"GIRLS! HARRY! DINNER!" Mrs. Weasley's voice bellowed up the stairs. Ginny and Hermione rose from the floor, where Ginny was showing her pictures of Westbrook, and started their descent. Ginny swung the door open first and ran straight into something hard, warm, and boy shaped. She stumbled and felt herself begin to fall.
Instantly, a pair of strong but thin arms wrapped around her, catching her before she fell. She shook her deep red hair out of her face and was met with the most brilliant emerald eyes she had ever seen. She let out a light breath through her full lips and gave him her best, head turning look. His eyes widened slightly under his glasses, his messy black hair beginning to fall into them. Hermione coughed slightly behind them, causing Harry to swiftly right them both and release her as if she was on fire.
"Harry, meet Ginny. Ginny, meet Harry."
"Hello, Harry," Ginny said in her raspy, husky voice, reaching her hand out smoothly. He shook her hand with a slightly clammy one. She swallowed afterward, trying her hardest to not show her pure star struck inner girl. Inside, she was squealing and throwing herself at him. Outside, she kept her most impersonal expression.
"Hi," he gulped out. She smiled at him sweetly before trouncing back down the hall. Hermione laughed at her best guy friend.
"Someone's got it bad," Hermione teased.
"No I don't," Harry growled, the mask that he had been wearing all summer slipping back onto his face. His eyes became emotionless once again as he stormed toward the staircase. Hermione sighed. It was going to be a long summer.
Dinner was awkward. There was a tension at the table that could be cut with a knife. Ginny and Sirius seemed to be the only people not affected by it in the slightest. Harry was moodily stabbing at his food while Hermione watched him critically. Ron was glaring at his elder brother Percy across the table, who was haughtily ignoring everybody. Both Weasley parents were huffing periodically at Percy. A dark, cynical looking man that Ginny learned was named Professor Snape would make occasional snide remarks to which Ginny always had a comeback.
"Potter, if you would stop sulking in teen angst long enough to pass me the bread," Snape began in his oily voice.
Ginny flipped her hair. "Is it, like, painful, having that stick up your arse?"
Mrs. Weasley choked on her chicken, Harry smiled faintly, Hermione's jaw dropped, Ron and Sirius laughed, and Percy sniffed.
"Excuse me," Snape said. "Who are you exactly?"
"Ginny Weasley," Ginny smiled at him. "Former student of Westbrook Academy, new student of Hogwarts."
"Then I will be your professor," Snape replied. "It would be in your best interest to show me some respect."
"It would be in your best interest to stop insulting your students then, sir."
"Ginny! That is enough!" Molly snapped at her daughter from the other end of the table. Harry was now smiling fully, which caused Hermione to give Ginny a satisfied smirk in return.
"I like you, kid," Sirius said to her. "You would have fit in well with my friends and I in school."
"Nah," Ginny shrugged. "I woulda been too hot for you to handle, old man."
Sirius laughed fully. "I'm gonna have to teach you the ultimate ways to annoy old Snivellus over there."
"Ah, that name alone...I can work wonders with that," Ginny smirked, sipping her pumpkin juice.
"I was hoping so," Sirius grinned. Sirius lowered his tone, "And thanks for making my godson over there smile. I haven't seen him do it since the Tournament."
"Glad I could help," Ginny shrugged. "I'll try and do it more often."
Ginny glanced at the black haired boy when Sirius had gone back to eating and talking to Remus. He had gone back to brooding, biting his lip and staring into his plate as if it held the answers to the world. There was something in his eyes, something lost and broken, that tugged at Ginny's previously dormant heartstrings.
Ginny Weasley had very few rules in life. Never back down, never apologize, and never, ever fall in love. Ginny had turned off her heart, turned off her feelings, for so long now that it almost pained her to have butterflies flutter in her stomach as his green eyes met hers across the table.
She looked down then looked back up at him, flashing him her most sultry gaze. She was surprised when his eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth; he looked like he absolutely hated her. She had received looks like those from countless girls at Westbrook, but she had never gotten a look of hatred from a boy.
Harry Potter was going to be one tough shell to crack. Good thing Ginny Weasley was one of the most stubborn girls in the world.
***
"So what's Harry's deal?" Ginny asked Hermione as they got ready for bed. Ginny was removing her eye make up while Hermione brushed through her poofy hair.
"Well...tell me how much you know about him, and we'll go from there," Hermione said carefully. She wasn't going to surrender Harry's secrets of course, but Ginny did deserve to know something about him.
"All I know is that he's the Boy Who Lived," Ginny shrugged. "We read a lot of books about him at school."
"Well...the reason why he's so angry now is because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament last year. He was entered against his will. The entire thing was very stressful for him, but in the last challenge, something happened," Hermione said.
"Voldemort came back," Ginny finished, nodding. "I read Dumbledore's statement about it."
"Exactly. And in that process, Voldemort used Harry's blood to become fully human again. He blames himself for that. He also blames himself for Cedric's death..."
"Cedric Diggory? I used to play with him when I was a kid," Ginny said nostalgically. "That's really terrible...but it's not as though Harry killed him."
"Yes, I know that," Hermione said. "He doesn't."
"He looked at me like he hates me," Ginny sighed suddenly.
"He does that a lot lately," Hermione said, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't let it bother you. He'll come around eventually."
"I suppose. So, are you my brother's girlfriend?" Ginny asked candidly. Hermione blushed.
"No, no, I'm not," she rushed to say. "We're friends. Just friends."
"Doesn't seem like it to me," Ginny said slyly. "You two couldn't stop looking at each other..."
Hermione smiled and shook her head but said nothing. Ginny giggled and crawled into bed, turning out the lamp next to her.
"Hey Hermione?"
"Yes, Ginny?"
"I've got a good feeling about this."
"Me too."
***
It was three o'clock in the morning and yet Ginny found herself completely awake. She'd been an insomniac for an extremely long time. She reluctantly climbed out of the warmth of her bed, feeling the chilly air hit her exposed legs. Wearing only a big white v-neck T-shirt to bed had seemed like a good idea before. She wandered down the unfamiliar hall, getting more chills, this time from the creepy decorations adorning the walls.
She heard a sudden bang and jumped. Tentatively, she began to walk toward the noise. Curiosity had always been a weak point of hers. She found a door at the end of the hall slightly ajar, and slipping in silently, she realized what the bang was from.
The messy black hair of the tall boy in front of her was a dead giveaway that it was, indeed, Harry. She crossed her arms and leaned against the door jam, watching him with curiosity. There was a big black cylinder hanging in front of him that he was violently punching. Ginny bit her lip as she tried to decipher what on earth it could be.
As if feeling her presence, Harry whirled suddenly, his bangs sticking to his forehead with sweat. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and so he blinked several times before finally reaching to a table next to him and slipping them on.
"What are you doing?" he asked roughly.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," Ginny said coolly. She refused to let his rough exterior effect her. "What in the hell is that thing?"
He looked at her like she was an idiot. "It's a punching bag," he said slowly.
"It must be a muggle thing," she shrugged.
"Right," Harry said. There was a beat of silence before he glared at her. "You can go now."
"I don't think I will. This punching bag thing interests me."
"What is there to be interested in? You just punch it," Harry said, beginning to get frustrated with her.
"And why exactly are you punching?"
"Excercise," Harry said through gritted teeth.
"Fair enough," Ginny shrugged. "Mind if I observe?"
"Yeah," he said, looking pointedly at the door.
"You know, you're pretty cute, but not quite cute enough to be that rude."
Harry was left speechless, so he just turned, focused his thoughts, and began to punch the bag again. This time with a new purpose behind his anger. Ron's twin sister, who had somehow stayed out his life for the past five years, was becoming a nuisance to him. She was too bold, too outspoken, and far too pretty. He wasn't really sure what to do with a girl like her; he'd only ever really interacted with bookish, sweet Hermione, and a little bit with shy, intelligent Cho Chang.
As he punched away, he could feel her presence still behind him. She was persistent. It was annoying. All he wanted was to isolate himself, recede inside himself, but no one seemed to want to let him. Especially not this girl that he had just met.
"I have a question," her voice said softly, it's raspy quality evident. He wondered if she had to conciously make her voice that husky, or if it sounded that way naturally.
"What?" he snapped.
"Well...what's the point exactly? Aside from excercise," she mocked.
He shrugged and continued.
"Does it have anything to do with this Tournament thing I heard about?"
And suddenly, he reeled on her with anger in his eyes. The mirror began to shake, the sconces on the walls shook, and the flames looked dangerously close to the curtains. A large marble statue of a dark wizard that had been put in this "junk room" during renovations stood behind her, and without her knowledge, began to tremble as Harry's power began to run rampant.
"Don't ever talk about it!" he shouted at her. "DON'T EVER!"
And for the first time in years, Ginny Weasley felt a remarkable amount of fear. This fear was shortlived however, as the dark wizard behind her came crashing upon her, knocking her to the ground and crushing her with its dead weight.
The last thing she saw was Ron rushing in, Hermione close behind, both looking panicked. Then it all went black.