A/N: Yay! I just finished this today (Jan. 10, '10) and decided to get it all typed up. Yay! My second story in two days; it may not seem like a lot, but it is for me. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything dealing with "Harry Potter."

They had been going out for five months.

And he forgot.

He knew there was no excuse as to why he forgot, but he had Auror training which took up plenty of time. When he had a few extra hours, he would help out Ron and George at their shop and then he'd meet up with Ginny.

He really loved her and he was pretty sure she knew it. He knew she loved him because of all the hugs and kisses she would give him no matter how late he would show up for a date, as long he came. She never got mad at him for it either; she knew what he had to do and loved him all the more. She would smile brighter – if possible with her kind and big smile – whenever she saw him. He even made sure to go to all of her Quidditch games that were possible for him to attend.

And then he had to go and forget.

When she was away at Quidditch practice or was actually playing a match, – which was every day for the following four weeks – Harry came up with a plan. He went to every shop in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and the London looking for the right materials and equipment. He stayed up late at night whenever he had the chance and he would work. Every now and then he would mess something up or remember something and add it in. He wanted to this to be special, show off all the hard work he did, and radiate off all the love he felt for her. He even made sure to wrap it as carefully as his clumsy hands would allow and plopped a nice, big red bow on top. Then, taking a deep breath, he grabbed the gift, checked the time and day she said she'd be back – he was right: it was today – and Apparated to her flat.

When he arrived, Harry sighed and muttered a few choice words about Apparation while walking down the hall to the door labeled 12D. Tentatively, he knocked on the door and waited. There was shuffling inside and a click of the locks before the door opened and Harry came face to face with Ginny Weasley, his best friend's only and little sister.

Harry just stood there and admired her beauty: the shoulder length, fiery red hair all the Weasley's had that he just loved to run his hand through, her caramel colored eyes that were pleasant to look into, and her kind, but fierce when needed, heart – the aspect he loved most about her.

Ginny looked right back into his dark forest green eyes before she smiled and walked forward to embrace him. "Harry." She wasn't fooling him; he knew her well enough to know that the smile was a fake one and he had noticed the usual cute spark in her eyes was missing. Harry only hoped he hadn't made her cry over his foolish forgetfulness.

She stepped aside and led him in before closing and locking the door once more. Then she strolled to the kitchen. "Do you want anything? Tea? Water? Lemonade?" Ever since Harry had introduced Ginny to lemonade, she had been hooked. In fact, he saw she was apparently beginning to make some as there were lemons on her kitchen counter.

"No, thanks," he said, briefly looking at a picture of them on her desk. He put his coat down with the present hidden under it on the arm of her sofa, walked over to her, interlaced his fingers with hers, and walked them back to her sofa where they both sat. Harry nervously ran a hand through his inherited jet black messy hair, causing Ginny to cast a small smile. He could barely see it, but it was still there. "Look, Ginny – "

"Harry, it's okay. It really wasn't anything big anyway. I mean, it was a birthday. Why celebrate them? They're just here to tell us how much longer we have to live. Whoopee," she said and rather flatly at that. Cynical remarks. Harry flinched; Ginny had never said anything like this to anyone before. So that meant she was mad.

I'm in trouble he thought, but quickly diminished the thought to speak.

"It is a big thing to me. I've never missed your birthday before so missing it this time made me feel like one of the worst boyfriends ever . . . at least compared to your former boyfriends." He couldn't believe he was saying stuff like this, but he could see a smile tugging at the corner of her lips and thought it was all worth it, even if he did sound like some awful muggle television broadcast. He could see her make to say something, so he continued. "I wanted to apologize. You never missed one of my birthdays since we've been dating, for that reason there was no excuse for me to miss one of yours." He picked up the gift from under his coat and placed it on her lap. "Happy belated birthday, then."

Ginny looked at him for a moment, but Harry could see the spark coming back in her eyes. He waited anxiously as she took the bow off and removed the wrapping paper. Once the lid parted from the box, Harry checked to see her expression. As much as he knew Ginny, he just couldn't figure out what she was thinking of. He licked his lips before speaking.

"I – uh – know it's probably all messed up, but I – er – remember you telling your mum you've always wanted one, but her always being too busy to make you one so I – uh – "

"Harry, I love it," Ginny said, interrupting his rambling. Harry looked at her and saw such a brilliant smile he had to smile back.

"Well, as I said, I messed it up here and there, but you know I'm not as great at this like your mum." Harry watched as a happy Ginny pulled out her gift: a patchwork quilt. Indeed, Harry felt quite silly making it, but he knew she would love it, having wanted one for so long. More than once he contemplated finishing it off with magic, but thought better of it. He wanted Ginny to know he made a mistake and would work hard to fix it instead of waving his wand and "problem solved."

She spread the quilt over her and Harry's legs and started examining each patch. She ran her over one with the picture of a trolley, the word 'first' and the number 9 ¾ in the background. "That's where –" she began.

"Yup, that's where we first met. Most of these have something to do with us; like this one." Harry pointed to a patch with a get well card and musical notes. Ginny laughed.

"Yeah, I remember that day – when I was a second year and you were a third year." Harry nodded and for a couple of hours they sat and joked over some of the patches. Then, when Harry was getting ready to leave, Ginny put the quilt back in the box and stood.

"I'm coming with you to your flat, okay?" Harry looked confused, but nonetheless pleased and nodded. She grabbed her coat and the quilt before walking over to her boyfriend and grabbing his hand. After she checked to make sure everything was off, they Apparated to his place where later on in the night, they even got to test out the quilt.

That's right.

He and Ginny fell asleep under the quilt while eating treacle tart and watching some television.

A/N: There it is! Sorry if the ending wasn't quite what you were expecting, but I needed to add something funny in here! :) Please review - it'd be very helpful to me and my future stories since I just began writing stories. This was pretty shorter than my other story "Their First Conversation" which I hope you will read too. I actually liked this one better than "TFC." I pictured Harry at 20 or 21 and Ginny at 19 or 20 when writing this because I didn't want them moved in with each other just yet. And please feel free to tell me about any mistakes I might have made and overlooked. I'm also wondering why it says I'm the author of zero stories when "Their First Conversation" has been posted. Maybe it'll change when I post this one. I'm hoping it will anyway (Oh, and the reference to "Prisoner of Azkaban" (at the end) : go to chapter ten - page 183 - and read that page; it explains it right there).

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--