Fetching the Eggs

Ginny's tall rubber boots crunched against the shards of rock embedded in the thick, doughy mud that lined the path to the henhouse. The wicker basket held in her left arm rubbed against her upper thigh, irritating her even through her jeans.

She nearly tripped over a small log directly at her feet, so preoccupied was she. With a shake of her head, she righted herself and continued walking. Although several chickens gathered around Ginny's feet with hopes of birdseed, she took no notice of them. Predictably, Ginny's mind was not on the hens. They had received an owl from Professor Dumbledore the previous day saying that Harry would be arriving at the Burrow within the next few days, and Ginny was determined not to make a fool of herself this time. This time would be different.

As much as Ginny hated to admit it to herself, every time that she had told herself this before she had messed everything up again, in one way or another. She wanted to be cool, calm, and collected; make Harry notice her, just notice.

But, deep inside of her, where Ginny kept her deepest secrets locked away, she knew that she would never be happy with just being taken notice of. It was simply in her nature to love with fire and passion, and need to be loved with fire and passion.

Sighing unhappily, much frustrated with herself at her own inability to tell Harry what he already knew, she tromped into the chicken coop noisily, frightening most of the chickens away, except for several obstinate laying mothers. Because of Mum's constant cleaning charms, each straw-filled nest was reasonably clean, and Ginny did not hesitate to push to stubborn hens away from their eggs and sift through the thick layer of hay.

Out of the 12 nests in the coop, Ginny usually found only about 25 eggs, give or take a few. Their hens were obviously slow layers, but her parents refused to jinx them to lay more. Today, however, was a good day already, as after only 7 nests Ginny had recovered 15 eggs. That was the chickens for you, Ginny thought with an inner sigh, unpredictable even in egg-laying. With a little more zeal this time, Ginny dug her hand into the 8th cubby, which the hen's used for their nests, and her hand found several smooth eggs.

Using only one hand, Ginny pulled out two of the 3 eggs, and her hand was halfway to the basket when a floorboard creaking loudly bhind her startled her into dropping one of the two.

Cursing softly under her breath, Ginny looked up, annoyed. All of the reprimands that had leapt to her tongue, eager to chastise either Ron, Fred, or George, died away quickly and slid back down her throat.

There, bending down before her, picking up the two halves of the cracked eggshell, his glasses sliding down his nose at an oddly beautiful angle, was Harry Potter. Ginny felt a rush of joy fall into her stomach, and it took everything Ginny had in her not to drop the entire wicker basket and run to Harry's arms. Harry was standing up now, and dropped the broken egg into her basket on top of the others before looking up and smiling at her. Ginny knew she should speak.

"Harry! I – when did you get here?" She was breathless with excitement, and she knew it.

"I just got here. Dumbledore brought me, but he's gone already. Said he had to leave quickly, as soon as he knew I was safe." Harry had obviously been somewhere else that night, judging by his wry, satisfied expression, but she would not question him on it now. The only thing that ran through Ginny's mind was that he had come to see her first, before even Ron. The thought seemed to fill her with pure, clear air, so that she felt almost able to float.

"Harry, I've – " but she was interrupted by Harry, who had stepped closer to her and pressed his index finger to her lips, not roughly, but firmly.

"Ginny." Only one word, but Harry said it as though it was the sweetest word in the world, as though every syllable brought him joy.

Shocks of pleasure and nervousness shot up and down Ginny's spine as all thoughts that made any sense flew from her head. Harry was still smiling at her, his angular mouth twisting into an angular grin that made her knees wobbly.

A moment passed before Ginny let her breath out shakily, relaxing a little bit. Just then, catching her by surprise, Harry seized her waste and pulled her towards him. At this point, Ginny lost all control and let out a blissfully nervous giggle as he cupped his, rough, cool hand around her face. Closing her eyes, savoring every second of this precious moment, Ginny could feel her heart pounding in her chest, sending blood to her face and making her head ring with happiness.

She looked into the great, green emeralds that were his eyes and a flirtatious grin flickered across her freckled face, encouraging him. Harry brought his face closer, and pressed his lips lightly against her own. Her instinct kicked in. She put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, pushing him almost roughly against the henhouse walls. He was clutching her waste so tightly she could hardly breath, but she did not believe that she could have anyway. They pulled apart gently, but only for a moment. He enveloped her in his warmth, kissing her more passionately this time. She responded with lips as eager as his.

After several minutes, they broke apart. Ginny leaned against Harry's chest and enjoyed how firm and solid he was for a moment before a chuckle escaped her. Harry did not question her, but joined in, until the chicken coop rung with their joy of being together.

Harry pushed his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose, and turned to stare at Ginny. When Ginny met his eyes again he was looking at her with something that she thought looked very much like awe. She smiled at him, and hugged him fiercely, letting him hug her back.

Several minutes later, they walked out of the chicken coop, entirely forgetting the egg basket, which had been dropped while the couple was busy. Ginny and Harry were both so busy looking at each other that they were surprised when the Burrows door appeared in front of them. Before they entered The Burrow, Ginny grabbed the front of Harry's shirt, and kissed him hard of the lips one more time – they couldn't get enough of each other now that they were finally together.

They walked into the burrow together, with Harry's strong arm pulling Ginny tightly to him, as though he never wanted to let her go.