Chapter 25:
Important Note: to those of you who recognize the first part, that is probably because it was originally the second part of the last chapter. The only thing that was changed was everything after The clock inside stoke Midnight. I'm sorry for any confusion!
Harry ran out of Julie's store, hoping that it wasn't too late. It was close to midnight by this point, in a few hours it would be Ginny's birthday; if they were fighting then…bad things would happen. For a second he paused to think what he would do. What had George said? She came in crying…So Ginny would be with him? The shop was closed, so Harry apparated back to the Burrow.
The house looked as it always had, with a few minor adjustments. The boots on before the house were gone, as were the cauldrons, and the house looked newer. It was practically impossible to guess from the appearance that something had drastically changed within the house.
Harry was about to open the door when something caught his eye. It was a leg, dangling from the branch of the tree a couple feet from the house. Upon further inspection, Harry realized it was his (he hoped it would not turn into an ex-) girlfriend's.
He took a deep breath, and then walked forward, until he practically hit the tree trunk. After the slightest hesitation in which he convinced himself that she wouldn't throw him out of the tree, he began to climb up until he was on the branch next to Ginny.
The boy knew not when she noticed him, nor would he ever find out, but that wasn't important. Ginny ignored him, except for turning her head away from him. It broke Harry's heart to see her like that; he reached forward, but she pulled herself away with a whisper of, "I'm not talking to you so go away."
"I…" Harry started weakly, before dying. Ginny snorted. Harry realized she had been crying again. This fact made him move so that she could see him if she wanted to, and say, "It was Rita Skeeter. She published that article. Romilda Vane was in on it. I never meant to hurt you, Gin, and I'm sorry that they did. I would never cheat on you, because… you're everything." He was about to say "I love you" but some weird force held him back.
He waited for her to say something, but she didn't, so they sat in silence for a few minutes. The crescent moon and stars' light shined upon them, making the bit of Ginny he could see look like a goddess. Just when it became too unbearable, and Harry was about to give up, Ginny whispered, "I'm sorry." Her voice was so shockingly scared that Harry never heard it before.
"It's just…seeing that it was one of my worst nightmares…I—I…I just…" but her sentence was never completed, because Harry leaned forward and kissed her.
The clock inside stoke midnight, and the alarm on Ginny's watch went off at the same time. Neither of these things affected Ginny, but Harry pulled back so he could whisper, "Happy Birthday, Gin."
Ginny beamed at her newly reinstated boyfriend, thinking this is the best birthday ever, as she leaned forward and kissed him again.
Neither one of them noticed the fireworks going off in the distance, they had gotten used to the feeling.
Harry wondered for a couple seconds about the two rings in his back pocket. Should he tell her about them now, or later? He decided to wait until he could think straight. It wasn't until he closed his eyes in his pillow much later that he suddenly sat up with a plan fully formed in his head. Smiling at the picture on his side table of him and Ginny, and thinking that this Christmas was going to be amazing, he fell asleep instantly.
A/N: I am so proud of myself for completing this so quickly! Yea me! Claps Not that it's very long or anything. I promise, (I would tell you to mark my words, but they've already been marked) that the next chapter will be longer! I think I'll have Hermione do something to Rita before Ginny kills her.
Joke: Two blondes were shopping at the mall. When they were done, they went out to their car, which happened to be an awesome leather-interior convertible, but they realized they had locked the keys in the car. So they both kind of stood there and thought for a while.
Then one of the girls had the bright idea to try to open the car with a coat hanger, so she started fiddling with the lock. The other blonde looked up at the sky, became very worried, and pleaded,
"HURRY, HURRY, IT'S GOING TO RAIN AND WE LEFT THE TOP DOWN!
I'm sorry I forgot to mention it last chapter but… I HAVE OVER 100 REVIEWS!!! Thank you so much to every blessed soul who has reviewed! Not only reviewed, but added me or this story to some list of yours! I solute you all!
Reviewers: TheOnionofDeath, Truth Be Told 13, acekiller157, jack, The-Werewolf-in-Ravenclaw, Genesis Castellon, kats24, PadfootProngs7, codyesh2, lilleangel, ShadowMoonDancer, anagl, suprememangafan, hplover92, water-engel, Passionismywriting, Star Angel Sirius, Anna, ginnypotter177, Harry's Lil Bitch, smithdaddy, AirDragon90210, TayliaNINJA, cathy, IHeartSnitchBoxers, chaletha Vickers, mimosa, brilliantblonde, Fernando, Sharon M., avie potter, gossipgirl101, Plumcherries2, lOVeR Of COILin (sorry if I got that wrong!), Regan, StargateAngel101, JadedLadyoftheSpeculativeNight, so not telling, and barfmaster.
(That was in a random order, not based on anything.)
Thank you so much! I appreciate every single one of you! Now, please add to that number!