Author's Note: You totally thought more was going to happen than a kiss didn't you? Come on, what kind of story would it be if their relationship moved that fast. (Of course, to be honest, I did too, wrote it out already, then cut it back out in favor of waiting) If you want a one shot, go read my "NotsoPerfectPrefect" story. I hope I didn't leave you too down after the last chapter. I'm trying to lighten the mood again a bit. Please stick with me as I go, and please review! (I may be a bit slow on updates for a few days until I finish my final exam Monday, guess your luck just depends on how much I procrastinate studying :P)

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Chapt 3.

Hermione wasn't surprised after Ginny's admission that she didn't sleep very restfully. Hermione almost tried to wake her at one particular bad moment of the night, but when she shifted herself to wake her, she felt Ginny snuggle tighter to her and she seemed to relax.

When morning came, Ginny woke with a start as she felt something press into her back, but relaxed when she realized it was Hermione breathing against her back. The night before came flooding back and she felt a little sick to her stomach. She was a bit surprised by how much easier it was to talk to Hermione than anyone else. She had thought she would never tell anyone, but somehow Hermione knew just what to do and say to comfort her enough so that she could tell her everything. As much pain as she felt thinking about the events, she also found herself feeling a bit of warmth filling her heart as she thought about how amazing Hermione had been her comfort last night by just physically being there. She gently rolled over and kissed the brunette tenderly on the forehead. She suppressed a happy laugh that welled up in her at the sight of Hermione smiling widely at the gesture and opening her eyes to Ginny. Hermione reached out and brushed Ginny's hair out of her face before a wave of seriousness washed over her. "how are you'" she asked.

Ginny felt her happy moment sink out of existence again. "I'm ok, I'm sorry if you didn't get much sleep on account of me."

"Don't be silly. I slept fine for the most part." She tried to grin to reassure Ginny but a yawn fought its way out in the process which contorted her face into a funny shape. Ginny laughed, " you're a terrible liar."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh a little with Ginny. "Damn my body's inability to listen to what my brain is trying to say."
Both girls laughed.

"I'm proud of you, you know?" Hermione said questioningly.

"What do you mean?" She didn't know what in the world Hermione could be talking about.

"It took a lot of courage to tell me that last night. I'm just glad you were able to." She leaned forward and kissed Ginny's forehead this time.

"To be honest, I never thought I would be able to tell anyone. I mean, after everything happened, and I felt the life literally draining out of me, it seemed irrelevant at the time in a way. Does that make any sense?" Ginny looked at her hopefully.

"Yes, it does. But I wish you would have told someone then. But I know we weren't as close as we are now, and I realize it would be super hard to tell anyone, even your mother."

Ginny remained silent so Hermione just enjoyed the physically close moment. She knew it was time to change the subject to a lighter note. "You're so beautiful" and she kissed Ginny's forehead again.

Ginny felt her face become flush with embarrassment. "So are you," she said as she met Hermione's eyes, the shared an unspoken agreement before both slowly leaning in for another kiss. It was very gentle at first, but soon deepened with their passion for each other. Hands were on their verge of roaming bodies when they finally broke apart. Ginny opened her eyes to find Hermione looking into them. "slow?" Ginny questioned. Hermione nodded. And Ginny nodded her agreement back.
"I just, I don't want to rush this. What are we even? Are you ok with this? I mean… I thought you liked Harry."

"I don't know Hermione. I did… I thought… but then, there's something about you that has always made my entire self light up with excitement. I would prefer a relationship with you." She said the last sentence rather timidly, finally bringing herself to look at Hermione for a response when Hermione was quiet.

Hermione couldn't help but grin at Ginny's confession, which made Ginny immediately find herself smiling back at the her. Their grin turned into a bit of a laugh as they both reveled in their happy moment.
"So, does that mean I can call you my girlfriend?" Hermione asked.
She laughed a bit more when she saw Ginny's face light up with excitement.

Before Hermione could react, Ginny was kissing her again, abandoning the tenderness for excitement, but Hermione didn't mind much, she found the excitement to be a bit arousing. She finally broke the kiss, looking at Ginny happily. "I hate to say this, but we honestly need to be heading back to the house for breakfast. I don't have anything out here and your mother would come looking soon if we don't show up. I don't think you want to her to find out about us like this do you?" Hermione asked with a bit of amusement as Ginny blushed.

Ginny nodded before standing and Helping Hermione back up. She placed a quick kiss on her before beginning to roll up her sleeping bag. "You can change first, I'll go clean up our site" and with that Ginny left Hermione in the tent.

Soon the girls had everything in a nice pile and began their walk back to the burrow. They carried their own bags, leaving just the bulky sleeping bags and tent for molly to collect later. Neither of the girls noticed Molly's happy expression when she saw the girls walking back to the burrow talking and laughing. When the girls sat down to a late breakfast, she could immediately tell Ginny's whole demeanor had changed. She smiled when Ginny thanked her whole heartedly for breakfast and then left the girls to eat while went and retrieved the camping gear before she went to get ready.

The spent the rest of the day in Diagon Alley getting their school supplies. The four youngest got to adventure off together while Molly went to purchase her household supplies.

The day past quickly, but Hermione and Ginny stole some time alone while the buys went nuts over stuff in the quiditch shop. The girls found their way to a more secluded spot in the shop.
"Ginny, I know we decided that we wanted to be in a relationship, but what are we going to tell everyone?"
"I don't know… I don't know how they'd react." A look of fear washed over Ginny's face.

"Hey, it's ok, I'm scared too. This is really crazy and unexpected for both of us. We can tell them when we are ready, let's just wait and see what happens." Hermione took Ginny's hands in comfort.

Ginny nodded, "your right. And I want to tell them, but not yet."

"Then we will wait." Hermione smiled reassuringly.

The girls hugged but didn't dare kiss in public, even if they were secluded. This was a wise decision for what they didn't notice was the strange confused look harry gave them as they had passed near the girls to move to another section of the shop. He saw a strange look pass between them as Hermione took Ginny's hands which looked to be comforting. He hoped that Hermione was getting Ginny to open up about whatever had kept her so secluded all summer, even before he had arrived at the burrow.

The next week flew by. Ginny was barely able to draw Hermione away from the boys without them getting suspicious. Hermione had also insiting spending some time studying, and while this typically got her away from the boys, Hermione really did want to study, so Ginny also got ahead with her work a bit, as well as some good quiditch practice with the boys while Hermione studied. The girls had ended up with a sad amount of distance other than a few nights of passionate kissing before bed. Before they knew it, it was the day before their return to Hogwarts.

Hermione had finally excused herself from the boy's presence expressing her wish to spend a little girl time with Ginny before school started and they were too busy.

The girls packed some sandwiches for lunch and went for a walk back to their familiar camping spot. The swam for a while, just enjoying a good time. Before long though, they found themselves in another heated moment of passion in the water. This time, both letting hands roam flesh a bit under the cover of the water. Neither of them seemed to mind until Ginny tensed as Hermione's hands were tracing upwards towards her chest.

Hermione immediately stopped and backed off, searching Ginny's eyes for an explination.

"I'm sorry"

"Hey, it's ok. Come on, let's go sit in the grass and have lunch"

Hermione cautiously reached for Ginny's hand, and when Ginny grasped her hand back, they swam to shore and Ginny Laid out a towel for them to sit on while Hermione grabbed their lunch.

After a few bites of her sandwich, Ginny couldn't help herself and apologized again. "I'm really sorry"

"It's ok. Was it because of what you told me?"

Ginny nodded. "I think…"

"I figured. Look it's fine. We can work through things. I'm here for you and will only do what you are comfortable with. I promise." Hermione was trying her best to reassure her, but she knew the girl would probably eventually need way more discussion and time to heal from what had happened, if not professional help. Now wasn't the time to discuss that though.

Ginny nodded a look up sadness mixed with guilt on her face.

"Let's just forget about it, I told you I wanted to take things slow anyway. Ginny?" Hermione tried to gin her full attention.

When Ginny looked up, Hermione spoke again. "I promise you it's ok." Ginny smiled a sad smile at Hermione's reassurance, leading Hermione to smile in return slightly, then reached out to get a hug from the girl who seemed to care so much about her well being.

The girls shared an embrace, and then ended up with Ginny's head on Hermione's lap while she played with Ginny's hair. Te chatted idly about what the school year would be like. Before they knew it, they had to head back for dinner, and then spent the rest of their evening packing their belongings and spending some last free time with the boys.

Ginny was the first to wake up. Though they typically shared some cuddle time before bed, they had slept in separate beds each night incase Mrs. Weasley chose to look in on them. Ginny rolled over to see if Hermione was still asleep. What she saw brought a smile to her face. The brunette had managed to toss her covers in her sleep and she only had a sheet drawn up to her waste and a spaghetti strap tank-top on. Ginny quietly approached her sleeping companion and brushed her hair back out of her face before kissing her cheek tenderly. Hermione smiled before she opened her eyes. "Morning beautiful"
"Morning already?"

"Yeah. It's already 9, I'm surprised mum hasn't came to wake us up yet."
As if on cue, they heard Molly calling their names approaching the door.
"were awake mum!"

"Hurry up and come down for breakfast!"

Ginny rolled her eyes and Hermione giggled.

They after a breakfast, they all ended up bustling around the house getting their belongings together. When an impressive amount of both people and belongings were crammed into the living room, they traveled by floo to Diagon Alley before heading to platform 9 ¾.

Hermione was a bit sad that her parents weren't there to see her off, but she was thankful for Mrs. Weasley's apparent sincerity in all of her goodbyes.

Right when the Mrs. Weasley was hugging the twins, the whistle blew and everyone hurried off to the train.

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P.S. Author's note: Also, I apologize for not following along with the book. I plan to soon, hopefully, but when I first started, I was absentmindedly forgetting this was the summer where Harry ended up at the leaky cauldron before school. Either I'll go back and edit it sometime so he's not there, or just bare with me until school starts and I'll get back on track. PLEASE REVIEW! Pretty, Pretty Please? Maybe I'll even get another chapter up before Monday, I know this one was kind of slow, just didn't seem right saying, and then, it was the train. It'll pick back up.