The Sunrise of My Heart

When we got back to Grimmauld Place that afternoon, I had planned on talking to Harry and telling him what I'd told the adults, but I never got the chance. Almost as soon as we returned, Harry shut himself off in his bedroom, not opening the door for anyone. Later that afternoon, he moved to the room Buckbeak stayed in, once again locking the door and refusing to open it for anyone.

"Harry, please open the door," I said, banging on it for the umpteenth time. "Seriously, I'm getting bruised out here from hitting this door so often! Please just let me in!" My efforts were to no avail because the door never opened.

I sighed in exasperation and went back to mine and Ginny's room, shaking my head when she looked at me hopefully.

"He's still not emerging?" she asked, hugging a pillow and laying on her stomach on her bed.

"Nope. He won't even talk to me. He's being so mopey and whiny!"

She sighed softly. "Maybe it's best that we just give him time."

"Really?" I asked in surpirse

She scoffed. "Of course not. He really is being stupid."

I plopped down on my own bed, my legs swinging lightly in the air, facing Ginny. "So, what now?"

She paused, but I could see from the excited look in her eyes that something other than Harry was on her mind. Something, I knew, to do with me. "Well... You could always tell me your whole story, fill me in on the details and everything."

I paused, thinking about. "I don't know... I... Oh, all right fine. My story begins with a Slytherin...."

And so, leaving out details that I didn't think were important enough to make their way in, I told Ginny my deepest secret, which I only ever told those I knew I could trust. It's not that it's some evil secret, or that it's really dark or something. It's just something that I don't tell many people, because it's my most vulnerable truth. And no matter who you are, it's hard to share such vulnerability with others.

But I did it. I told Ginny almost everything, although I admit I left out a few choice details when I told her. Like, for instance, identities of some of the others involved in my story. By the time I had finished, her eyes were very wide, and her mouth was opened just a little in a tiny 'o'. For quite some time, we sat in silence together, my tale weaving between us like some invisible thread, binding us closer together. For few things can bind two people so close as the sharing of secrets and the trust to reveal weaknesses.

"Wow," she finally said. "You're not joking, are you?"

"Oh believe me, if I were joking, my face wouldn't be this serious. No, every word I said in there was the truth."

"Bloody hell," she breathed.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said with a soft laugh.

We lapsed into silence once more, each of us probably thinking about the things that had happened within my tale. I certainly know I was. Eventually, we broke out of our reveries so we could go downstairs and eat dinner. I feebly hoped that the food would entice Harry to join us, but it came as no shock when he was not there.

I was surprised, however, when Hermione arrived, pink-faced and cold but smiling all the same. I waved cheerfully at her, finishing up the last little bit of my food before getting up to properly greet her.

"Hello, Riley," she said cheerfully.

"Hey, Hermione," I responded with a smile. I never really got a chance to say anything else to her, however, because Ron was right behind me, and I could tell he wanted to talk to Hermione, so I moved out of the way. It was at that point that I realized I hadn't written to my mother to tell her I wouldn't be home for the break.

"Oh, shoot," I said, turning around and starting to walk up to my room. "My mom's gonna kill me!"

I heard a chuckle from behind me and turned to see Sirius standing there, his arms folded across his chest, shaking his head at me. "Dumbledore had the foresight to write to your mother himself and explain to her what had happened and why you wouldn't be home. He said she was a little disappointed, but she understood completely, and she also sent her best wishes for Mr. Weasley."

"Thank goodness Dumbledore thinks of these things when I don't. Otherwise, my mother would be going insane, not knowing where I was."

"Come on, Riley," Hermione said, walking up next to me. "We're going to go get Harry out of that room."

With a wave to Sirius, I followed Hermione up to the room he was hiding away in. Not surprisingly, he opened the door for her and agreed, rather unhappily, to come downstairs and talk to all of us. All of us being me, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, in Ron's room, of course. I doubted he'd want to talk to any of the adults.

At first, I was listening intently to the argument between Harry and the others, adding my own input whenever I felt it necessary. But then I got distracted by something that none of the others had seemed to notice. I had seen something small streak across the floor, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"It's you lot who won't look at me," I heard Harry yell.

I snorted at that. "Harry, amazing as it is, the fact still stands that none of us can see through walls or doors. And seeing as you locked yourself behind such objects almost immediately, I don't see how we could have looked at you at all. But we certainly tried to. We wanted to look at you and talk to you. You're just so damn stubborn."

I imagine he retorted something rather bitter at me, but once again, I had lost interest in the conversation. For I had finally spotted the small thing that had run across the floor. It was sitting in the shadow of a large dresser, but it was still unmistakable. There, staring right at me, was a small, transparently green rabbit

"That was a bit stupid of you, seeing as I'm the only person you know who's been possessed by You-Know-Who," Ginny snapped at Harry. At was at this point that I could feel some of the tension in the air lessening, as if Harry was finally starting to hope he might not be possessed. They talked a bit more, but I had eyes and ears only for Draco's rabbit. What message would it have for me? What could he possibly have to say after all this time of silence between us?

I looked up in time to realize the conversation had just ended, judging by the fact that Ron was now chowing down on sandwiches, and everyone looked far more relaxed. I took this opportunity to let the rabbit scurry onto my shoe and up under the hem of my pants, and then I left, claiming I needed to write my mother.

Back in my room, with the door locked and a silencing charm placed there so no one could hear what was going on, I set the rabbit down in front of me and waited for its message.

"What does he want to say?" I asked it softly. I sitting on the floor in front of it, waiting for it to speak, but no sound came out. It simply watched me back, silent as a real rabbit.

"Riley?" Someone knocked softly on my door and then tried to open it. I heard a muttered 'alohamora', and then George was standing just behind me, shutting the door quietly behind him. "Are you all right?" he asked when he noticed I was just sitting on the floor, hardly moving a muscle. "What's that?" he asked, noticing the rabbit.

"It's Draco's," I said softly. "I have one like it, except mine's a little blue mouse. We used them last year to talk to each other when we had pretended to break up."

"You pretended to?" he repeated.

"Yeah. His father said if we didn't, he'd take him away from Hogwarts and never let us see each other again, so we faked it. These were how we set up secret meetings and simply talked to each other when we were supposed to be ignoring each other."

"And what's it doing here?"

"I don't know. I thought it had a message for me, I mean that's what they're for, but it hasn't spoken a word. It just sits there, staring at me."

"Can it be spying on you?"

"No. They can't be used for that. They can't hold jinxes, hexes, curses, spells, anything. They can only send and receive messages. That's why they're useful. Because they hold no magical threat at all, they can get past almost any form of magical protection. The can't even tell you where they've been unless someone tells them to. Oh, they're also useful because they can pretty much apparate, even if charms have been put up to stop people from doing it. Like at Hogwarts."

"So you've just been sitting her in the darkness, staring at a green rabbit, waiting for it to talk to you?"

"Pretty much."

"I see..." He came and sat down beside me, looking at the green rabbit. "Look, Riley, I know that you still have strong feelings for him. Just, don't give up on us, okay?"

I smiled softly and finally turned away from the rabbit, looking up at George. "I have no intention whatsoever of giving up on us."

"Good," he said, smiling at me and kissing me lightly. Then, he got up and went to the door, pausing with his hand on the doorknob. "Just to be sure, you and he never...um...shagged...did you?"

"Um, no! Are you kidding me?" I fell over in a fit of giggles. "Really, George, did you think I'd be doing that at my age??"

He smiled wickedly at me, his signature smile that always made me smile back. "Just had to check." He left then, guessing quite correctly that I had to be alone for awhile.

Once again, I turned to stare at the rabbit, and finally, I decided to give it a message for Draco. "Okay, deliver this for me: In order to stop the feeling that you're stalking me with your rabbit, I have a proposition for you. Let's be friends."