Echo in My Mind

Chapter 1: First Snow

"Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity."

--Edwin Hubbel Chapin

~*~

The lingering warmth of summer that was September faded to the foreshadowing coolness of October. The cool soon turned to the frosty chill that was November. As time went on, the frosty chill became the biting cold of December. With this came the first snow.

The wind blew the snow from drift to drift. The snow covering the ground was already over one foot and rising steadily. Light shown from the windows of the Gryffindor Tower where students sat chatting and doing homework. The outline of a young man could be seen in the window. Harry Potter sat at the window, sipping a mug of warm hot chocolate, and watching the snow fall.

Since it was late at night, few Gryffindors were still awake. Hermione sat next to Ron on the couch, their homework spread out over the table in front of them. Despite Hermione's half-hearted protests, there wasn't any homework being done. Ron and Hermione were locked in a passionate kiss.

Ginny was sitting in a chair by the fire. Her hand flew over her parchment that was on a small table before her. A stray piece of hair fell from her ponytail. Harry, who was now watching his girlfriend, wanted to do nothing more than to reach over and brush the hair out of her face. Then as she would look up to greet him, he would lean in and kiss her. She would kiss him back and his hand would find...

But no, Harry couldn't do that. Colin Creevey was sitting right next to Ginny. It wouldn't do any good for Harry to start something. It would get caught on film. Colin had yet to give up his camera. Ginny had told him the countless times she and her year mates had tried to get the boy to give it up. It seemed as if their protests had fallen on deaf ears. Even if it wasn't hanging around his neck anymore, Colin always had his camera within reach.

The world around him faded as Harry was swept into a dream world. Images filled his head consisting of everything he would like to be doing with Ginny right now. In the past few months Harry and Ginny had become increasingly busy, leaving little time for each other. Harry was surprised they were still together. Between school, training, Quidditch, the D.A., and Ginny's Prefect duties, the couple barely had any free time. Yet, Harry loved Ginny with all his heart and would never leave her.

Harry's mug flew from his hand to the ground where it shattered as someone tapped him on the shoulder. The remaining warm brown liquid spilled onto the floor in-between the pieces of the broken mug. He heard the person laugh. It was that ringing, joyous laugh that only Ginny Weasley could have. Ginny slid gracefully onto Harry's lap, laying her head on his chest. Harry's right arm came up and his hand stroked her hair gently. His other arm wrapped around Ginny's waist. The shattered mug lay forgotten on the ground.

"I hear the Room of Requirement isn't being used," Ginny murmured.

Harry squeezed her side to him. "Seamus and Lavender went there. It's Dean's night in the dorm with his girl. That's why Neville is still down here. You know how it goes. We can't go up until at least 1:00 in the morning unless they come down sooner."

Ginny laughed again. It made a warm, pleasant feeling spread through Harry's body. Everything felt right to him when Ginny laughed.

"Tell me the truth, Harry."

Harry felt a smile forming on his face. "Seamus and Lavender are in the Room of Requirement unless they found a broom closet along the way. Dean was up in the dorm with Parvati but she came down half and hour ago. He's probably asleep now. Neville is only finishing up a bit of Transfiguration."

Ginny stopped laughing. Harry's smile faded when she did. Her body tensed a little and her face took on a serious expression.

"We can't be like this forever, Harry. We can't keep living as if there isn't a war going on out there. Just because there have only been small attacks on Muggles - by Voldemort's minions of course - and not major battles doesn't mean we can just ignore it!" Ginny said quietly but with conviction.

Then she paused. Ginny was no longer sure where she was going with this. Originally her goal for this conversation was to express her fears about losing Harry to Harry himself. Now she wasn't sure what she was trying to say.

"Ginny," Harry started and Ginny was drawn out of her thoughts. "Don't think for a minute that I, or anyone else for that matter, don't take this war seriously. Are you afraid of something?"

Ginny's silence was all the answer Harry needed.

"What are you afraid of?"

Ginny reached up and grabbed Harry's wrist. His hand stopped moving on her hair immediately. Ginny's hand slid up from his wrist to grasp his hand. She pulled it down to her and began to trace patterns on it.

"Losing you," Ginny whispered, looking down. "I'm afraid of losing you."

Harry let his finger trail slowly down her cheek and under her chin. He lifted her face up so his eyes met hers. Suddenly, Harry forgot what he was going to say. He could no longer stop himself from leaning down to kiss her.

Ginny began to kiss him back, eager for the touch she hadn't felt for a while. She felt Harry's hand travel down her body to the bottom of her shirt. He slipped his hand under the shirt and started up her stomach.

This was one of the few times Ginny had ever witnessed Harry be like this when they were kissing. Normally it took him quite a while to get under her shirt and he normally never went that far. He knew it made anticipation build and he liked it when Ginny was anxious for more contact. It made her much more daring in what she did with her hands and tongue.

Harry's other hand slipped under her shirt and traveled up her back. His two hands met at the clasp of her bra and undid it, pushing the front of the bra up to expose her breasts. He cupped one in his hand.

Ginny broke the kiss. "Harry, what's going on with you? And we can't do this in the common room!" she hissed.

Harry's hands reluctantly dropped from her shirt without bothering to redo her bra clasp. Ginny's question remained unanswered as he slid one arm under her knees and the other at the base of her neck. He lifted her up and stood up after her, leading her to the staircase that would take them to his dorm room. Ginny giggled the whole way up. She felt like a princess being whisked away to a wonderland. A large grin had fitted itself on Harry's face as well.

Harry took Ginny through the open door and laid her down on his bed. He went back and shut the door, then shut the hangings around his bed. He sat down on the bed and looked at Ginny. She lay on the bed, her shirt next to her with her bra, her breasts and stomach fully exposed.

"Are you trying to make me go crazy?" Harry said with a tone of amusement.

"No," Ginny said as she pulled him down to lie next to her. "I've just missed you. We've barely had any time for each other. When we do have time, I want to make it special."

"You're not suggesting we..." he trailed off as Ginny unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off him.

"Of course not. Just like what we did on your birthday. Judging by what was going on downstairs, you wouldn't seem to mind."

His undershirt was lifted over his head, effectively hiding his blush. Ginny had completely forgotten that only moments before she had been starting to tell Harry off for the same thing she was doing now. This kind of forgetfulness wasn't new to her though. It had been happening a lot lately, whenever she had a free moment with Harry. There was just something about him that seemed to cancel out everything in her head and Ginny didn't mind it one bit.

"Ginny, stop. You're doing this to hide something."

Ginny positioned herself on top of her boyfriend. She traced the muscles on his chest.

"Why would you think that?" she said seductively.

"I know you, Gin. You wouldn't do this normally, especially on a night where we have class the next morning. You would just come up to sleep here."

Ginny sat up on Harry's stomach and put her bra back on. Then she got up off him and went to his trunk, finding a plain white shirt and slipping it on. It smelled like Harry, and Ginny always wanted to be reminded of him wherever she was.

"I'm keeping this," Ginny said, avoiding Harry's previous statement.

"You keep it if you answer me. Why are you doing this?" Harry said as he sat up and pulled his undershirt back on.

Ginny sat down next to him. She didn't even know why she had done what she did. She just wanted to be close to Harry. She had wanted reassurance that Harry was still there.

"I... I... I don't know," Ginny said, now close to tears. "I just... I haven't had any time with you... I needed to make sure you hadn't gone away."

Ginny dissolved in tears. Harry pulled her into a tight hug. Ginny laid her head on his shoulder as Harry stroked her back gently. The movement helped calm her as she cried.

"I feel like everything is falling apart," Ginny said finally.

"I know what you mean," Harry said. "I feel like I'm losing control inside and I can't do anything about it. With everything that's been happening I can't help but feel like I've lost control of my life. It makes me feel like I've lost you. That's why I did what I did in the common room. I suppose I needed to make sure you hadn't gone away too."

Ginny took his hand in hers. Harry felt a sudden shock when her skin touched his. With a quick glance up at Ginny, he knew she had felt it too.

"Ginny, what was that?"

Ginny looked slightly scared. "I don't know, Harry."

Harry reached out for her other hand. This time he felt nothing. Ginny glanced at him oddly.

"Probably just a static electricity shock," Harry said.

"Yeah, probably," Ginny said slowly.

They fell silent, each thinking about the shock. Harry could feel that it wasn't just static electricity. It was something else but he didn't know what it could be. Ginny was thinking along the same lines.

"Get your pajamas and sleep with me tonight," Harry said. "I mean, Lavender and Parvati sleep with Seamus and Dean all the time. One more girl up here can't hurt."

Ginny stared at him. "You're the one who just said you didn't want to do anything tonight, or at least implied it."

Harry was looking for his pajama bottoms as he answered her.

"I still want to be with you."

Ginny smiled. "I want to be with you, too."

Five minutes later Ginny was curled up in Harry's arms under the covers of his bed.

~*~

Draco and Blaise walked hand-in-hand into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom the next afternoon. The class was doing practice duels in preparation for the actual class tournament. Today, first up, was Harry versus Draco.

Draco sat, slightly nervously, as he waited for class to start. Harry was an amazing dueler, as he had proven countless times in training. Draco was nearly afraid to go up against him. The only thing that was able to ease his worries a little was that Harry was more deadly without a wand than with one. In classes they were only allowed to use wands, and the same thing went for these duels. Though it wasn't much comfort to Draco knowing he'd just be stunned at the worst instead of having his head blasted off, it was a start.

"First up today, Malfoy and Potter," Professor Moody said.

Draco gulped and stood up. Harry did the same. They moved to the front of the classroom where a dueling area had been cleared. When the two boys met in the middle, Harry nodded slightly in what Draco interpreted to be a wishing of good luck. Draco returned the nod using that meaning even though he knew Harry didn't need luck. His raven-haired friend was going to win this duel hands down.

Draco and Harry bowed to each other like they had been taught to do. It was standard dueling procedure. Then they each took three large steps back and turned to face each other once more, their wands at the ready.

"Scared, Potter?" Draco sneered.

"You wish," Harry replied with a glare.

"Three... two... one... GO," Moody shouted, and the duel began.

Draco and Harry traded light curses and hexes back and forth for the first few minutes. Draco threw a few stunning spells at Harry, who dodged them with ease. Harry shot an Impedimenta spell at Draco. Draco sidestepped it just in time. Harry, Ginny, Draco, and Blaise had all agreed to not use any ancient magic spells in front of the class so no suspicions would be raised about how they could perform the spells.

The object of these class duels was to stun or impede your opponent before they could do the same to you. Whoever was stunned or impeded first was the loser of the duel, the person who cast the spell the winner.

Harry saw Draco mouth the words, "for real," to him. This was the boys' cue. They had known they were dueling each other, after checking the listings the previous class, and had come to an agreement. For the first few minutes, it would be a light and easy duel. When Draco would mouth the words for real the real duel would start. The two boys had wanted to test how long they could hold out for in a duel so they had tried to find ways to push it as long as they could.

The duel went on for another twenty minutes. Now it was nearing half an hour. There were three other duels that were supposed to take place during this class period and now there was only time for another two, and only if they were short. The class sat with their eyes fixed on Harry and Draco. None of them had ever seen two students duel this well or long before. They had begun cheering for different people. The Slytherins and some Ravenclaws for Draco and everyone else for Harry.

Harry had a small cut on his left forearm where Draco had hit him with a shallow cutting curse. Draco had a large bump on his head from when Harry had slammed him back into the wall. Draco had been able to dodge most of the curse, but it still caught him on the shoulder, sending him back into the wall. However, the part of the spell wasn't enough to throw him into the wall with much force so Draco didn't feel the full effects. Otherwise he would have been knocked out.

"Come on, Malfoy. Give up. We have to end this some time," Harry said with a gleam in his eyes.

Draco knew that gleam all too well. It was the gleam Harry got when he wasn't going to give up doing something until he came out on top. The goading was meaningless, however. It was just part of the act Draco and Harry had going to make people think they still hated each other.

"You really think you can beat me, Potter? I'm ten times better than you'll ever be!" Draco said, side-stepping a cutting curse, breathing in small pants.

"That's why you chickened out for our little duel in first year," Harry retorted, his chest rising and falling rapidly as well.

"It was all a set up to get you in trouble and you know it," Draco replied as he fired off three stunning spells in a row.

Harry managed to dodge them all. He shot a blasting curse back but missed by a few inches, sending it into the wall. The wall didn't explode as the spell hit it, however. Moody had charmed the walls and the rest of the room so it would not be damaged by stray spells.

"Losing your touch, Potter?" Draco laughed as he watched the spell hit the wall.

That momentary distraction from the duel was all Harry needed. He shot a stunning spell at Draco, who turned around just in time to get a face full of it. The blond boy fell forward onto the ground. Harry reached up to wipe the sweat from his face. Half the class erupted in cheers.

"Very good, Potter." Professor Moody said. "Enervate," he continued, pointing his wand at Draco.

Draco rolled over after a few seconds, his eyes wide open. He blinked a few times and pushed himself up off the ground. He gave a small nod to Harry, which stood for congratulations. Harry gave a slight smile away but no one saw except for Draco.

"Both of you go down to the hospital wing and have your injuries looked at. Now!" Moody barked.

Draco, who was closest to the door, led the way out. Harry followed silently, shutting the door behind them. As soon as he had gotten out of the classroom, he collapsed against the wall. Draco stopped in front of him.

"Close?"

Harry nodded." You too?"

"Why do you think I gave you the opening when I watched the spell go by? I was going to lose it soon and I could tell you were too. You would have won anyway so I decided that we might as well end it before we exploded with pent up power," Draco said as he pressed a hand over his chest.

"It's burning now, isn't it?" Harry asked, his face full of concern.

"How can you stand it? It's horrible," Draco said.

Harry grimaced. "It hurts like hell but I'm used to it by now. Just be thankful it hasn't started happening to Blaise and Ginny yet or else we'd hear endless complaining and whining."

Draco scowled. "I wish there was some way to stop all this."

Harry sighed. It hadn't been the first time one of them had made this wish. Over the past few months Harry, Draco, Ginny, and Blaise had noticed changes inside them. The pure magic had been released in all of them and was now brewing deep inside. Ginny and Blaise seemed able to control it for the most part since the majority of their power had yet to be released. However, Draco and Harry's powers had, for the most part, gotten out and into their systems.

The more the pure magic grew, the more it needed to be let out. Training was a perfect time to let the magic run its course. Still, Draco and Harry had been dreading this day. They each knew that their pure magic was very strong inside them and that it was pushing to get out. Training was barely enough anymore. During today's duel both boys had come very close to letting their pure magic get the best of them. It was getting harder and harder to control.

As the pure magic inside a person grows stronger, Dumbledore had once told them, and didn't have the chance to be let out as much as it needed to be, consequences would occur. The consequences consisted of a lot of pent up magic that hurt. Dumbledore had warned them that a magical build-up could cause physical pain. He had been right, as Harry had once put it, "because the built-up magic burned like the devil was wrecking a fucking havoc inside your chest."

No one really knew why the magic hurt when it was stuck with nowhere to go. It had been recorded in history books many times and stories of it passed down through the generations. Wizards and witches had died from pent up magic in the past. It was rare for a wizard to have this kind of problem now, since nowadays people knew how to control their magic using wands and other means. Also, it was only a problem that occurred to wizards with the Mark of the Phoenix or an unusually strong wizard who didn't have the mark. More people had had the mark in the past but it had started to disappear as it was passed through the generations. Now that there were fewer people with the Mark of the Phoenix, there were fewer people with the problem of having pent up magic pushing to get out inside of them.

Just then the door to the Defense room swung open. Blaise stepped out, holding a hand over her nose. There was blood visible through the gap in her fingers. She had a bloody nose.

"Blaise," Draco said, becoming concerned for his girlfriend, "what happened?"

Blaise raised her fisted hand to her mouth and opened it, dropping what looked like a piece of candy in it. The bleeding stopped instantly. Blaise looked up at the two boys and smiled.

"The Weasley twins are brilliant. Ginny slipped me this so I could go out and make sure you two were okay. She thought it would seem too suspicious if we both went and she said I seemed really worried about you boys," Blaise explained before either of the teenagers in front of her opened their mouths to ask.

"Oh," Harry said dumbly.

"Professor Moody expects me to join you two in the infirmary so let's go," Blaise said.

She held out a hand to Harry, which he took and used it to pull himself off the wall. Then her hand found Draco's and gave it a squeeze.

"By the way, dear, you did well in the duel," Blaise said, than turned to Harry. "However, you need to let someone else win for once. Can't win them all, Harry."

The three of them set off down the hall side-by-side. Since it was still a class period, no one was in the halls so the three wouldn't be caught together. It was rare they had a moment to spend with each other without meeting in secret since they still couldn't let the school know they were friends. This secret couldn't get out until every last threat of Voldemort was gone and even then it wasn't the safest idea. Former Death Eaters might attack Draco and Blaise for turning traitor or just for associating with the person who defeated their master. That is, if Harry managed to defeat the Dark Lord.

"I don't think I'll be so lucky in the end," Harry muttered lowly, thinking about the current situation.

Draco turned to look at Harry. "Did you say something?"

Harry looked up and Draco saw the uncertainty in his eyes. Whatever the black-haired boy had said, he didn't want anyone else to have heard it. The more Draco thought about it, the more wrong the assumption seemed. It was getting hard to tell anything with Harry these days. The teenager had become a lot more withdrawn when it came to talking about his thoughts and feelings in the past few months. He had started muttering things under his breath a lot and Draco was getting the impression that they were morbid thoughts. Once in a while he caught a few words such as 'blood', 'echo', and 'crying', which led him to think that something was going on inside Harry that he wasn't letting on to.

"No," Harry said quickly, too quickly.

"Are you sure? I don't think I heard the wind," Draco said, trying to pry information out of Harry.

The word 'no' was on the tip of Harry's tongue. He wanted desperately to tell someone what was on constant replay in his mind. It was a sound he couldn't shake from his head. It haunted him, followed him everywhere, and had a death grip on his thoughts and wouldn't let go. It was starting to scare Harry because it was like a broken record going on inside his own head every second of the day.

"Yes, I'm sure. I didn't say a thing."

Draco gave Harry one final glance before turning forward again and continuing down the hall with Blaise.

And the cries keep echoing in my mind...

~*~

The next morning Ginny looked up as the owls came soaring into the Great Hall to deliver mail. She saw Hedwig flying gracefully over to her, or more accurately the half-asleep Harry that was sitting next to her. Harry took the Daily Prophet from her, reaching up to stroke his faithful owl. After the Diagon Alley attack in September, Harry had paid for a yearlong subscription to the Prophet to keep up with what was happening because of the war. There was only so much you could learn that was accurate if you heard it throughout the school. Harry wanted a copy of news so he could read it as soon as possible. He didn't want to wait to hear the garbled version from others.

Ginny looked up again and she saw a black bird headed towards the Slytherin table. She tracked this bird and watched it swoop down and land right in front of Blaise. Blaise stared at the owl with a look of horror on her face. Ginny saw the look. I wonder what's wrong...

Harry sent Hedwig off with a piece of bacon and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He wasn't getting a lot of sleep anymore. He only got three to five hours of sleep a night. Ginny didn't know since it wasn't nightmares causing the problems. It took Harry so long to get the voices out of his head some nights that he was up until the early hours of the morning just trying to fall asleep. He knew Ginny could tell he wasn't getting as much sleep but she didn't comment on it. He was also positive she didn't know what was going on inside his head.

"Mummy! Mummy, he's got me! Mummy!"

The voices only got louder with each passing day. Harry could barely block them out at all anymore.

"MUMMY!"

"Harry!"

Harry's eyes refocused on what was in front of him. He felt hands on his shoulders, shaking him gently. Ginny's eyes stared into his. Harry blinked back the tears he felt forming in his eyes as he thought about the small child who might never have seen his mother again.

"Sorry, just zoned out. Thinking about training," Harry lied.

Ginny didn't believe a word of it and she knew she would get a real answer out of him as soon as she could. She wasn't stupid and unperceptive like her brother Ron. She knew something was bothering Harry and she was determined to find out what it was as soon as possible. Now, however, there were more pressing matters.

"That's not important right now. It's Blaise. Look," Ginny said.

Harry turned towards Blaise and opened his mouth to ask what was wrong. At the sight of the girl's face, he froze. Harry had never seen Blaise look like that before. Her face was contorted in a mix of rage, fear, worry, and something else that Harry couldn't place. It was a sort of deadly look and it was one that really made Harry start to worry.

A letter was clutched very tightly in her now pale hands. Blaise's whole body began to shake. The owl that had delivered the letter was just disappearing from the Great Hall.

"Ginny," Harry started in a worried tone, "what the bloody hell is going on?"

~~**~~