Disclaimer: 1) The woman who owns these characters is rich

2) I am not rich

:. I do not own these characters.

Ginny was sitting alone in her room at the Burrow, absent-mindedly counting the bumps on her ceiling. The cool evening breeze soothed her mind; helping to keep her thoughts clear of anything but the mundane task she had set herself nearly an hour before. It wasn't often that Ginny had to forcibly bore herself out of depressing thoughts. After all, Harry had only been gone for two week. She was an independent young woman. She could survive without Harry.

Well, for a little while at least.

"Four-hundred-twenty-seven, four-hundred-twenty-eight, four-hundred-twen-"

A soft knock interrupted her counting. Ginny replied with an anxious and excited

"Come in!".

"Well, hello to you too!" Hermione said.

"Oh, hey Hermione." She said, he voice deflating slightly.

"Expecting someone else?"

"Well, not expecting per se, just . . . hoping."

"Well, you know Harry won't be back from his first round of Auror training for another 3 weeks. No use getting your hopes up like that."

"I know, Its just . . . I miss seeing him everyday. Being in the same year at Hogwarts last year was so great. I miss having that time together. It feels strange around here without him. Not that I'm disappointed to see you. I'm always happy to see you've found time to detach yourself from my dear brother's face." Ginny said cheekily.

"Har. Har." Hermione replied sarcastically.

"No, seriously, I'm surprised the two of you find time to fit sleep into your busy snogging schedule, let alone meals. I'm impressed. Although, I suppose breaks for meals is a given with Ron as a boyfriend. He's going to start growing wide instead of tall soon if he's not careful…"

"Alright, alright, that's enough of your sass for tonight miss Weasley."

"You mean, I'm out of sass for the entire night already? But its only 8 o'clock!"

"Well, You should have thought of the consequences before you spoke!"

"Eye eye Professor McGonagall…" Ginny mumbled under her breath.

Hermione gave a stern look that unintentionally justified Ginny's comment, but otherwise ignored the insult.

After a few moments of silence with both girls lying back on their respective beds, Hermione returned the subject of Harry.

"I guess you're right Ginny. It has been awfully strange around here without Harry. I've gotten so used to the four of use being together all the time, I sometimes forget he's gone and expect him to walk out of Ron's bedroom in the morning and join us all for breakfast."

"You're preaching to the choir."

"Have you had any owls from him?"

"Just one. Telling me that he made it to training safely, that he misses me, and that he'll write me a longer letter when he gets the chance. That was two weeks ago." Ginny sighed. She had spent the last fourteen nights waiting to hear from him, but nothing ever came.

As if reading Ginny's mind Hermione said, "I'm sure he's just really busy Gin. I mean, Auror training can't be easy."

"You're probably right. I just hate being patient…"

"Well," Hermione said with a grin growing on her face," It doesn't look like you'll have to be patient much longer. Look out your window."

As if by magic, there was an owl Ginny had never seen before flying towards her window. (Harry had not yet replaced Hedwig, and had obviously borrowed an owl from someone in order to write her). The large, tawny brown owl lowered itself gently onto Ginny's window ledge, and held its let out towards her. She stroked it softly, untied the letter, then watched as it flew back into the night.

"Well, I'll leave you be for a moment. Promise to tell me what it says when you're done reading it?" Hermione asked as she headed for the door, allowing Ginny a few moments of privacy.

"Sure, sure." Ginny said distractedly. "Anything you want 'mione."

Ginny settled back into her bed to enjoy what she hoped was a long letter from Harry.

Ginny,

I know it's been nearly two weeks since I've written you, but please don't confuse lack of writing with lack of thought. I think about you all the time. Which, on a few occasions, has nearly gotten me in big trouble since thoughts of you easily distract me from the task at hand.

I finally had a chance to put pen to paper today, and Sullivan was nice enough to loan me his owl Trinity. He's a nice bloke from Ireland (county Donegal, I think), and I really think you'd like him if you knew him. Since I don't have you, Ron, or Hermione's company, he's grown to be a good friend of mine.

Other than missing you, things have been good here. Training is hard, but I feel like I'm doing pretty well. I definitely am not treated like a celebrity here, I finally feel like 'one of the guys'. It's better than Hogwarts, where everyone was always staring at me. The guys are pretty immune to my celebrity, and I am extremely grateful for that.

Enough about me though, how have things been at the Burrow? Have you heard anything from any quidditch teams yet? I just know someone's drafted you! I expect to get a letter the minute you find out who got you so I can run out and order all of their merchandise and cheer you on at every game! I am officially you're number one fan, both on and off the pitch ;-)

Well my love, on that note I have to go. Don't worry, I promise not to wait two weeks to write again. I miss you terribly, and love you very much. See you in three weeks.

All my Love,

Harry

Ginny sighed and held the letter close to her chest as she lay back on her bed, as if the letter were Harry himself. She wished he were here so she could kiss him passionately in thanks for such loving and supportive words. She could hardly wait for the day he came home, and for the first few minutes they had alone… It would be just like the day earlier that summer when, by utter chance, they had the Burrow all to themselves…

To be continued…