Several punching bags that looked an awful lot like one of Harry's best friends had the stuffing beaten out of them that day. Harry headed straight to the Room of Requirement after exiting the common room. After Harry reduced his anger to a manageable level, he sought out Ginny. Using the Marauder's map, Harry found that she was in the library, sitting at a table with several other 5th years.
Ginny looked up as Harry walked over to the table and noticed his approach. "Hey Harry, what brings you here?"
"I need to talk to you about your brother," Harry said as calmly as possible, "in private."
Ginny looked into his eyes as he said this and must have seen something there, for her eyes widened momentarily. She closed the book she had been reading and collected her things, stuffing them into her bag. "I'll see you guys later," she said to her friends as she rose and walked out of the library with Harry. The two walked in silence up to Harry's office. Once they were inside, Ginny immediately turned to Harry and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Your brother," Harry started to say heatedly. He paused and took a deep breath before continuing in a slightly calmer voice. "Your brother turned my trunk inside out looking for the Marauder's Map so that he could spy on you and find out who you've been snogging in broom cupboards."
Ginny's eyes bugged out at that. "I haven't been snogging anybody in any broom cupboards. Never have, matter of fact."
"That's beside the point," Harry began, then changed tact. "Weren't you dating Michael Corner most of last year?"
"Yes, but we never did much. I mean we did kiss, of course, but we never really reached the full out snogging, groping stage that would require a broom cupboard," Ginny explained somewhat uncomfortably.
"Oh, er, well that's…" Harry stammered. "Right. Anyway, back on topic. Ron thinks that you've been sneaking around snogging some bloke throughout the castle, and he was determined to catch you in the act. So he went through all of my things looking for the Marauder's Map so that he could catch you with the guy that he thinks you've been snogging."
"That smarmy git," Ginny shrieked. "I swear, he is the most… ugh, he is so frustrating. Just because he's too much of a thick-headed prat to get a girlfriend, he thinks he can just go and dictate my life for me."
"Yeah, I thought you might react like that," Harry told her. "Then get this," he continued, "when I was trying to yell at him for going through my stuff and trying to spy on you, he tells me it's none of my business, that as your brother he has a right to look out for you, and that he didn't expect me to understand."
"He didn't."
"He did," Harry said evenly. "I asked him what he meant by that. His reply was: 'Well you don't exactly have any family, do you?'"
Ginny's reaction exactly mirrored Hermione's. She gasped and raised a hand to cover her opened mouth. "No. Please tell me he didn't say that." The look in Harry's eyes told her quite plainly that he did in fact say that. "Of all the insensitive… what did you say?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't remember exactly. I was so angry at the time, I'm just happy I didn't blow up the common room. I think I thanked him for reminding me of that fact, then told him that I'd give him detention with Filch if he ever went through my things again. And I warned him that he should stay out of your business if he knew what was good for him."
"Damn straight he should," Ginny stated emphatically. "But we can't just let him get away with all of that."
"No," Harry replied, "we can't, which is why I asked you here. We need to plan some revenge."
Ginny's lips twisted into an evil smirk. "That's what I like to hear. But before we begin planning, what's this Marauder's Map you were talking about?"
Harry looked at her for a moment like she was completely crazy. Then he slapped himself on the forehead and said, "I keep forgetting that you haven't exactly been around for all of our adventures. The way we get along now, it feels like we've been friends all along. Let me tell you a little story about the Marauders, a legend in Hogwarts history…."
And so Harry began the tale of the mischievous Marauders. He told her how his father and Sirius decided to become animagi to keep Remus company during the full moon and how they taught Peter as well. He fast-forwarded to the twins finding the map in Filch's office in their first year, and how they gave the map to him during his third year. He then dug the map out of his new trunk to show her how it worked.
To say she was impressed would be an understatement. "We could go anywhere with this, so long as we didn't get ambushed from both sides."
"Well yeah, and in that case there's always my invisibility cloak," Harry offered. "I can't believe Ron never mentioned anything about any of this."
"Ron never tells me anything. Ever since he got back from his first year at Hogwarts, he's wanted nothing to do with me. I guess that's not true any more. Now he considers himself in charge of my love life," Ginny explained bitterly.
"I'm sorry," Harry said sincerely. "You know Hermione and I never meant to steal Ron away from you or make you feel left out. If I had known, I would've tried to include you…."
"Oh Harry, I don't blame you," Ginny hastily interrupted. "You have nothing to apologize for. I mean, I probably would have fainted if you were to come up to me and ask me to come hang out with you guys. I imagine half the reason he didn't want me around is because I was so embarrassing with my crush. But even when we were at the Burrow during the summer after your first year, before you came along, he didn't want anything to do with me. He was too grown up and cool for his little sister."
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