Sorry it's been so long, guys.  Hopefully this will make up for the lack of updates – I just finally got situated at school and everything, so hopefully it'll be sooner before the next update for you.

Disclaimer:  Same as before.  It's JK Rowling's, and I'm just playing around.

Chapter Nine

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry loomed before the students as they entered the building's huge iron gates.  The chatter of the first years could be heard coming from the lake as they were rowed across with Hagrid, and the bustle of the other students added in on the clamor.  Ginny stuck close to her brother, Harry, and Hermione though she saw many of the students from her own class.  It was better that way, she thought, when she stuck by her true friends.  She hadn't found Dakota yet, but she had no doubt that she would know the second that she entered the school.  Her friend had no trouble making herself heard.

"Come on," she heard Hermione hiss to them as they hurried towards the Great Hall.  "Harry and I will be expected to be there on time!"

As expected, Hermione was taking her duty as Head Girl very seriously.  Ginny hid a grin as she watched her brother shake his head at Harry, who just shrugged helplessly.  He knew that they were probably expected to get there early, also. She and Ron continued towards the Great Hall at a normal pace while they watched Harry hurry to try and reach Hermione, who was almost running towards the Hall.  Minerva McGonnegal watched as the two Head students rushed past her, then had to hide a smile when they doubled back to meet her in the doorway.

Hermione immediately started explaining why they had been late, but the professor shushed her when she herself began to speak.  "I was very happy to see that two Gryffindors were the Head students this year," she began as the two students caught their breath from their almost-sprint, "I hope you realize that this is not a position to be taken lightly.  The Head Boy and Girl are the ones that the younger students look up to, and they mustn't be getting into trouble themselves."  A stern look accompanied the short speech from their Head of House, and Harry fought back the intuition to gulp.  He knew that he was the cause of many mishaps in the school, and to be perfectly honest, he wasn't exactly sure how he had been able to get Head Boy, anyways.  Hermione had been a shoe-in from the day that she had set foot into the school, but Harry himself had barely been made a Prefect back in their fifth year.  Head Boy was an accomplishment that he still didn't believe that he had been able to reach.  He was proud, surely, to be following in his father's footsteps, but he was anxious to see what the year would bring. Harry realized that the professor was still talking, and he turned his attention back to her in time to walk with her and Hermione to the Great Hall.

The four house tables were three quarters full each, with some seats left for the first years who would be getting sorted very soon.  Ron and Ginny were sitting on the side of Gryffindor's table that was facing away from the professors' table, and they looked deep in conversation when Harry and Hermione walked up and sat down across from them.  The two's heads snapped up, and they both smiled when they sat down.   Harry was about to ask what was going on, but he was interrupted by Headmaster Dumbledore.

A brilliant wizard, Albus Dumbledore stood proudly in front of his school.  His long white hair contrasted greatly with the deep blue color of his robes, as did his long beard.  The pointed hat perched atop his head tilted just slightly to the side as he spoke.  "We will begin the new year," he began, stretching out his arms, "with the tradition of the Sorting."  With that said, the entire hall grew abuzz with whispers and talk; the second years remembering all to well what the first years were going through at the moment, and the seventh years wishing that they could go through it all again.  Professor McGonnegal walked in through the huge doors at that moment, leading a single file line of first years that looked scared to death. 

Ginny couldn't help but look at the young children and smile wistfully.  She remembered all too well what it felt like to be in that position.  "They've no idea that all they are to do is try on a hat," she mused quietly, and the people around her agreed.  She watched on as the Sorting began with a tiny little blond haired girl that reminded Ginny a lot of Dakota.  The thought struck her that she hadn't seen her friend yet, and her eyes instantly flew away from the Sorting and started looking around Gryffindor's long table.  She searched face after face for her friend, but it wasn't until her eyes reached the end of the table closest to the doors that she found her white-blond friend.  She looked out of breath, as if she, too, had sprinted into the Great Hall.  Dakota caught Ginny's questioning eyes and smiled brightly.  'Peeves,' she mouthed to her, and Ginny nodded knowingly.  The school poltergeist had made it known the year before that he somewhat liked Dakota, and he seemingly followed her everywhere that he could at times.  It was tiresome and annoying, but it really made for an adventure when they tried to sneak about the castle without being caught.

The clapping of her fellow Gryffindors brought Ginny back to the task at hand; the Sorting was already half over.  She watched as a young boy that uncannily reminded her of the twins' friend Lee Jordan sat down happily with a few other first years at the end of the table.  She smiled when he turned and waved energetically at both her and Ron, who gave the little guy a thumbs up.  'That settles it then,' she thought as she smiled at the beaming boy, 'it'll be interesting around the Quidditch pitch if that really is another Jordan!'  Her eyes wondered up and down the rest of the table, studying the faces of her housemates and sadly smiling when she remembered a face that would not be returning this year.  Her gaze lingered on Harry, straight across from her, as she thought about her past years at Hogwarts.  'We've really come a long way, haven't we,' she thought.  Remembering back to her first year, she remembered how she had admired him so much, and then there was the Chamber incident, as she liked to call it.  She had been such a baby back then, she thought, and she had made it so obvious to Harry that she had had a crush on him.  The next few years had gotten better, but not much…the singing get-well card stood out in her mind, and she winced at that memory alone. 

'But we have had some good times together,' she thought, her gaze intent on his face, which was turned towards the Sorting that was almost over.  She watched as his new glasses shone in the light of the Great Hall, making it hard to actually see the green eyes that she knew were hiding behind them.  Her eyes traveled up to his unruly hair, which truly did look a bit better this year, and then settled on his scar.  Every time she looked at it, it made her breath catch in her throat, and today it was no different.  To Ginny, the meaning behind the scar was enormous, and she couldn't believe that he now wore it with an array of indifference.  At that thought, her eyes traveled back to where his would be, and she remembered more about the past parts of her life that were intertwined with Harry Potter as he sat there, oblivious to the fact that Ginny was looking at him intently.

There had been his fourth year, when the Tri-Wizard Tournament had happened, and Ginny remembered how horrid she had felt when Harry hadn't appeared at the surface of the lake first.  Numerous Quidditch games came to mind, at the school as well in the makeshift pitch behind the Burrow.  As her thoughts grew more recent, Ginny blinked, and then closed her eyes when she thought of this past summer.  Something, somehow had changed between them, but she wasn't really sure what it was.  There had been her inexplicable recovery from her nightmares.  There had been the trip to Diagon Alley.  There had been the closeness of the two in Gringott's, as well as when he had received his letter about being Head Boy.  Somewhere along the lines, Harry had stopped seeing her simply as Ron's little sister, and for that reason, she was extremely happy.  She had always been drawn to him, but unable to get close to him, had watched from a distance.  Her eyes opened as she thought about the Harry that she had seen at the Burrow that morning, wearing nothing more than a towel.  It was with that thought, that her eyes opened fully, only to be met with the color green.

Her breath caught in her throat again as it had when she had looked at his scar, but Ginny didn't look away.  She met his gaze head on, and the two became oblivious to the ending of the Sorting ceremony.

*

*

Ginny sighed.  She was curled up on the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room, in front of the fire.  Even though it was only September, the warmth that it gave off was welcomed greatly, and her mind again whirled with thought as she looked out the window.  She had so much on her mind that she didn't quite notice someone else walk into the Common Room and sit down right next to her.  It was not until the someone sat back, propped his legs up on the coffee table, and put his arms across his chest with a sigh of his own that Ginny was startled and she realized who it was.

Harry.

"Hey, Gin," he said carelessly as he, too, stared into the fire.  His school robes were unbuttoned to reveal the white shirt underneath, and Ginny caught herself before her eyes rested on his abdomen longer than necessary.  'The boy simply has no clue,' she thought to herself. 

A leather book was placed into her hands, and she looked up at Harry, questioningly.  "Read it," he urged, "I think you'll understand…"  He trailed off, but he pointed to the book.  Ginny realized that it was one of his father's journals, and she started reading.

September 2nd

It wasn't until I stepped off the carriage and walked into the Great Hall that I realized exactly what it meant to be a seventh year.  Not only a seventh year, but Head Boy at that.  I look around me, at my friends, and for the life of me I cannot imagine where we will be at this time next year.  I'm giving serious thought to becoming an Auror, honestly, but I don't know how Lily would react to hearing that.  Sirius is thinking that we could go into Auror training together.  Remus doesn't quite know what to do in the future, he says, but I say he's too smart to just sit at home.  He knows things that other people don't, and he needs to let the world know.  And Peter says that he also doesn't know what to do with his life, but I doubt it will be Auror training next year.  Sometimes I can't help but wonder about that guy.  Anyway, a few of the seventh year girls are talking about opening up shops in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.  It seems like a good idea to me, but Lily doesn't really think so.  All I know is that though it's uncertain, I am kind of looking forward to being an Auror.

Ginny looked up at Harry after she read that paragraph.  She knew that she was reading James' thoughts of the same thing that Harry was going through, and that might explain why he was being so quiet.  She herself knew that Ron hadn't decided what he wanted to do after school, and Hermione hadn't completely decided yet, either.  It had to be weird to read a parent's thought on the matter, not counting on the fact that they had experienced the same feelings years ago.  Harry was still staring into space, so Ginny read on in the entry.

Lily is another story altogether.  I can't help but think that she is going to be a rather large part of my future, but I have no idea of what will be happening there.  I know what I want to happen, for Merlin's sake I have a RING with the intent to put it on her finger, but it's so…odd to think that we are at the points in our lives where we can think of the future like this.  It's on our fingertips, almost literally, but we really don't know what is going to happen, even in the near future.  It's scary when you think about it.

Ginny stopped reading there and once again looked up at Harry.  She shifted so she was closer to him, and tried to figure out what to say.  She didn't need to, though, because it was Harry who spoke first.

"I can't help but realize how much he sounds like me in that," he said softly, his eyes never leaving the fire.  "About the future, I mean," he added quickly.  Finally tearing his eyes away from the blaze, he turned and faced her.  "About it being his seventh year here, being Head Boy, and not knowing at all what to do afterwards."

"Oh, Harry," she said.  She could imagine what it felt like to be in that position, and it was multiplied tenfold for Harry because the future included Voldemort, certainly.  "I don't know what to say," she said softly, absentmindedly taking one of his hands in both of hers and tracing lines across the back of it with her finger.  "You don't have any idea of who you want to be w-er, what you want to do after you leave school?"  She mentally cursed herself for her mistake, and felt her cheeks begin to burn.  She deliberately kept her eyes on his hand, so she wouldn't have to meet his eyes and the inquiring glance that she knew she would see there.

He caught her slip up, and suddenly it seemed so…intimate that she was holding his hand instead of the comforting gesture it had seemed like just seconds before.  Her fingertips began to leave a trail of tingles on the back of his hand, and he tried to ignore it as much as he could.  "I don't know," he said, looking at her.  She too had her robes unbuttoned to reveal the white Hogwarts shirt underneath, and her gleaming red hair framed her face.   He followed her gaze down to their hands, and he swallowed.  "I just don't know."

The two sat in silence, staring at their hands unconsciously.  Somewhere along the way, Ginny had  stopped tracing shapes on the back of his hand, and his other one had come to rest on top of both of hers.  Neither of them knew what they were doing, just that is was right to talk right now, that it was right to be next to each other.

"My dad had an idea of what he wanted to do after school," Harry said after a few minutes passed by.  "I've hardly given any thought to it.  It's been kind of…" he cut off for a moment, and Ginny could hear him swallow roughly, "kind of year-to-year that I've concentrated on first, you know?"

Ginny nodded, knowing the underlying meaning behind his words.  She had kind of expected him to be thinking along those lines, but it was what he said next that shocked her.

Harry's eyes lifted from their hands and she felt his gaze on her face.  It was almost like he was willing her to look up at him, and she complied.  Her eyes met his fiercely, and he took a deep breath before letting it out in a hiss.  "My dad had my mum to get him through his last year here," he said in a lower tone of voice than normal, "and I'm just happy that I have you to do that for me."

*

*

The drapes drawn around her bedside, Ginny let out a breath of air that she hadn't even been aware that she'd been holding.  She settled back into the pillows and her mind couldn't help but wander back to the fireplace in the Common Room just a few hours before.

'Sweet Merlin,' she thought to herself as she shut her eyes, 'I just keep learning more and more about Harry every time I talk to him, don't I.'  She had known that he was unsure of what to do in the future, but she hadn't known what to say at all when he had literally compared the two of them to his mother and father.  Or, rather, he had compared her to his mother.  Or maybe it was him to his father.  At this point, she was so confused about what he had been trying to imply, that she was almost going out of her mind to try and figure it out.

'I had just been thinking about how much we've gone through, and then he says that,' she turned under the covers, 'I don't get…this…this THING.  It started with him realizing my nightmares, and then this summer we got quite close…it almost seems, it almost seems as if it's just natural now, though.  It's not just me being drawn to him…'

The thought was the last thing that crossed her mind as she slipped into sleep.