Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated…I'm leaving to go back to school soon, so I've been getting everything together for that. It'll be slow coming for about the next three weeks or so, but after that it should speed back up again to a chapter every other day or two. Hope you still enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm not JK Rowling, nor would I be here writing this if I were. I'd get cracking on Book 5, instead.
Chapter Eight
Ginny awoke a week later to the sun shining in her eyes from the space in between her curtains. Fighting to stay asleep, she quickly rolled over, but to no avail. She was already awake. Sitting up in bed and squinting through the sunlight, she could just make out the form of Hermione on the floor, the blankets bunched up around her neck and strings of brown hair tousled all around her head. A yawn escaped her lips, and she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand while she climbed out of bed and over to the mirror. Her appearance had changed drastically over the past week or two; her skin which had been so ashen colored, seemed almost back to normal, and her eyes had regained their brightness. It was odd, really, because she still had some nightmares, but none anywhere near the intensity of which she had had before. Some nights, she couldn't even remember what she had envisioned, and she loved telling Harry that she really was, honestly fine.
Harry. Ginny blinked, thinking about him. He had made it a point, at sometime during every single day, to talk to her and ask about her nightmares. It was kind of sweet, really, she reckoned, because he really didn't have to do that. She hadn't had anything new even when she did have a nightmare, and he still asked her every day. She smiled at the thought of him.
Grabbing her things for the shower, Ginny realized that it was the day that they were to go to Hogwarts. A smile immediately found its way to her face. Hogwarts always seemed like a second kind of home to her; one where she and all of her brothers and friends could have fun. The Burrow would always be better, of course, but nowhere else could she literally stay up every night of the week with various friends. 'Well,' the voice reasoned, 'With my brothers, Kota, and Harry.' She made her way down the hallway to the bathroom, realizing that it would be busy there today because the four of them had to get to King's Cross Station.
The door to the bathroom was shut, but just as she was about to groan in frustration, the knob turned and out walked Harry – clothed in nothing but a white towel. Ginny stopped where she was on the ledge, her eyes following him as he gripped the towel at his waist and made his way to the stairs. He didn't have his glasses on; water was still dripping down from his hair. Ginny let out a breath that she didn't even realize that she was holding when he turned to go up the steps and she got a glimpse of his backside, which the towel was drawn tightly over. Her face reddened at the thoughts that were running through her mind, but she couldn't draw her eyes away from her friend. Muscles were apparent on his back, from Quidditch, she reasoned lightly in her head, and his arms were rather muscular too, now that she looked at them. He reached the top of the steps and turned again onto the landing below the one that she was on, and she got an even better view of the front of him. She watched as a drop of water, as if in slow motion, fell from one of his wet spikes at the top of his head down to his neck, and she was fascinated as it traveled its way down his muscular chest before working its way over his well-defined abdomen, and then finally was absorbed into the towel. Harry disappeared into Ron's room with a click as the door shut, but Ginny still stood there, unable to move. That had been an unexpected pleasantry.
A laugh suddenly came from behind her, and Ginny twirled around to find Hermione leaning against her doorway, giggling. "Gotta take a cold shower this morning then, eh, Gin?" she asked, before cracking up again. Ginny's face tinged even darker before she caught Hermione's eye and a glint escaped her own eyes.
"Well," she said, almost giggling herself, "I'll miss seeing that in the morning at Hogwarts!" Hermione laughed even harder, and she watched as Ginny descended the stairs and entered the bathroom herself.
Shaking her head at her younger friend, Hermione smiled. 'Now if that isn't what I call a couple in the making, I don't know what is!'
*
*
Before any of them had even fully woken up, they had been whisked away into a Ministry of Magic car and over to King's Cross Station. Noticing that they were running right on time, for once, they entered the barrier one at a time before meeting again on Platform 9 and ¾. There, Mrs. Weasley had said her tearful good-bye, and they boarded the train.
"Gin!" Kota came out of the barrier and had immediately spotted her friend's red head going up the steps to get on the train. Blond hair flying behind her, Kota ran directly to the steps and next to Ginny. Breathless, she spoke. "Mum and Dad thought that I'd be late, so they just sent me on the barrier. I'm glad I spotted you."
The five of them walked slowly up and down the train car, trying to find an empty one. Neville Longbottom looked out the doorway of one of the cars suddenly, and spotted them. "Oi, Harry! Hermione! You've got the Head badges on!" At this, Seamus Finnegan poked his head out of the car also, and smiled at them.
"What are you doing back here, then, mates? Go up to the front and into your own car!" He shouted at them, as he was being pulled back into the car by Dean Thomas, who hardly had time to wave at them before he shut the door to the noisy compartment.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Hermione muttered under her breath as they headed to the front of the train. "I knew that the Head students have their own car, I read it in Hogwarts, A History ages ago!"
Ginny saw Ron wince at the title to Hermione's favorite book for the first time that school year. Harry hid a laugh with a cough, and they found the Head Boy and Girl compartment. Sliding in, the five of them gawked at their surroundings. Instead of the normal compartment with just the window and two benches at the sides, there were three separate windows. On one side of the compartment stood a large couch and an armchair, and on the other side, two overstuffed armchairs. In between them stood a table that was bolted down to the floor so it wouldn't move, and there was a small bar on the side that had bottles of water and soda lined up.
Ginny immediately found her way to the armchair that was next to the couch, and the others quickly followed suit, sitting down. Ron and Hermione had gotten the couch to themselves, and immediately started talking in hushed tones. Kota and Harry had been left with the armchairs on the other side of the compartment, and she watched as each of them quickly unrolled some parchment to undoubtedly do some left over summer homework. Glad that she had finished the essays the night before, Ginny let her eyes close. A nap was just what she needed at the moment, for the last time that she had looked at Harry, she had seen the image of him that morning, in nothing but a towel.
*
*
Ginny didn't know how long she had slept, but she awoke to the sun shining brighter in the sky. She drowsily rubbed at her eyes, until she felt someone next to her, looking at her. She turned her head to see that it was now Harry and Hermione who were occupying the couch, as it was closer to the lights on the wall, and both of them were reading. She looked up into bright green, and Harry grinned at her. He motioned with his head for her to come closer, and she scooted over in her chair so that she was closer to him. "What?" she asked.
He motioned to the book that he was reading. She saw that it was old and bound in leather; it was one of the journals that they had found in the Potter vault. "Is that….?" She asked, though she knew it was. Harry nodded to her, and he showed her something to read in the book.
It was small, neat script, though every line or two the letters were rather bumpy looking.
Here I am on the train to Hogwarts for my last year of school. It's hard to believe that we Marauders have lasted this long, to be honest. We've done a lot of great things over the years, and they're all like my brothers. Sirius is my best mate, don't know how I'd last the day without him. Remus is an incredibly great friend, and I don't know what I'd do without him, either. Peter, though he is kind of…odd at times, has stuck by us through and through. Yeah, we Marauders have done pretty well at Hogwarts. I still can't believe that it is almost over, hell I can't believe that I made Head Boy, either. Who'd have thought that I, of all people, would get it. Not that I doubted that Lily would be Head Girl, but I didn't think I would make Head Boy in a million years. The Head Boy and Girl compartment is really something though, with the couch and armchairs. Even a bar! (Though it doesn't hold anything alcoholic, Sirius already checked first thing.) The other four, Sirius, Remus, Bella, and Peter, left a little while ago to find the witch with the candy, so Lils and I are here alone. She's sleeping with her head on my shoulder, so I suppose that's why I keep messing up every now and then.
She and I have come a long way. First year, we hated each other from first sight for some strange reason, and then second year we were inseparable, have been ever since. Don't understand it, really, and I don't pretend to. I'm just happy that we made the move to being a couple in the beginning of fifth year. I don't know what I would do without her. It's scary to think that this is our last year of school together, and that we could be separated after we graduate. We're already full wizard and witch though, and lately I've been thinking a lot about the future. I know that I want to be an Auror, and I think that Lily does too, but all I know is that I don't know what I'll do if I can't be with her every day.
That's why I bought the ring. Sure, last year we bought each other a promise ring, but I mean that I bought her THE RING. Sirius went with me to Diagon Alley the day after I saw Lily looking in the window at the jewelry shop when we got our school supplies. It's got a diamond, and two small emeralds. Just like her eyes. I couldn't think of anything else when I saw that ring, all I thought of were her eyes, so I couldn't help but pick that one. Even Sirius sobered for a moment, and told me that if I didn't get that ring for her I'd be crazy. It's like it was made for her or something. I don't know when I'm going to ask her, but I know that it will be soon. I love her so much, and I can't wait to know that she'll truly be with me forever. There is nothing that I want more.
We're almost there, so I suppose I should wake Sleeping Beauty. Don't really want her to wake up and read this over my shoulder, that's not the way that I want to ask her.
The text ended there on that page, and Ginny gasped when she realized what she'd just read. She looked up at Harry, who had been watching her intently as she read. "That's…Harry, it's so hard to believe, you know?" She watched his face; he looked as if he was transfixed by what he had been reading. He nodded.
"It's weird, Gin, reading about my parents to begin with, let alone the same day that they're talking about is today…" They were whispering, because now the other three were asleep. Harry's green eyes looked darker than usual, as if he was taking in a lot more than what he was saying. She could tell that he was thinking, but she also knew that it was hard for him to read these thoughts in the journal in front of him, instead of having his parents there beside him. He gazed off into space for a minute, and she watched him.
His face, though much older than the boy that she had met for the first time back at King's Cross seven years ago, was still slightly boyish, though it was disappearing fast. His expression was hard, making him look as though he was older. His hands tightly clutched the now closed journal of his father so hard that the knuckles were white, and Ginny knew that he was thinking about something serious. Timidly, she reached out her own hand and lay it on top of one of his to offer some sort of comfort. He let it lay there for a minute before taking his other hand and placing it on top of hers, still staring straight ahead. She gave his hand a little squeeze, and he squeezed back, not letting go.
She knew him well enough to know that he wanted silence, so she just turned her head and looked out of the window. Her own thoughts were running through her mind at a mile a minute, about so many different things. She thought about the school year coming up, about the rest of her family back home at the Burrow, but most of all, she thought of Harry. Their relationship that past year or so had come so far, just like James' journal entry had mentioned about him and Lily. The two of them had become even closer over the summer at the Burrow, as she had confided in him about her dreams, and he had let her into a part of his past that he hadn't even let Dumbledore in on. She thought for a moment about how James and Lily must have felt at this moment during their seventh year, and how different it was from how Harry felt. No doubt, they were all happy to be with their friends, but James and Lily had each other. Harry had just himself, in that regard.
That thought of Harry involuntarily led to the thought of him in nothing but a white towel, and she bit down on her lip as she tried not to blush at the memory. It was times like this that Ginny didn't understand herself. Harry was her friend, possibly her best friend, but she couldn't stop her heart from racing some of the time that she was with him. She couldn't stop the way that she thought of him, and she couldn't stop the fact that she was starting to see him in an entirely different light than anyone had ever seen. She knew that she knew the real Harry, and that was something that not many people could accomplish. She was close to him, she befriended him, and he the same to her. She bit down harder on her lip, trying to figure out why she felt the way she did sometimes, when it was obvious that they were just friends. She tried to figure out what had happened over the summer, after she had confided in him about her nightmares. How had she suddenly, somehow, gotten better? Why had she dealt with them so much easier when Harry was there? She didn't understand it.
The feeling of Harry squeezing her hand again made her thoughts snap back to the present. The train had stopped – they had arrived at Hogwarts.
