Chapter Four

Ginny's Gift

Harry lay in bed that night, watching out of the little window across the room. He stayed up all night, and he watched the sky turn from blackness speckled with stars, to navy blue, to purple, and pink and then finally bright orange. He watched as the birds and the bugs zoomed here and there past the window.

It was about nine before Ron started groping. It wasn't until nine thirty, though, that he'd finally crawled out of bed, at which point Harry pretended to be sound asleep. He didn't want to talk to Ron.

The night before, Ron hadn't come upstairs until about eleven. Meanwhile, Harry had sat up here all alone. Ron was too absorbed to talk to Harry anyways, or care for what he was dying to say.

Ron rummaged through a few drawers looking for clean clothes to wear, and then left noisily. Harry sat up slowly. He didn't want to be around people, but if he didn't start being social soon, they'd begin to wonder. So reluctantly, Harry pulled on clean clothes from his trunk, and tramped down the stairs.

When Harry reached the living room, he saw Ron and Hermione there flipping through a spell book. Ignoring them, he walked into the kitchen and found Mrs. Weasley, Fred, and George. Ginny was nowhere in sight. He found it odd that he cared that much about her. It wasn't his thing to have feelings like that. Harry glanced at the old grandfather clock to see where Ginny's hand was. He concluded that she probably hadn't gotten up yet, because her hand rested motionlessly on the word 'Home.'

Harry sat down at the shabby dining table, and awaited breakfast. Fred and George were talking about pranks they were planning for the up-coming school year. Harry listened intently as they talked about the ultimate prank on Snape. They didn't have it all worked out though. There were still huge gaps where problems were going to occur. Harry briefly thought to himself that the Weasley twins should become professional pranksters. It suited them well, of course.

When breakfast was finally ready, Molly Weasley called Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to the table. Hermione sat next to Fred, and Ron beside her on the opposite side of the table, while Ginny sat next to George and himself, leaving Mrs. Weasley to sit on Harry's other side.

Breakfast consisted of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Harry hungrily tucked into his plate. He listened to the chatter of the others while he ate.

"Shouldn't our letters be coming soon?" Hermione asked no one in particular.

Mrs. Weasley answered her, "Yes, any day now, dear."

And then realization finally hit the table, like a bucket of ice water.

"Harry! We missed your birthday!" Exclaimed the twins.

Molly looked horrified with herself. Harry looked about the table and he gave them a weak smile. "It's fine. Don't worry about it." He encouraged.

"Don't worry about it? Well I beg to differ," Replied Molly.

After that, the table went silent.

When everyone had finished breakfast, Mrs. Weasley chased everyone out of the kitchen so she could clean up. Harry resumed his place upstairs, while Ron, Hermione, Fred and George stayed downstairs. Harry looked around the dirty room. He was alone.

Harry gently unwrapped his gauzed arm. The cuts were festered and an angry shade of red. They were definitely infected. He'd have to ask Mrs. Weasley for some medicine or something to take the swelling down and fight the infection. But how was that possible when he had all the other scars that were clearly visible, and how would he explain?

Suddenly he saw movement in the corner of his eye, and heard the door squeal on its hinges. Luckily his left arm was on the opposite side of his body, and Ginny, who'd entered the room, could not see the ugly marks that covered his arm. He hadn't cut his right arm at all, just the left. It was easier just having one arm to hide from the world.

Ginny looked into his eyes. She approached him slowly. He kicked the abandoned gauze under the bed and pulled his sleeves down over his arms as he stood up and turned to her.

"How are you?" She asked quietly.

"I've been good." He answered simply.

She had one arm behind her back. She was hiding something.

"What's that you have there?" Harry asked innocently.

"It's your gift. I meant to give it to you yesterday, but you acted like you wanted left alone, so that's what I did." She told him as she pulled the small box from behind her back. "Here, open it."

Harry took the box from her outstretched hand. He pulled the lid off easily. Inside sat a necklace, but not just any necklace. It was a locket. On the front was the Gryffindor lion, and imbedded on the silver front was a single word, 'Forever.'

Harry pulled it out of the box carefully, and admired it more carefully. He found the latch and quickly released it. He opened the two halves and saw a picture. A picture of a red-head girl, with freckles. It was Ginny, smiling up at him from the locket, while the real Ginny rocked back and forth on her feet in front of him.

He closed the locket and then placed it around his neck. He then pulled Ginny into a very long hug.

"Thank you, Ginny." He said sincerely. "I love it."

She hugged him back strongly. "You're welcome. I was hoping you'd like it."

She was bubbling with happiness. Her smile spread clear across her face. After Harry let go, she bounded out of the room, and Harry followed. There was just something about Ginny. Maybe it was the fact that he was eager to move on from Hermione, but this seemed to be escalating very quickly to him.

Before he knew it, Harry was down the stairs and walking out into the yard after Ginny. She sat under the single tree set at the far end of the Weasley's lawn, writing in a booklet of sorts.

Harry walked over to her, and sat down next to her in the shade of the tree. He took one look at the page she was writing on and his face flushed red-hot, yet it didn't bother him much. He looked at Ginny and smiled, really smiled for the first time for as long as he could remember.