Disclaimer
The Harry Potter universe and all the characters in it belong to J. K. Rowling. I get nothing out of this except enjoyment.
---------------
Part 2, Moving Forward – Letters 4 & 5
Friday, 20 June
Dear Ginny,
I don't know how, but I just seem to keep getting you upset with these letters. Maybe I should stop writing for a while (just kidding).
Look, I'm sure you would have been very helpful at … at that place the other day. You're right, you probably would have been able to figure it out, too. Now, maybe you don't think it would have been dangerous, but I didn't want to take a chance. No one has been there for a while and with Dumbledore dead we weren't sure how … how 'protected' it still is.
You certainly don't have to be alarmed about Hermione kissing me. I told you she kissed Ron too, right? And what he did afterwards? Besides, it's not like Hermione hasn't kissed me before. She was just doing it because she was excited. Really, you don't have to worry about it. Like I said, she's with Ron now.
Yes, I know you wanted to help me shop for clothes. Yes, I know that's something girlfriends do. But really, Hermione's been my best friend for six years, so I think that probably qualifies her, too. She knows the kinds of things I like and what looks good on me. It's over and done with, so there's not much we can do about it now, is there?
Honestly, you don't have to worry about Hermoine, okay? (Great, I'm even starting to sound like her now.) There's nothing going on between us. And even if there was anything for you to worry about with us sleeping in the same room, what happened today just ended that situation. As it turns out Hermione's not living here with us any more.
What happened was that Ron and Hermione had been looking at each other with goofy smiles on their faces all morning so I finally shooed them out of the room. They weren't getting any studying done anyway – at least Ron wasn't. I don't know how she does it, but Hermione could study no matter what was distracting her. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see her holding hands with Ron with one hand while she turns pages in her book with the other. I figured they would enjoy going out into the back yard and spending some time alone together. By the way, remember what I said yesterday about feeling uncomfortable? I've discovered that if I don't have to watch them it doesn't bother me that much. I'm actually pretty used to being by myself.
Well, the problem was that Dudley saw them snogging out in the back yard and when Uncle Vernon found out he hit the ceiling. Said she couldn't stay in my bedroom with us any more because he's sure there's 'unnatural behavior' going on up here at night. Well, that embarrassed Hermione so much that she didn't even try to argue with him about it. I really felt sorry for her. She had such a horrified expression on her face when she looked at me. I tried to reassure her that I knew she'd never do something like that and that it was okay and we would be all right. Then she started crying. I had to hug her until she calmed down. I'm sure she was worried that she'd let me down. You know how she is. It seems like the one thing that shakes her up the most is when she's afraid she's let someone down. Maybe not everyone, but she's like that with me.
The odd thing about it is – I think Ron actually was thinking along those lines. I mean he was thinking that they might be doing some snuggling and – well, I'm trying not to think about what else he might have been thinking of – after the lights go out at night. I could see from the look on his face when Uncle Vernon went off that the thought had occurred to him. You know how easy it is to read Ron about things like that. And you remember how fast he moved with Lavender after they got together last year. I hope he realizes that Hermione isn't going to let him climb all over her like Lavender did last year. That's just not the way she is. Anyway, it's a good thing Hermione was looking at me at the time and didn't see that look on Ron's face just then, or she might have been even more upset.
I'm not saying I blame Ron for thinking in that direction. Like I said, I'm not interested in Hermione that way but that nightgown she wears really does look good on her. I can certainly see that it would give him ideas and make it tough for him to keep his hands to himself. I guess maybe her wearing that worked a little too well. But, that's something we don't have to worry about any more. It's just us two guys sleeping here now, without the distracting female.
It's not like we aren't still going to be with her every day. It's pretty inconvenient though. She apparated home to her parents' house with most of her things this evening and she's going to apparate back in the morning. She promised to bring breakfast with her. She left all her books and research materials here, so we'll still be researching spells and stuff all day. She'll be going back and forth every day. I'll just miss those evening talks we used to have. You know, how we used to sit around the fireplace in the common room after things quieted down and just talk. We've been doing that here at night after we put our work aside and got ready for bed.
Well, enough depressing thoughts for now.
Yours,
Harry
-----
Saturday, 21 June
Dear Ginny,
You really need to get over this. Since you're making such a big deal out of it, she kissed me at King's Cross station at the end of fourth year. It was on the cheek. Satisfied? And I hugged her yesterday because she was crying. That's all.
It's been a really stressful day here for us today, so I don't feel like writing much. Ron and Hermione are acting all weird around each other. Like they don't know if they're even allowed to touch each other without worrying if Dudley's going to go running off to Uncle Vernon saying they're being 'unnatural' again. Well, I agree it would be unnatural if that whale ever had a girl interested in him, but there's nothing wrong with it for the rest of us! I wanted for the three of us to go down to the kitchen all holding hands just to dare them to say something, but Hermione doesn't want to make any more trouble.
By the way, it didn't take long for them to start arguing with each other again. I'm hoping it's because we're all in such a bad mood about what happened yesterday. I finally left them in the room and went out for a walk. I think they must have worked something out because when I got back they were calmed down, and I noticed Hermione's hair was even messier than usual. With any luck going over to Hermione's house for dinner tomorrow will cheer us up.
I'll write more another time.
Harry
---------------
A/N What a deal! Two letters for you today. There'll be one more posting in this second batch, in a couple of days.