Hey hey everyone. It's been a while, hasn't it? Unfortunately, all my longer fics are on hold while i try to remember what i ever wanted to do with them, but here's a nice little one-shot birthday present to Ginny Weasley
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Ginny Weasley was in her backyard, playing Quidditch with her brother Ron. He guarded a hoop that they'd set up while she tried to score. But even with Ron's normal standard of goal-tending, Ginny was playing sub-par. She only scored 39 goals before they decided to call it an evening.
"Honestly Ron, there's only one goal! How hard can it be?"
"Well why don't you try Keeping one day, eh? It's not as easy as it looks."
"If I were keeping you'd never score a single point!"
"You wanna bet? I'll take you on tomorrow!"
"Sure you will." Ginny smirked and tossed her long red hair behind her as she opened the backdoor to the Burrow. The next time she and Ron played Quidditch, Harry and Hermione would be with them. There was only one day out of the year when only one person kept her out of the house. And that day was…
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINNY!" came roaring out of the door, accompanied by the bangs of crackers and several unidentified noises provided by Fred and George. Ginny smiled, looking at the faces of her parents, 4 of her brothers, a Sister-in-law peering over one brother's shoulder, a girl with bushy brown hair and the most famous boy in the Wizarding world.
Molly enveloped her only daughter in a huge hug. "Were you surprised, Ginny dear?"
"Sure mum…" Ginny fought her way out of her mother's arms for air, caught Harry's eye and winked. "Just as much as the last 15 times."
"Oh, my little Ginny is sixteen!" Molly wailed, crushing Ginny again and dabbing at her eyes.
"Mum, let her go or she won't reach 17," Bill chided, laughing. Molly released Ginny from her grasp, now bewitching her handkerchief to dab at her eyes on its own.
Ginny's birthday routine was set in stone after 16 years. The festivities started at dinner, with double helpings of her favorite chicken-and-ham pie followed by generous servings of a giant chocolate cake. After the meal, Molly showed a slide-show of her favorite moments in Ginny's year, much to the latter's annoyance. This year's show included the top ten goals that Ginny had made in summer Quidditch practices, Ginny trying on dress robes for her fifth year and a solid minute of footage where Ginny slept and Crookshanks worked her hair into a pillow.
Finally, after a second round of cake and ice cream for whoever wanted, they all gathered around to watch Ginny open her presents.
"Open mine, dear!" Molly urged, pushing a soft package toward Ginny. The handkerchief was still dabbing at her tearful face. Ginny tore open the paper to reveal a handmade set of bright green dress robes.
"Wow, thanks Mum," Ginny smiled.
"They'll match your eyes," Molly beamed. Fleur, sitting on the couch with her hand in Bill's long hair, scoffed at the gift and kicked her own package into Ginny's lap.
"Eere you go, Ginny. I theenk you will like zees better," she added as Ginny opened the silver paper. She held up a beautiful gold dress, looking impressed in spite of herself.
"Wow…I mean, thank you," She said stiffly. Even with Bill and Fleur officially married, there was a hardness between the two women.
Hermione leaned past Ron on the floor, whispering "She'll never take it off unless Fleur's around," to Harry. He grinned.
Fred and George had given Ginny a collection of their merchandise ("But no love potions!" George had forcefully made clear), Ron a Tail-Twig Clipper for her broom, Charlie a baby pink Pygmy Puff ("Mum, I checked! It's a boy! I promise! They won't breed!") and her parents several more articles of clothing and CDs of Celestina Warbeck (Harry had found an old CD player of Dudley's that year, though Celestina's music came out much louder and clearer than anything else.).
Finally, Ginny put aside Hermione's gift of 'interesting' spellbooks, which weren't altogether as boring as she'd expected, to pick up the long, thin package that everyone knew was a broom from Harry. As Ginny tore open the brown wrapping, two things happened. First, the gleaming logo of the Nimbus 2003 was shown to the room. Second, a small piece of parchment fluttered to the ground. She looked at Harry for a clue while everyone else admired her broom. He shook his head slightly. Ginny grinned, surreptitiously pocketed the paper and bounded over to give Harry a hug of thanks.
"Read it once everyone's gone," he whispered to her.
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Ginny crept unnoticed out the back door half an hour later, after the presents had been put away and a second birthday cake started. She clutched Harry's note in her hand, occasionally reading it over:
Ginny—I have a better present for you than a broom. Meet me at the Quidditch pitch five minutes after you read this note.
Impatiently, Ginny had left the house right after she noticed Harry sneaking off, rather than waiting. When they finally reached the pitch, Harry turned around to find an expectant Ginny right under his nose. He actually jumped.
"Ginny! I…you didn't follow your instructions."
"I was too excited for this great present of yours. So what is it?" She asked, smiling innocently.
"Well…er, I'd hoped to be out here before you…But I guess it doesn't really matter…" He looked around for a few moments, and everything was silent except for the wind and the crickets.
Finally, Harry turned back to Ginny, his green eyes looking straight into her blue. "Ginny…I've been thinking. About a lot of things…about us."
Ginny's heart skipped a beat. If this present is what I think it is, it makes a Nimbus look like a flobberworm.
"There were…well, a lot of things happened before Ron and Hermione and I came here. And I had to really think over what I was going to do."
"What kinds of things-"
"I don't want to talk about them right now," Harry said quickly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "That's not the important part."
Ginny huffed softly, but resolved to let the matter go for the moment. Harry looked so anxious to say whatever it was (and she had a shrewd idea what); she wanted to hear it.
"I had to think about what I can do, and what I have to be better at. And I realized—well, Hermione did, but that's not important—we realized that I'm still no good at Occlumency. So when I do face Voldemort…he'll know the things that can hurt me. And Ginny…" he pulled a hand out of his pocket and took one of hers. "He'll know…how I feel about you."
"Does this mean you're going to stop being all noble?"
Harry chuckled. "Yeah, kind of. Ginny, I love you. And I know there's no way to keep that from him. So…"
"You want to be dating again?" Ginny asked excitedly.
Harry smiled at her and wrapped an arm around her waist. He dropped her hand and pulled her closer. But Ginny reached her head up to kiss him before he had a chance.
"I love you too, Harry. I never fell out of love with you."
"I know. But you know it's going to be dangerous with us together like this."
"Because it's not dangerous the other way, too," she said with a grin. "We'll be fine. I just know it."
Harry grinned too, and kissed her again. The pair then walked off the Quidditch pitch and back to the house, hand in hand.