disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon.

The Hogwarts Express made its way down the tracks in lovely scenery of endless grass hills and towering green trees towards the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter closed his eyes as the warm summer breeze gently touched his face. It was a bittersweet time, the seventh and final year of school for Harry, for it was the place he had called home for the last 6 years of his childhood.
Surely now he was no child. Harry had grown into a fine and respectable young adult, facing ordeals that not even adult wizards can handle. But after the great battle and his long awaited defeat of the powerful evil wizard, Voldemort, Harry was looking forward to spending his last year of school feeling a bit more normal, like his fellow classmates.

He opened his eyes and looked around in the compartment and smiled at the all too familiar faces around him. Ron Weasley flipped through the pages of a photo album from the family trip to Egypt over the summer (they were there for just the last week of vacation, Harry and Hermione Granger did spend their summer at the Burrow like always. After the Weasleys left for Egypt, the duo stayed at The Leaky Cauldron). Hermione, Neville Longbottom & Luna Lovegood "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed over the photos of pyramids and mummies and the other fascinations Egypt had to offer.
(Luna seemed to gasp and "ohh" the loudest at photos of Bill. This made Hermione and Ginny giggle).
Ginny Weasley looked on sounding almost like a tour guide, giving brief fact-based descriptions of each of the moving images in front of them (including "aah yes, yes…this was when Fred stuffed a canary cream in Percy's mouth" pointing to a picture of Fred and George with their arms around the head of a giant yellow canary waving happily as the yellow canary a.k.a Percy struggled to get out of their firm grip) A howl of laughter by Hermione, Neville and Luna and "oh yea that's right!" by Ron followed.

Harry closed his eyes again smiling and suddenly felt extremely warm and sleepy. He peacefully listened to the happy voices sounding distant, as he fell into a dreamy sort of state, imagining in his head what the future held for the "boy who lived" now that the prophecy had been served and the magical times at Hogwarts was coming to a close...

He saw himself in a cozy home similar to the Burrow but smaller, where he had returned from work as an auror, and a small version of himself running over to him with a bottle in one hand and a tiny yellow toy broom in the other.

"Daddy! Daddy!" the small Harry would joyfully cry and Harry would pick him up over his shoulders then give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Hi ya James!"(he had known for some time now that he would like to name his son after his father) Were you a good boy today? Didn't cause your mom too much trouble?" Harry would ask peering at his son suspiciously.
The little boy with jet black hair and chocolate-y brown eyes with cute little freckles on his nose grinned and shook his head.
"Nope! I even 'elped her with chores!" little James said proudly.
"Harry, dear, is that you?" a familiar girls' voice came out from the kitchen.
"Yea love, I'm home! Dinner smells great!" Harry replied as he put James down.

And out from the kitchen, holding a cauldron of steaming beef stew with a pair of green oven mittens over her hands, came out Ginny (she appeared older, probably mid 20's or so, as did he when he caught a reflection of himself earlier in a mirror by the front door) wearing her shoulder length red hair in a rather messy ponytail, a fitted black tee, a pair of denim shorts that showed off her slender legs and a green apron on top. She set the pot down in the center of the dining table, removed the mitts off her hands and walked over to him smiling lazily into his eyes.
When she reached him, she stretched her arms up, let it fall around his neck and breathed in deeply with her eyes closed. "Mmmm" she exhaled as she opened her eyes and looked into his. "I missed you."
Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and gently placed his hands inside the back pockets of her shorts. "I missed you more" Harry whispered and leaned forward to kiss her red tender lips which smelled like the watermelon gloss she had used since the days of Hogwarts...

"Oy Harry! You sleeping, mate? Come on now, wake up! The food lady is here!" Ron called out to his best friend as he and Hermione each bought some chocolate frogs while Neville and Luna purchased a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans to share. Ginny looked on trying to decide between a cauldron cake and a pumpkin pastie. Ron turned to face the sleeping beauty and couldn't help but notice the silly grin plastered on his face.

"HARRY!" Ron cried out this time louder than the first. "FOOD!" Harry jerked his head up and awoke with a start almost falling off his seat. Ron and Neville laughed at the sight followed by an amused Hermione's "Are you alright, Harry?"
He froze where he sat staring blankly in front of him. His eyes grew bigger and bigger as the last images of his dream came back to him hauntingly and noticed his palms were very sweaty. He tried to speak but nothing came out of his slightly open dry mouth.
"Harry?"
It was Ginny.

She was leaning over sideways, coming into his view. Her neck was crooked, and this caused her long silky hair to fall gracefully to one side. "Err…are you ok?" she asked looking concerned. "The food lady is here…um are you hungry?" she asked raising her eyebrows slightly.
Harry looked up and couldn't help but get lost in her pretty brown eyes as if he was seeing them for the first time. Then slowly lowering his eyes to her lips he saw that they looked just as they had in the dream, a stain of red with a hint of shimmer from her watermelon gloss. Soon enough, his adolescent mind wandered to the way she had looked in those tiny denim shorts, with his own hands stuffed in the back pockets, over her curvy behind and lowering his mouth to hers….
He shook his head violently to shake off the images in his head.
There were too many witnesses (including a Weasley brother) in that compartment at the moment for him to have such an intimate fantasy. He met Ginny's eyes again, this time with less longing and smiled as innocently as he could after imagining feeling her behind. "Ahh…thirsty" he managed to croak.
Ginny looked at him strangely and nodded slowly "Alright, one icy cold pumpkin juice comin up".
She turned back to the food lady to get a glass of pumpkin juice and couldn't help but feel her heart beating a bit faster than normal.

What was that about? Ginny asked herself, feeling a strange sensation in her stomach that was quite new to her. Harry had never looked at me like that before, no boy had for that matter.
Maybe it had to do with having six older, very protective brothers, but whenever she was around boys she couldn't help but feel like the cute little sister-type, even with boys her age. She has never been looked at or spoken to or (she paused for a second for even thinking it silently to herself was quite embarrassing), touched in a way that made her feel like a…well like a girl. Even boys she had gone with in the past tended to show their affection by patting her on the head or pinching her nose, which she hated.

But for that brief moment, Harry looked into her eyes almost hungrily.

She felt her ears get hot and her mouth go dry. She sub-consciously raised the glass to take a gulp of the icy cold juice and remembered quickly who it was for. She swallowed some saliva instead, took a deep breath and spun around with what she hoped was a straight face and said cheerily "Here ya go!"
For a second, she couldn't recall if she had paid or not for she was so deep in her wild thoughts, then heard the compartment door slide shut and the wheels of the food cart fade so she assumed she must have. She handed him the glass rather hurriedly practically shoving it into his grip and a few splashes hit the floor.
"Oh sorry" Ginny groaned and with a flick of her wand ("scourgify!") the juice on the floor was gone.
Before he could say thanks, she turned back to her brother and the others to finish the rest of the photos.

Stupid, stupid! She screamed in her head as she pretended to be fascinated by a picture of Ron and herself wading in a river happily splashing the clear water with their bare feet. How could she be so lame?
And to think, just seconds before she was complaining about how boys didn't treat her in a more flirty way.
Why couldn't she hand him the glass nicely then sit down next to him? Maybe smooth out his hair a bit in a playful manner and ask in a very concerned, caring way if he was really all right. Now that's what a real girl would have done. Was it too late for her to go over to him now?
She pondered a bit biting her lips, still keeping her eyes on the same spot where the photo of her and Ron had been a minute ago. (Ron had already turned the page and was wondering why Ginny stopped her commentating).
After what felt like eternity she raised her head, cleared her throat and stood up to join Harry.