Harry Potter Breaking The Chains

She arched an eyebrow at him. "I would have thought taking me to the ball would be privilege enough." She adopted an air of superiority that Harry thought would have been fitting on a princess.

He grasped her hand, dropped onto one knee and looked up into her face. He was struck momentarily by the sight that beheld him. The sun was shining behind her, beginning its decent, creating a halo-like aura around her. His breath hitched at the beauty of it. His words that were initially meant to be entirely playful came out much more seriously than he had originally intended. "Forgive me, my lady. I never meant to imply otherwise. I am deeply honored to be taking you to the ball." He capped off the performance by holding her hand to his lips and planting a small kiss just below her knuckles.

She brought her other hand up to her mouth as she swooned playfully, then she began giggling as she tugged Harry back up off the ground. "When did you get so sweet, Harry? Before this year I couldn't imagine you ever acting like this."

Harry shrugged at her as they began walking again. He noticed that they were now far behind the rest of their friends but didn't seem to mind much. He slid his wand out of its holster and waved it in front of them, creating a sound barrier around them before answering. She gave him an enquiring look. "Silencing charm," he offered by way of explanation before responding. "I don't know what it is, really. I think part of it has to do with my Occlumency training. I have better control over my emotions now. Before I would have been much too embarrassed to say half the things I say now. But I think a lot of it is just the new outlook I've taken with my life. It feels so good to be doing something. I felt so restless and guilty last year, knowing that a war was brewing and that I wasn't really doing anything about it. The only time that feeling dissipated was when I was teaching the DA. But now I know that every day I'm working hard to become more powerful so that when the time comes I can help make a difference. I feel good about myself. I don't feel guilty about having a little fun because I know that I'm doing everything I can for right now."

Ginny nodded beside him, looking forward. "That makes sense." She then turned toward him. "I'm really glad to see you so happy, Harry. I… well we were all worried about how you were going to take the loss of Sirius." Ginny studied Harry closely as she said this. She noticed that his eyes glanced downward momentarily, and he let out an almost inaudible sigh. Other than that, he did not react to her mention of his dead godfather. "I don't think any of us thought you could ever bounce back so quickly or thoroughly. Have you talked to Ron and Hermione at all about this or about your new outlook on life?"

Harry studied Ginny for a minute before responding. "No, not really. For one thing, neither has asked me about it. Hermione seems to assume that I'm just avoiding the issue entirely and keeps trying to convince me to talk about my grief and to stop denying my feelings and pretending that nothing's wrong. Ron has ignored the situation entirely, and he spends half the time angry at me about one thing or another anyway."

"Yeah, well, Ron is a prat. I can vouch for that," Ginny admitted ruefully. "And I know what you mean about Hermione as well. We actually had a talk about that recently." Harry looked at her sharply, almost accusingly. "Oh don't give me that look. I defended you and tried to convince her to back off, but she won't listen to reason."

Harry had the grace to look contrite. "Sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions. I just don't like people talking about me…."

"It's alright, Harry," she interrupted. "Given your circumstances it's entirely understandable. You have people constantly talking about you behind your back and pointing at you and everything. It's only natural that you'd get a little defensive about it."

"Well thank you for sticking up for me," Harry told her sincerely, "but I really don't think anything will convince Hermione. Once she has her mind set on something, it's almost impossible to deter her. Just look at the house elves; she continues on with spew for the sake of the house elves, completely ignoring their pleas for her to stop. It's not that I disagree with her. She always means well, but she goes about things the wrong way."

"I know what you mean," Ginny agreed. "Have you considered telling the two of them?" She didn't need to specify what she was talking about.

"Of course," Harry replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Believe it or not, I hate having to keep secrets from you guys. But it's too dangerous to tell anybody. Hermione is too likely to turn me in to Dumbledore or another adult, and Ron's temper is much too unstable for him to be trusted with this type of information. He's liable to just shout everything out in a fit of anger. I'm skating on thin ice right now. If Dumbledore or anyone else were to find out about half of what I can do, it would make my life much more difficult. I wouldn't be able to train freely. I'd be watched like a hawk. The only reason I'm not being watched right now is because they assume I'm incapable of getting into too much trouble at Hogwarts and that I'm incapable of leaving the grounds.

"Back at Privet Drive, they have Order members watching the house all day and night. Any time I leave the house, they follow. They don't bother paying too close attention to me inside the house because they assume that I can't apparate. But if they found out that I was capable of all these things, I'd be tailed nonstop. I wouldn't have a moment of privacy, and my training would be impeded. Dumbledore is intent on keeping me in the dark right now. I think he only gave me the Assistant Professorship to appease me, to keep me busy, so that I wouldn't get too restless and do something stupid this year."

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