Fourth and last (and longest) part in the Talking series. Though I kinda want to do one with Arthur...
Dedicated to all the guys who klicked the "Author Alert" button, but mostly to Anmylica who reviewed my other stories, and totally made my day. I'm not lying when I say that reviews make me happy dance. They also make me continue writing.
Half my inspiration is to know that people actually appreciates my work.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not even the Birthday Prank idea. That idea belongs to the Weasley bros.
For as long as Ginny could remember, her Birthdays had always been a mess.
Each year, her brothers competed in coming up with the best prank. And she was the subject. On her birthday. Ironically, the twins had never won.
As they all had grown, the pranks had become worse and worse… she'd woken up with a bucket of water falling on her, she'd had breakfast made from Bertie Botts Beans in all the worse flavours: any prank you can imagine. However, they always got her really nice gifts.
This year she woke up by a scream. Sleepily, she looked down on the floor where Hermione sat, covered in black rats, screaming as she tried to get them all off.
Something moved next to her. Harry.
"What the hell?" he mumbled, reaching for his wand, grabbing Ginny's instead as his own wasn't there. "What are you doing in my bed?" he said as he summoned his glasses.
"That's my line. This is my bed." Ginny said, looking back at the door opening. "And what the hell are you doing in my room at six in the morning?" she asked, just as Hermione jumped up in Ginny's bed to escape the rats.
Percy opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by stomping in the stairs.
"Let's see here then…" Charlie said, entering the room. "Rats. Clever. But not a winner." He grinned.
"Hermione… they're fake." Ginny giggled. Hermione relaxed, and glared at Percy.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to drop them at you…" he apologized. "I just… what the hell is he doing there?"
Charlie, as well as Bill, stared at Harry.
"Good morning?" Harry tried, just as the two older brothers realized that he was bare-chested.
"WHAT THE HELL?" they both roared.
Ginny winced, looking at Harry who looked… terrified.
"What's going on? Oh, rats." Ron peeked in. "Wait. Oh. You're sooo dead, mate. Deader than Voldemort, and he was killed seven times over!" he said, earning odd looks from his brothers.
"Ron!" Hermione scolded him.
"How else would I tell my best mate, who slept with my sister, that I'm gonna kill him over and over until he's so dead he doesn't even have an afterlife?" Ron wondered, and left.
"Point taken…" Hermione sighed, rising from the bed to leave.
OoOoO
Breakfast was awkward. The three oldest Weasley brothers kept glaring at Harry, and Ron was clearly angry. Presents were given, as every year, and the day went on.
It was almost lunch by the time Ron and Harry found themselves alone.
"You slept with her!" Ron hissed angrily.
"NO! Well, yeah, but I didn't do anything!"
"Doesn't matter! Now she thinks the two of you will live happily ever after, and if you can't do that, it'll break her heart, and I'll kill you!"
"She doesn't think-"
"You're just messing with her!"
"I'm not messing-"
"She's still upset over Fred, and Colin and Remus and Tonks, and you're practically using her!"
"I'm not-"
"She just needs a shoulder to cry on. Nothing more."
"I know that."
"That doesn't mean you can just grab the moment and take her back! She's too upset to think clearly!"
"Like I'd ever-"
"BUT YOU ARE."
"No, I'M NOT."
Mrs Weasley entered the living room, looking at them. They'd started to yell without noticing.
"If you're gonna yell, then do it outside." She said, and went back into the kitchen.
"Are you finished yelling?" Harry asked.
"No. Get out." Ron roughly shoved Harry outside.
Ginny and Hermione had looked up from their work in the kitchen when the boys started to yell.
"Should we do something?" Ginny asked.
"Hell no. They'll fight, might refuse speaking to each other for a while, and it's back to normal. Anyway, I'm surprised they didn't fight all the time when we were on the run. They probably need it."
"Maybe. But still… what if they hurt each other?"
"Breaking into Gringotts, being splinched, facing the most dangerous wizard ever… I think they can handle it." Hermione sighed.
"I still don't like it. What are they fighting about, anyway?"
"Don't know, don't need to know. Probably started out with Harry in your bed this morning, and they'll go on over every single thing they find annoying about each other. I'm just glad they saved it until now. Hell, it was more than enough that one time they did fight." Hermione shivered at the memory.
"They've started dueling…" Ginny whispered, stretching to see what was going on outside.
"Okay, that's it. I'm going outside." Hermione declared, and rose.
Ginny followed her outside.
"…YOU LISTEN TO ME, POTTER!"
"NO, YOU LISTEN TO ME! I'M NO WORSE THAN YOU!"
"YOU HURT MY SISTER!"
"AND YOU HURT HERMIONE, WHO'S LIKE A SISTER TO ME!"
"DID I EVER SNOG HER, BROKE UP WITH HER, SNOGGED HER AGAIN, LEFT AND THEN CAME BACK TO USE HER?"
"No." Harry said calmly, "You just sat there snogging Lavender, too stupid to notice how she always fled the field. You have no idea how much you hurt her! And you LEFT. I don't blame you, but at least you had a choice. You hurt her that time as well. You've hurt her more than Voldemort ever hurt me, and that says something. And then you finally got your kiss, and what did you do? You've been ignoring her ever since. Don't you think I see when she's hurt? Apparently you're too stupid to see it. And I've never yelled at you for any of that, have I? This is all news to you, isn't it?"
"Not really…" Ron mumbled.
"Then don't yell at me when you're the one being a git."
"But I don't know what to do! Unlike you, I'm not perfect! I don't have girls falling on my feet, and I'm not surprised either. I'm selfish, I'm hopeless, useless… no wonder you get all the girls, next to me. And what am I supposed to do? I'm scared, dammit. Merlin, I LOVE HER." Ron's voice broke.
"Then do something about it. What do you have to lose?"
"HER. What if-" Ron cried.
"What if she loves you back?"
"She can't possibly…"
"YOU'RE NOT HOPELESS. Or any of that. Just as I'm not perfect, you're not just some guy. You're way braver than me. Bravery is to face your fears, and you were more scared than I ever was."
"I LEFT YOU TWO IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!" Ron roared.
"If I'd had the choice, I'd left way earlier! And you're totally good at quidditch-"
"You're the youngest seeker in a century, you're a natural…"
"Which is why you are the better one. You've practiced to make that place on the team. You've earned it by work. I seem to get everything without doing a single shit, and you get the same things by earning it! Don't you think I've noticed how hard you work to get to this? You know what, you could very well be Quidditch Captain. You'd probably be Head Boy as well, if one could be both. You've flown on a dragon, most people never get to see one. And so what if you're not a clown, making people laugh all the time? You make people smile instead. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here. You see where I'm going with this?"
"The mirror of Erised." Ron mumbled, but Harry heard him.
"Yeah. But mostly the fact that your brothers are proud of you. You're better than them, if that's how you want it. No one can beat brothers like yours, and you did. And you still have a life on your own, and you've done something unique. Only an idiot would turn down a friendship with you. And to be honest, people call me an idiot all the time, so what I mean is someone-" Harry stopped as Ron hugged him.
They still hadn't noticed how the entire family was watching them from various windows, as well as the girls just outside the house, which wasn't more than 50 feet away.
Then Harry noticed them, and cursed under his breath.
"What?" Ron mumbled.
"How do I say this… well, this makes it a lot easier for you."
"What?" Ron wondered.
"Oh, nothing… just the fact that Hermione might have caught some parts of what we both just said, or rather, yelled." Harry nodded towards Hermione, and Ron slowly turned around.
"Harry?" Ron said.
"Yeah?"
"I'm not going to suffer this alone."
"What are you thinking?"
"I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU ADMIT THAT YOU WATCHED GINNY'S SPOT ON THE MAP EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AND THAT YOU TOTALLY LOVE HER AND NO MATTER HOW YOU ENDED UP IN HER BED THIS MORNING, YOU'RE GONNA THANK WHOEVER GOT YOU THERE, AND I'M RIGHT, SO ADMIT IT!"
"Please don't…"
"If you don't, there's a lot of secrets you wouldn't want my brothers to know, right?"
"Fine. I admit that I did what Ron said."
Ron whispered something in Harry's ear.
"Hell no."
"I did."
"Come on, they'll…"
"That depends on what sort of-"
"I'm not gonna-"
"Oh yes you are."
"No, I'm-"
"I read about this handy spell, and I haven't tried it out yet. It went like…" Ron thought, and flicked his wand: all of a sudden Harry hung upside down.
"You're not gonna let me down, are you?"
"Don't even think about lying. I'll notice. Anyway, Hermione will know."
"Ronald Weasley, you-" Hermione said, just behind them. Her face was red from crying.
"He's not worth it, Hermione…" Ginny said, trailing behind.
Ron shot Harry a glance, just as Hermione threw herself into his arms.
"Gin… come here." Harry nodded for her to come over, and she did.
"What on earth is going on?" she asked, staring at Ron and Hermione.
"I love you."
"Yeah, I know, but… wait, what?" she looked at him.
"I love you, Gin."
"WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?" Charlie yelled from his window.
"I DON'T KNOW." Percy yelled back.
"ARE THEY KISSING?" Bill yelled in disbelief.
"HOLY…" Charlie exclaimed, having summoned a pair of binoculars.
"… SHIT." Percy yelled, binoculars in his hand as well.
As the four youngest entered the kitchen for lunch, Charlie, Bill and Percy stared at them in disbelief. Arthur looked surprised, and Molly was in a shock. George came down the stairs.
"By the way, Gin. I might need to remind you about the midnight snog rule. No midnight snogs in the kitchen." He grinned.
OoOoO
Midnight, a few nights earlier
George grinned, watching his sister and almost-brother as they kissed.
And neither of them noticed how the mysterious figure in the shadows whispered:
"We're gonna win the prank this year. We're so gonna win."
And that's the story of how Harry ended up in Ginny's bed on her birthday, and lived the rest of the summer in misery and fright of the Dragon Keeper, the Bank Man and the Smart One.
How many guessed that it was George? I'm curious.
And as always, reviews makes me happydance. And reviews gives me inspiration, so that I've got new things to write about.
DFTBA. Not that you would. Being A is as natural as breathing to you guys. You just can't FTBA.