A/N: My first Harry Potter Fic, so be kind, and Please Read and Review, I would love to hear your suggestions.

Disclaimer: Not my Toy Box, I'm just playing with them, but I promise I'll put them right back where I found them! (in other words, I own nothing of Harry Potter at all and am getting no money for this story! Just the joy of writing and of course the wonderful feedback of Reviewers!)

Harry Potter Year Six: Chapter 1

Ginny slowly awoke and looked around her darkened room. She tried to focus her mind on what had awoken her so late at night. A cold hard laugh filled her mind, and an un-naturally large serpent slithered mercilessly around, constricting her thoughts. Ginny shivered involuntarily at the nightmare, no, worse, the memory she had just relived. She felt the cold penetrating darkness envelop her once more. Sighing as she looked out the window she saw the pre-dawn gray begin to creep across the sky, sending soft undefined boundaries across the countryside. She knew that she would never get to sleep now, and even if she did it would only be for a few hours before she would have to get up again anyways. She slipped her feet from under the covers and jumped as her warm bare feet hit the cold wood floor. Sliding on her slippers she headed across the room to the door. She was careful when she opened the door not to wake anyone up, and she expertly navigated the stairwell, minding all of the loose and creaky spots. She was annoyed with herself at the fact that five years later she was still having nightmares about him. She hated herself for being such a baby about the incident, as it was referred to at home if anyone needed to mention it.

She went about putting the kettle on for a cup of tea, making sure that she flipped the cap of the spout first so it wouldn't whistle. She waited for it to boil, which would have seemed like a surprisingly short amount of time if you were an ordinary person. Armed with a cup of lemon tea she went outside to clear her mind.

She walked down the garden path to her favorite spot. A small stream that ran at the base of their property through the orchard surrounded by tall trees. She always liked to come here when the thoughts in her mind became too much for her to deal with at any given point. Ginny wandered to the log that she had claimed as her own.

To her great surprise, someone else already occupied the log. In the darkness of the pre-dawn atmosphere, it was difficult to see whom.

"Couldn't you sleep ether?" came a soft voice from the log. Ginny felt her stomach quirk in a familiar way; that someone was none other than her brother's best friend Harry Potter who was staying with the family over the summer.

"No, I woke up a few hours ago and it seemed pointless to try to go to bed now" She said with a false sense of calm in her voice. Harry looked at her with an odd sort of expression on his face that Ginny couldn't exactly place.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Harry replied and Ginny sensed that she wasn't the only one who was not elaborating on the subject.

They sat in silence looking over the stream for a few minutes, the surprising thing to Ginny was that it was not an awkward silence, merely them sitting thinking about different things.

It was Harry who broke the silence first. "I am so glad that I am here instead of at the Dursley's place…it was really nice of your mum and dad to let me stay here,"

Ginny laughed, "Harry, mum adores you, and dad loves to pepper you with questions about the muggles! Don't think for a minute that you aren't more than welcome here."

Harry looked sideways at her; it was odd for him to think about that, that he wasn't just someone's imposition. All of his life, until a few years ago he was treated as a pest that the Dursleys had to endure and put up with, not liked and never loved, by anyone.

"Thanks Gin" he stated simply, that was all he could think of to say.

Ginny was surprised. She also felt a strange sort of happiness at the mention of that nickname. She hadn't said anything big or motivational, but the emotions that were in Harry's voice were very evident. Ginny began to doubt if anyone had ever told Harry that he wasn't an imposition. She couldn't imagine what that must feel like to have no family to speak of. Ginny looked at the green eyes that were staring off into a memory that Ginny couldn't follow into. She guessed it was of the one person that Harry had that was ever close to a father to him. It was probably the reason that Harry had not been able to sleep as well. She was willing to bet a hundred galleons that she didn't have that he was thinking about Sirius.

"I hate him," Harry murmured under his breath, lost in thought he had forgotten that Ginny was sitting right besides him. Voldemort was the reason that he didn't have any family to speak of at all. The painful truth of the matter was that Voldemort was the keystone to his very destiny; their lives were inextricably wound together, fused into a single fate.

"I know Harry, Voldemort is the most foul creature to ever crawl the earth"

Harry was stunned, she was the only person his age he had ever heard use his name, other than himself. He also was a little surprised at the fact that she had know exactly what was on his mind.

If it hadn't been such a somber conversation, Ginny would have laughed at the confused expression that Harry was currently throwing her.

"It wasn't that hard Harry, Voldemort I think has been keeping both of us up tonight."

Harry was confused, why would Ginny be thinking about him, and then he felt foolish.

"You know, you are the only other person our age that has said his name without a shiver." Harry mused.

"Yeah, something about almost being killed by him once kind of makes you loose the fear of the name. I just fear his face now." She answered pragmatically.

Harry was surprised at what he was hearing that morning, he never had really given Ginny much notice before, she was always just Ron's little sister, but he was beginning to see that she was so much more, it was almost like a fusion of Ron, Hermione and the twins.

He didn't know how he was supposed to react to her statement, but when he saw her crack a grin he returned her smile.

"Yeah, well, I win still, you've got another four times to go to catch up" He said wryly.

In a strange way it felt good to joke about it. Ron would always look nervous and Hermione never would have approved, but Ginny didn't seem to think any differently about him when he talked about the boy, who kept living,

"Ah, well, I guess I'll have to pencil it in around my Quiddich practices." She said with a laugh.

Harry was so glad he wasn't around all the nervous looks and tension waiting for him to explode at any moment.

The sun had now properly risen and the two got up off the log to go back to the house.

When they reached the garden gate Harry looked to Ginny in a way that made her stomach unbidden by her turn a bit.

"Gin, I just wanted to thank you for that." he said with his eyes turned downward.

"Don't worry Harry, that's what best friends little sisters are for."

Harry stared at her for a second, was that all she thought she was to him?

"No Gin, that's what friends are for, good friends. I don't really know you very well, and that is a mistake on my part. And thanks again, I needed that. You are kind of the only one I know of that I can relate to…" Harry broke off not knowing where he was headed, but the look on Ginny's face told him it didn't really matter much.

Ginny watched him walk into the house that was yet to be awake. Harry Potter called him her friend, no he called her a good friend and he said that he needed her. Looking at her watch she was stunned to see that they had been in the woods together for two hours, it had seemed like only minuets. She walked into the house a much happier girl than when she had left alone in the dark.

A/N: So, did you like it, hate it? Let me know!