It was Christmas and Ginny was looking forward to spending her school holidays with her boyfriend. She, Luna and Hermione got off the train and all looked around for their respective boyfriends. Luna was quickly swept off her feet by Neville, with Ron following close behind him. However there was no sign of Harry. She saw her mother though, and went to ask her about Harry.
"Didn't he tell you? He's working today; in fact he won't be at the Burrow until the 22nd of December." Ginny's face must have shown her disappointment, as her mother put her arm around her as they walked off the platform together. They went out to the car to wait for Ron and Hermione, who came out about five minutes after them. They went back to the Burrow, and Ginny went upstairs to put her things away, and to be alone. Once in the privacy of her own room, she sat on the bed, and put her head in her hands. She had so been looking forward to seeing Harry: she hadn't seen him since the beginning of September and had really missed him. She had thought he missed her too, but as he hadn't even bothered to come and meet her at the station, and he wasn't going to be at the Burrow for another week, she wasn't so sure.
In actual fact, Harry had also really been looking forward to seeing Ginny, and had been planning to go to the platform to see her. However, at the last minute he had been given some urgent work to do, and he still couldn't forget the argument he had had with Ron just a few days ago. It was after all pretty hard to forget an argument when the bruise on your face was still visible.
Molly Weasley made sure to keep her daughter extremely busy over the next few days. So, Ginny was put in charge of wrapping all the Christmas presents, decorating the tree, and most importantly, cooking. She made a different cake every day. Of course, this Christmas would be incredibly hard for them, as they would be missing three people from the celebrations. They would be gaining Teddy Lupin and Andromeda Tonks though. When the 22nd of December finally arrived, Ginny was too busy to even notice the date. It wasn't until there was a knock at the door that she remembered who was arriving today. Hermione reached the door first, and Ginny looked down the stairs, just to check it was actually him. It was.
Harry got away from work as early as he could on the 22nd, but it still wasn't as early as he had hoped. He went straight to the Burrow, not bothering to get changed. He knocked on the door, and waited. The door opened, and he hoped it wasn't Ron who answered the door; he really wasn't in the mood for another argument. He was glad when it opened that it was actually Hermione. He wasn't so sure when she pulled him into a bone crunching hug, and wouldn't let him go.
Ginny slowly came down the stairs as Hermione suffocated Harry. By the time she let him go, Ginny was on the last step. She turned to meet his gaze. He walked towards her. She smiled at him, and before she knew it she was in his embrace. She pulled away slightly.
"I've missed you so much Harry."
"I missed you too Ginny." He kissed her gently. She wrapped her arms around his neck. She could stay like this forever.
He could've stayed like that forever, but at that moment Ron shoved past them on his was upstairs.
"Get a room." He muttered darkly. Ginny and Hermione looked at each other and laughed, although their laughter was stopped short by the glower on Harry's face.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, looking worried. He forced himself to smile. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
"Oh, it's nothing." He said, absent-mindedly touching the spot on his face where up until a couple of days ago he had had a bruise as a reminder of the fight.
The next thing he knew he was being pulled into a hug by Mrs Weasley.
"Harry! It's so good to see you! We were beginning to get worried." She laughed. "After all, it's been so long since you have been here. We were thinking about sending out a search party, but then we got your owl." She paused to look at him properly, and at the same time he saw Ginny and Hermione's questioning looks.
"You're looking far too peaky dear. I'm sure you're not eating properly, after all you are being fed by Kreacher." She said his name with disdain.
"Kreacher is actually a pretty good cook, although not as good as yourself obviously." Harry said with a smile. Mrs Weasley beamed back at him.
Harry made his way into the familiar sitting room with Ginny. Hermione had gone upstairs to talk to Ron. He hoped that Ron would be the bigger person and apologise; after all, he had been the one who started it, and the one who had punched him. Harry and Ginny sat down on the couch. They were the only two in there. Ginny looked at him. "Harry, what's going on? Mum said you haven't been here in weeks, and I saw that look you gave Ron, if it was just for that comment, then I'm afraid you'll have to get used to them, I can already predict that a week or so of staying in the same house as my brothers and my boyfriend is going to be interesting, you know what they're like." Ginny smiled, but the concern was obvious in her eyes. Harry was about to explain, but was interrupted by Mrs Weasley's call for dinner. "After dinner," Harry promised Ginny.
They all sat down around the Weasley dining table. Soon it was just like any other Weasley meal, except he and Ron didn't speak a word to each other for the entire meal. If they were ever brought into the same conversation, they just glared at each other, until eventually everyone picked up that something was wrong. The meal was soon over, and before he knew it, they were all sitting in the living room. One by one people went up to bed or to somewhere else in the house. It started with Fred and George, who claimed they were going up to bed, but as everyone could hear bangs coming from their room, they didn't convince anyone. Then Ron and Hermione left. The tension in the room, which previously could have been cut with a knife, suddenly disappeared. Before too long, Harry remembered his promise to explain everything to Ginny.
They left the living room, and went up to Ginny's bedroom, the only place they could be guaranteed at least a little privacy. Harry sat down on Ginny's armchair, and took a deep breath.
"After I tell you this, promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"Try not to rip Ron's head off straight away; this only happened because he loves you so much." Ginny looked angry already.
"I'm not sure I can promise that Harry." He shrugged.
"At least I tried." She smiled. "Ok, so this starts a couple of months ago, when I received a letter from Dudley. He was the last person I was expecting to get a letter from, especially as it was sent by owl. In his letter he told me that he had moved out of his parents' house, and was now living with his girlfriend, Susan Bones. Of course, I recognised that name immediately, and we had quite a few correspondences actually, until eventually we arranged to meet up in London. So, we meet up, and had that awkward hug/hand shake dilemma. Of course, Susan and I greeted each other like old friends, as we are. We decided to go to the Leaky Cauldron, which is where the problem arose. In the Leaky Cauldron was Cho Chang, who upon seeing me flung her arms around me. It just so happened that Ronald was in the Leaky Cauldron at the time, and all he saw was me and Cho hugging in a pub. He didn't see Dudley or Susan with me, and he immediately assumed the worst: that I was cheating on you with Cho. So, that night he came and paid me a visit at Grimmauld Place. I expect you can imagine what happened. I think all I need to say is that words were exchanged, and on his part, punches were thrown. That's why I haven't been here for a while: I wanted to give Ron a chance to calm down. That is also why we haven't really spoken since I got here." Ginny looked livid.
"That pig headed little twat! Who does he think he is? How dare he attack you for what was just an innocent chance meeting between friends!" She got up, and before he could stop her, she had ran out of the room.
He followed her towards Ron's room, where she marched straight in. Hermione and Ron were sitting on the bed, and as the door burst open, Harry saw them spring apart, and Hermione start to straighten her top. He smirked to himself, and then remembered why he was there as Ginny slapped Ron. Hermione looked confused, but Ron just looked straight at Harry.
"You told her then." Before Harry could reply, Ginny slapped her brother again.
"Of course he bloody told me, you prat! Even if you did see Harry and Cho together, that is no reason to go around punching people! I can fight my own battles, and trust me, if there was something going on, I would know about it, and Harry would have suffered a lot more than a punch by now." Hermione looked confusedly between Ginny, Harry and Ron.
"Would someone like to explain to me what is going on?" she demanded. By now Fred, George and Bill had all appeared in the doorway as well.
"My darling brother here saw Harry with Cho in the Leaky Cauldron and assumed the worst, so he went over that night, and decided to pick a fight, which ended with Harry being punched for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON!" she yelled the last bit at Ron, who was starting to look slightly scared.
"I was just trying to protect you Gin; I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry, I truly am."
"It's not me you should be bloody apologising to Ronald!" Fred pushed Harry forward slightly, with a wink. Ron muttered something.
"I'm sorry, Ronald, I couldn't quite hear that" Ginny smiled sweetly.
"I said, I'm sorry, but Harry shouldn't have been going round hugging his exes in pubs."
"Jesus Ron! If you met Lavender in a pub, are you telling me that you would blank her?" Harry demanded.
"No, of course not. But that's different."
"How exactly? Because I'm dating your sister, and you're so bloody overprotective? Or perhaps because Lavender would throw herself at you, and you would have no choice. Well that's exactly what happened with me and Cho. I was just trying to have a catch up with Dudley, who I hadn't seen for years, and Cho threw herself at me. But I guess that because I'm dating your sister, I'm automatically wrong, and am obviously cheating on her. Of course." Harry finished his little speech at such a high volume, that Mr and Mrs Weasley came running up the stairs. By this point Harry and Ron were both on their feet, and it looked as if one of them was about to hit the other again. Fred and George stepped neatly between them, just as they both drew their wands. The whole Weasley family was now crammed into Ron's room.
"No! It's just different, that's all." Hermione snorted. He threw an injured look to her. "You're supposed to be on my side."
"To be honest, Harry's right. You shouldn't have hit him Ron. It was a stupid thing to do." Ron looked to his brothers for support.
"You'd have done the same thing wouldn't you?" He said to them. Fred and George looked at him and shook their heads. Bill was the one to reply though,
"Eventually, I might have done. However, I would have waited until I knew the full story. I would've gone by the concept of 'Innocent until proven Guilty' rather than 'Guilty until proven Innocent.'" Ron had run out of people to turn to for support. He was bright red by this point, and muttered a quick sorry before leaving the room. Mr and Mrs Weasley looked very confused. Harry left the twins to explain. He needed some air.
He went downstairs, and went outside into the garden. Eventually he went back inside and was greeted by Ginny.
"I was just coming out to look for you" she smiled at him.
"Do you know where Ron went?" she nodded.
"He's gone to bed."
"I'm going to sleep down here tonight I think, if that's ok." Ginny nodded.
"I'll get you some blankets." She went back upstairs, and he went through to the living room. He found Fred and George sitting in there, discussing the argument. Harry smiled at them as he walked in. They smiled back.
"Are we to assume you will not be sleeping in Ron's room tonight then, Harry?" smirked Fred.
"I think I'm just going to crash down here. Gin's gone to get me some blankets" he replied. They nodded.
"Well, after all that excitement, I really am ready for bed. Coming Fred?" Fred nodded.
"Night Harry" they chorused.
At that moment Ginny walked back in with the blankets. She helped him make a bed out of one of the couches, and then went upstairs. Harry lay in the dark, turning the evening's events over in his mind. Eventually, he must have drifted off, because he was shaken awake at about 4 in the morning. He sat up, and saw Ron. He mentally prepared for the worst, and made sure his wand was within easy reach. Ron awkwardly perched on the edge of the armchair next to Harry's feet.
"I – I guess I just wanted to apologise here, without everyone listening. I shouldn't have hit you, and I shouldn't have just jumped to conclusions. I really am sorry." Harry relaxed, and discreetly put his wand away.
"That's alright, I forgive you. You had every right to be worried." He smiled at Ron, who smiled back.
"I'm glad we got that sorted out" Ron chuckled. "I guess I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and tomorrow night, you are welcome to share my room again." Ron turned to exit the room.
"See you in the morning." Harry smiled, satisfied. He slept soundly for the rest of the night.
