurt, but then I try to remind myself just who was saying them. He has a father in Azkaban, and that is really nothing to be proud about."
"That's so mature of you," he chuckled.
She laughed thinly and faced him. "I do have my moments."
Harry sounded somber again. "About what he said... it's not that I don't think about it. I just... I just am willing to... wait." He ended looking meek and unsure.
Harry was a normal seventeen-year-old boy when it came to sex. He found himself more and more wanting to experience what happens beyond kissing and holding hands. What helped restrain him was that with Ginny he was patient enough to wait, and he had a healthy fear of all the Weasleys. Her brothers and parents would flay him alive even if they were currently a couple.
She smiled at him with assurance. "Well at least you're a normal boy, Harry. I would hate to think kissing Cho Chang," Ginny made an unpleasant face as she said her name, "would have ruined you to girls for the rest of your life."
He blushed. "She doesn't kiss as well as you do, but then again she was crying. I can go find her and try again if you like!" His green eyes twinkled in the teasing.
"Harry!" she said as she playfully swatted him, and he couldn't contain his laughter.
"It's not that I don't want to know," Ginny clarified after the laughing ceased. "I'm just not ready yet. Plus, I realized I don't want to have a very large family." She thought about it some more and amended, "At least, I'm not ready to start on the next generation. I'm not even sixteen yet!"
Ginny reached for his hand and smiled softly. As she was staring blankly into space clearly in thinking mode, Harry foolishly asked her what was on her mind.
"Nothing important," she said with a blush. "I was just trying to imagine the names of our children if we did have some. I think two is a good number–a boy and a girl, one for each of us."
Harry blushed uncomfortably at her thought.
Ginny continued her trail of thought and practically bounced with her next idea. "I know! We could name them Harriet and Gene," she squealed with laughter. "Wouldn't that be great?" She had tears in her eyes because she was laughing at the novelty of her own idea.
"Harriet and Gene?" He looked at her incredulously. Harry wasn't sure just how to react to that, but he didn't have to think on it too long.
"Potter! Weasley!" They were stopped by the annoyed voice of Severus Snape. Both turned around with caution to the direction from where they heard the sound.
"Both of you–a week's worth of detention starting Monday! How dare you destroy the potions ingredients we've been working so hard to grow."
"We didn't do it, sir! It was just an accident!" Harry could never hold his tongue silent when being accused of wrong-doing by Professor Snape.
"Mr. Malfoy informed me that you set him on fire. Fire, Potter! Oh, you're so like your ‘perfect' father," the Potions Master added with distaste.
Harry ground his teeth together and furiously repeated his innocence. "I didn't do that."
"Do not correct me, Potter. I will see you both in my office after classes on Monday. Eat well because you are going to be busy a very long time," he said with menace.
When he finally left, Ginny turned to Harry and questioned, "Eat well? Is Snape getting soft? That was almost nice coming from him."
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he took Ginny by the hand, and they went to Gryffindor Tower where they could tell Ron and Hermione of the unfortunate turn of events.
~*~*~*~
Sunday was a day of dampened amusement for Harry and Ginny. While it was normally a day reserved for relaxing before the next week of school work started, the prospect of serving detention for an entire week with Snape had ruined any joy that Ginny might have normally felt on that day. Harry, did not care for the prospect of detention either, but he had become used to serving detentions all his years at Hogwarts and was somewhat more prepared for the prospect.
When Monday did come, the time raced by no matter how much Ginny wanted to make it freeze in place. At the end of the class day, she and Harry trod down to the dungeon that served as the Potions classroom. Professor Snape was nowhere to be found in the classroom, and Ginny had a false hope that he had forgotten the detention until he came into the room from his office with a perturbed look on his face.
"Ah, Potter and Weasley," he said with his normal amount of distaste for anything Gryffindor. "It seems we still don't have the right ingredients for the potion, most certainly thanks to you both."
Harry and Ginny stood still to take the verbal lashing from the Potions Master. It certainly wasn't a new behavior from him.
"It seems that we need to take a trip to the greenhouses to get several different items if Professor Sprout has any ready."
He stared at them with his unreadable black eyes before ordering, "Potter, come with me."
Snape efficiently turned to leave the classroom as both Harry and Ginny prepared to follow him. When the teacher saw her, he stopped her from leaving.
"Not you, Miss Weasley. You stay here and get to work on writing the labels for the bottles. At least your writing is neat and legible, unlike that of young Mr. Potter," he said to her in indirect compliment.
"Why do I have to be the one to stay here?" she asked, feeling both that all the world was unfair and foolish enough to challenge Snape.
"I don't have to explain anything I do to you, Miss Weasley, but just so you know, it's because I don't trust Potter alone in my office. There is no limit to the mischief he can accomplish." Snape glared at Harry as he finished, "I've seen it happen several times before."
Harry bowed his head, hiding his look of dislike for his teacher behind his glasses and underneath the fringe of his hair.
"Come, Potter! I have to see with my own eyes if you can safely bring herbs from the greenhouse or if they will end up crushed into the dirt again."
"Yes, Sir," he answered as docilely as a lamb about to be led to slaughter.
"And you, Miss Weasley, sit and begin writing!" He pointed to his office chair and gestured for her to sit.
She wanted to be defiant, but Harry subtly shook his head to warn her not to consider it. Instead she sat in his office chair, crossed her arms and pouted as they left the room.
~*~*~*~
Ginny sat in Snape's office in front of the fire drumming her fingers on the arm rest of his high-backed chair and fumed about his punishment, the potions ingredients labels discarded at her side. She justified that Snape hadn't actually told her what to write on the labels before he marched out to the greenhouses with Harry. It was the simple fact that she was serving detention that made her irate.
Of course she knew about getting in trouble, especially being that she was the only sister of Messrs. Fred and George Weasley. Had she not helped in some of their best pranks only two years before? It was just that most of her life to this point, Ginny had managed to get through her acts of mischief undetected.
Suddenly, she heard a new voice in the room that hadn't already been there. "Severus? Are you there? Severus!"
Ginny jumped at the sound of the voice and turned to see Remus Lupin's head in the flames of Snape's fireplace.
"Hello, Professor Lupin." She regained her composure and explained, "Harry and Professor Snape are off to the greenhouses for more potions ingredients."
"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to him about," Lupin said softly, more to himself than to Ginny. "So why are you inside his office on this lovely day instead of being outside?"
"Detention!" She rolled her eyes. "Snape says Harry and I wrecked the potions ingredients he needs for the week starting the ninth."
"You did?" Lupin sounded hard with his question.
"No, we didn't. That toad Malfoy was trying to cause trouble like he usually does. His friends," she spat, "are the ones that had the herbs and the ones who dropped them. Idiot Slytherins."
"Ginny!" He was frowning sternly now.
"Yes?" She looked at him abashedly.
"Are there any of those potions ingredients left?"
"I don't know," she said with confusion. "Harry and Professor Snape went to see Professor Sprout to find out if there are more. I am supposed to sit here and wait like a good little girl." She folded her arms and pouted in her chair.
"I see." Lupin looked neither interested in her punishment nor happy about this turn of events. "Do tell Severus to call me when he returns. It is important."
Lupin's head disappeared from the fire, once again leaving Ginny alone in the Potions Master's chambers.
~*~*~*~
When the mismatched pair returned from the greenhouses, Harry was using the Locomotor spell to move the items, and Snape was walking closely behind him with his wand pointed directly at the back of his head. Ginny had gone into the main classroom and had been sorting labels and bottles after Lupin's call so as to give the impression of being busy. She was somewhat surprised to see Harry in such a vulnerable position.
"Come here, Weasley, and help us unpack the plants. Do be careful not to break anything or drop it on the floor," Snape spoke, sounding as if he were counseling an incompetent toddler.
She put her things aside and got up without a word to help unpack the various herbs. She only allowed herself a sidelong glance at Harry that revealed nothing. Both Ginny and Harry put the potions ingredients on the worktables in the specific spaces Professor Snape indicated.
As they were working, the professor did not raise a finger or wand in offer of help to the students. Ginny silently made faces to Harry when Snape could not see her. He knew better than to acknowledge it with a look or smile. Instead, he kept his face passive and unreadable.
"Weasley, put the labels and bottles on the end of the table with the yellow flowers. Potter, you take this knife. Be careful!" Snape admonished as he took the knife out of Harry's reach. "Chop the petals of the yellow flowers as finely and evenly as possible, and don't cut off your fingers. While I might find it vaguely amusing, it will make the ingredients ineffectual. Keep the green stems of the flowers separate from the petals."
The Potions Master then returned his attention to Ginny. "When he's done with the flowers, put them in the bottles, but do not fill it past the mark on the glass," he said indicating the miniscule level marker on the bottle. "The stems of the flower go into the short fat bottles."
The pair nodded their understanding and quietly did as they were told. Meanwhile, as they were working on the task assigned to them, Professor Snape sat to the task of evaluating third year Potions essays. His quill was swishing back and forth across the parchment in a way reminiscent of an attempted evisceration. Occasionally the words "despicable", "awful", "horrid" and other derogatory comments on the level of the students' work were heard.
The silent work became more tiresome and time seemed to go on forever. Ginny was no longer sure how long they had been in the classroom, and she continued in her ill mood, mumbling and grumbling under her breath. After hearing this for several minutes, Harry tried to console her.
"It's not as bad as detention with Umbridge," he pointed out truthfully. Harry unconsciously flexed his hand where the scar still remained as proof that some human evils come from sources other than Dark Lords. For that matter, it was a mild detention even by Snape's own standards. Harry knew that from first hand experience.
Ginny turned her attention back to the work of putting the dried ingredients into the bottles. When the tedium of the work had again gotten to be too much, she asked Snape in a loud voice, "What does all this make, anyway?"
"That yellow flower is one of the key ingredients for Wolfsbane Potion," he answered her with quiet malice.
"Remus!" Ginny gasped as she realized why Lupin had called earlier.
Harry shot her an interested look at the mention of Lupin's name.
"Professor, he called earlier when you and Harry went to the greenhouse." Ginny said in a rush. "He wanted you to call him back. He said it was important."
"And you chose to remember that just now?" He sneered at her and cleaned his hands as he left the room to make a call at the fireplace.
"How can he expect me to remember my own name," Ginny whined irritably to Harry as she watched Snape leave, "when this work is so awfully boring. I tell you, Harry, that this is worse than torture."
Both Harry and Ginny heard the murmurs coming from Snape's office, though they did not understand any words. It sounded as if Snape and Lupin were arguing or angry about something. Filling in the blanks, Ginny was sure it had to do with Wolfsbane Potion.
Professor Snape returned to the classroom a few minutes later and dismissed Harry and Ginny from their work. Harry paused, not sure if he was really allowing them to go or if this was some trick.
"Go, Potter," he spat back, "before I change my mind!"
Ginny pulled at Harry's arm, and they walked backward out of the classroom.
"Do make sure you return tomorrow ready for some serious work," Snape warned them sternly before they were completely out of the room.

~*~*~*~

The Neil Finn quote in this chapter is from "When You Come", performed by Crowded House on the album Temple of Low Men.
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Elemental Force