Hand in hand, both secretly dying of excitement, joy, love, the fear of being caught, they ran down the hall. Giggling, grinning, listening, hooping the only sound they would meet was the sound of their own footsteps. Harry/Ginny fic!

For the love of Merlin!

The common room was full of people. Like always, the trio had taken up the seats by the fireplace. They were also accompanied by Ginny, Neville, Fred and George who just couldn't obey Hermione's orders about not disturbing her reading. She was curled up in the corner of the sofa while resting a huge book, even huger than normal, on her lap. Her hair was bushier than normal and her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. By her side sat Ron, trying to seem interested in her heavy choice of literature, but giving up seeing as he couldn't get her attention anyway. The only thing she cared about for the moment was how engrossed she was in the book, and how terribly annoying Ron's twins were, so Ron himself stuck to eating chocolate frogs and gathering cards.

"Another one of Dumbledore," he mumbled and Harry looked up from his place in the big comfy chair. For a while he'd just been staring at the fireplace, the fire, the rug close by, thinking about... "I swear," Ron continued, "if he shows up in the next one too..." Harry looked over at Neville who sat at the other end of the sofa, beside Ron, busy trying to keep Trevor in place, but not so busy to not look up to meet Harry's look and shrug.

"You've already said that a dozen times, you know," he said.

Ron put the frog in his mouth and chewed ungracefully. "I know, but," he picked up the card and gave it a tragic sigh, "how much will it take for me to get just one Chudley Canons related card?"

"Guessing by your pile of cards, I'd say another ten at least," Ginny said from where she was sitting on the floor, polishing her quidditch gear. She'd been quite frustrated, after just barely winning the match against Ravenclaw the last day. Somehow, polishing made her feel better. Her hair was shining a bit from the light coming from the fire, Harry noticed, making it seem even more flaming red. Her freckles and cute little nose made her concentrated face really something to look at. She stirred and Harry quickly looked away and let his eyes wander around in the room. Some fellow Gryffindoors were studying, but most of them were just having fun. Chatting and getting lost in exploding snap and the Weasley twins' fantastic products.

Harry looked back at Ginny again. She was really pretty, not very short, but not tall either, which was lucky, Harry thought, because he wasn't very tall either, just a bit taller than her. She wore a big knitted sweater, probably one she'd gotten from her mum. But that wasn't all about her, no, she wasn't just pretty. Ginny was incredibly smart, not as brainy as Hermione though, but smart. Smart and witty, and funny. And she was amazing at quidditch. Those humany qualities everyone should have was nicely put in her personality, she was nice and caring too. And very pretty, Harry thought again as he looked at her. Sadly, he wasn't the only one who'd noticed those things. Ginny was popular, not popular like he'd been whenever he'd done something heroic and then for the popularity to fade away some days later, but truly popular and liked by everyone. He'd even though one time he'd seen Malfoy look at her with a half decent look on his face, but he wasn't sure.

He looked away to see if anyone was looking at him, but there was no one. It was very nice and cosy in the common room. The people and atmosphere made you feel so welcome. And tired. The darkness from outside the windows and the yellow light from the fireplace made him feel sleepy and calm. Harry yawned. Then he looked back at Ginny again. Last time he'd talked to her was this morning. She had been angry and rambling about what a fool the slytherin first years were. How they thought they were so cool and owned the place, and how it was even more frustrating to know that when they grew older they'd get even worse. Harry had nodded and agreed at everything.

Suddenly he thought it had gotten very quiet. He lifted his eyes away from Ginny and looked up. Ron was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Neville, Fred and George was also looking at him expectantly. Only the girls hadn't noticed, or at least they pretended to not notice anything, just to make things less awkward for him. He'd done dangerous wizards and creatures, but social situations gone wrong had always been a tough one.

"I... er..." Harry started. Ron was starting to become red at the tips of his ears, which never was a good sign. "Quidditch."

"You quidditch?" Fred asked and raised his eyebrows like Ron. But unlike his younger brother, he didn't seem bothered by Harry's staring at his little sister. Both he and George had equally amused looks on their faces. "You quidditch, Harry, yes, of course," George said seriously, "Ron, relax, he's just quidditching."

"No," Harry said with a slight frown, "I was just thinking about quidditch. This one move Ginny did last match against Ravenclaw, did you see it, Ron?"

Ron didn't look very convinced, but suddenly he seemed to remember the move he thought Harry spoke of, and he lit up. "You mean the one where the bludger zoomed towards her, but then she made it-" Harry smiled relieved.

"Yes, exactly," he confirmed, but interrupted his own sentence with a yawn. "I'm going to bed," he said and got up.

"I'll go too," Ron said, and Neville said "yes," and followed.

As the three boys made their way up towards the stairs, Fred and George took their places in the sofa and Ginny in the chair. Hermione looked up from her book for a second and gave Ginny a knowing smile which she returned.


A/N: Don't kill me, please. I know I've been neglecting this fanfiction writing for much too long to be acceptable, but now I'm back! I stopped writing in November because of NaNoWriMo (check it out) and then I stopped because I was a bit tired of writing 50 000 words, and then I stopped because it was Christmas, and then because of school starting again, and then I just didn't write. But now I'm (hopefully) back! Also this is my first Harry/Ginny fic, because I thought about the movie and how she isn't as awesome in it like she's in the books. Please review! I'm not kidding, it'll make me write faster! (and do you think this chapter was to short?)