Chapter 28: Departing

The sun finally rose on the day Harry had been dreading all summer. It was ironic that this day happened to be the day Harry had waited for all summer all previous summers. However, there were two differences between this summer and the ones before.

One: Harry wasn't going back to Hogwarts.

Two: Harry wasn't going back to Hogwarts...and Ginny was.

As an attempt to spend a few more stolen hours with his girlfriend, Harry set his alarm for 4:55 so he could sneak down to her room. However, the alarm hadn't even gone off when he slowly rubbed his eyes, wondering what had possibly woken him up. It wasn't until a few second later that he realized that there was an extra weight on his chest that probably shouldn't've been there. After further inspection of peeking through one eye, he realized it was Ginny.

He chuckled, leaned forward and kissed the side of her head before whispering, "'morning, Gin."

"Good morning, Love." Ginny whispered.

Harry stroked her hair lovingly and closed his eyes, breathing in the sent that was Ginny. He wondered many times before what made her smell so good. Maybe they could make a fortune making a perfume from her, but he expelled that idea before he even jokingly suggested it to Ginny; he didn't want anyone to smell like his Ginny.

The seconds ticked by in other parts of the house, but in this particular room, it was timeless. Therefore, neither person was sure how much time went by before Harry said, "I am really going to miss this."

"I'm going to miss you." Ginny whispered, making imaginary circles with her finger on his chest.

The morning passed, and before they knew it, it was time to pretend like they hadn't spent the last few hours in each other's arms. Then it was breakfast time, and as though all the clocks in the house had speed charms placed on them, it was time to leave.

Since this was the last Weasley of the generation that would leave for their last year of school, the Weasleys wanted to send her off in style. The entire family, including Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron, Harry and Hermione, were going to the station to see her off, and they had all stayed at the Burrow the night before. So, when the Ministry van pulled up, they all piled in.

The trip was more enjoyable than Harry expected, but the closer to the station they came, the sadder he got. Ginny noticed this, and put her hand over his comfortingly. Harry smiled back, but as soon as she turned her head, his sad look returned, and it only got worse. The Ministry driver didn't make anything better; he kept the mirror on Harry the entire ride so he could look back at him.

Several people watched as the Ministry van pulled up to the curb in front of the station and the Weasleys piled out. "Just head back to the… 'Head,'" Mr. Weasley said to the driver, "we'll be able to get home fine on our own." The driver nodded and turned the van around and soon disappeared.

The group wandered into the station and was soon on Platform 9 and ¾. For the first time ever, the Weasleys were there very early. So they spent some time milling around. Lavender Brown saw Ron and came up to talk to him, and Hermione was right next to him, clutching his hand tightly. Bill, Fleur and Charlie saw some friends who had come to see younger siblings off. Arthur and Molly saw some parents that they had gone to school with, and George saw a girl he had dated and snuck off, leaving Ginny and Harry to their own device.

They boarded the train and found an empty compartment. They locked the door, closed the blinds over the windows, and proceeded to do what any couple would do when they were alone and wouldn't see each other for several months.

Back outside the train, friends were reuniting from a long and peaceful summer and parents and siblings were saying goodbye to students. Behind the columns of cement, the train, or in Harry and Ginny's case, a compartment, couples were kissing goodbye or hello.

Another couple minutes later Harry and Ginny decided to leave before anyone caught them. They left the compartment together so Ginny could say goodbye to her family before leaving.

"What I'm concerned about," Harry muttered in her ear while they were in the corridor, trying to ignore the stares they were getting, not only from girls, but Harry noticed a few guys were looking at Ginny in ways he did not like. "Is how I'm going to protect you when I'm miles away from Hogwarts?"

Ginny looked at him, then at the surrounding people and smiled. She put her arm around his waist, "Don't worry about me, hon. I can take care of myself. I should be worried about you. There are girls at auror training, and let's face it, you're Desirable Number One."

She said this very sadly, and it broke Harry's heart. He put his arm around her shoulders comfortingly and said, "Every girl in the entire world put together couldn't equal half of you." He kissed the top of her head. Ginny smiled.

The way that some of the people around them glared gave them both an idea. The next few seconds were spent with the corridor being blocked by a full-out snogging couple and angry students watching jealously.

"That was BRILLIANT!" Harry whispered a couple minutes later.

Ginny beamed back. She was especially happy that Romilda Vane had seen it. The news that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were back together would be all over school before she stepped foot into it.

The couple had to sober up now that they were standing next to Ginny's parents, but they still exchanged concealed lover's grins every few seconds.

"Oh, I can't believe my little girl's all grown up and is going to school for the last time!" Mrs. Weasley cried, giving her daughter a look.

Ginny gave a forced smile, hugged her mum, and then the rest of the family. They shouted their goodbyes, and Ginny was suddenly in a crowd of people entering the train.

Harry was just starting to feel very depressed when Ginny's face appeared in the window of the compartment right above them.

"Hi Luna!" Hermione called waving, having seen the blonde at Ginny's elbow.

"Hello, Hermione," Luna answered, "Did you read that book about magical creatures I gave you?"

In Harry's shock at hearing that conversation mixed with his staring at Hermione with Ron, he didn't notice Ginny turn her head to look behind her, as though someone had called her. It did happen though, actually, Romilda Vane called Ginny, and taunted her for a second. Not a very good choice of action, for the next second, Romilda Vane was running down the corridor as though giant boogies the size of her head with bat's wings were chasing her…well, okay, they were.

Ginny smirked, but she had to make sure that no one had any doubts about her and Harry. The perfect plan formed in her head about two seconds later.

"…But the illustration of the blueberrymonkey is very realistic—" Luna was still talking to Hermione, but Ginny interrupted.

"Sorry Luna, I need to have a word with my boyfriend for a second. YOU! Come here." Ginny said quite louder than necessary with a stern look on her face. The scene took on several more eyes that weren't already staring at the Boy Who Lived.

Harry inched forward until he was just close enough to grab. In one swift movement, Ginny jumped on the seat, leaned out of the window so much she almost fell, and grabbed Harry by the neck of his shirt, bringing him closer. That wasn't all she did though.

When he was forced to stand on his tiptoes and Luna grabbed Ginny's feet so she could lean out more, their lips met. Harry was kissing her back, so she felt able to stop chocking him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He, in return, took off his glasses and put them in his pocket before reaching up as far up as he could to hold her tight.

If they had every got more attention for a kiss, then it was a dream. If one person had been able to take their eyes away and look to see how many people weren't watching them, then they wouldn't have to count anything. Ginny leaning out of the train placed her high above all other heads, so it was easy to see the couple from any point on the station.

Vividly, Ginny thought she heard her mother yelling to be careful, but she ignored that voice; Harry was holding her securely, and Luna wouldn't let her fall. In reality, it was just in Ginny's head, probably from habit, that her mum was yelling. In fact, Molly was holding her husband's hand, holding back tears with difficulty, and giving the couple a look of 'I-think-that-is-so-dangerous-and-had-it-been-any-boy-other-than-Harry-I-would-never-allow-it-but-since-that-is-the-sweetiest-thing-I've-ever-seen-I-guess-I-will-let-it-go-but-I-still-can't-believe-my-baby-is-all-grown-up!' and thinking it too.

Hermione looked at Ron, forgetting about Luna's sanity for a moment, to see if he was okay with that. When she saw the look in his eye and the grin on his face, all thoughts of Harry and Ginny were immediately kicked out of her mind and she just focused on the kissing part. They ended up near a stone pillar, with Ron pushed against it.

After a few moments, Bill looked at his wife for one year, then shrugged and kissed her. Of the remaining undistracted-with-something-other-than-kissing-themselves, consisting of George, Charlie, and Percy, George was able to recover first.

"Well mates, do you know what this means?"

The other two looked at George strangely, and he continued, "We need to get ourselves some girlfriends." The thought was in his head especially thick because of a slap he head got from an ex a few minutes ago.

But Charlie and Percy didn't seem to think that they needed girlfriends, or more than one. They looked away smiling in a way George didn't like. "What? Are you telling me you BOTH have SECRET girlfriends?" Their smiles were all the answers he needed.

"You need to get yourself a girl mate." The three (George included) all thought, but did not say out loud.

Eventually, the only thing that broke Harry and Ginny apart was the warning bell. It shocked them to hear something so loud on their peaceful island their imaginations were on and they broke apart, but still had one last, shorter kiss good-bye.

Then, it was the moment Harry had been dreading, only in suspension, slow-motion mode. They detangled themselves as the last students got on and the doors were slammed shut. Ginny and Luna waved from the window, Ginny now safely inside. The train was starting to move. Harry waved. People were all shouting things and waving. Ginny blew him a kiss, Harry pretended to catch it and put it in his pocket. Ginny smiled and put kissed the window, leaving behind a pink imprint of her lips. Molly couldn't hold back a scold, but Ginny waved it off.

She was now a foot away, three, five, ten, too much! Somehow, there was room…people were backing away slightly, magic, imagination, fate, whatever the reason, Harry could run along the train without knocking people over, so he did. He ran along the train just as she had done so many years ago. Until he couldn't run any more, and not from physical exhaustion either.

Ginny stuck her head out and waved back, as he stopped. Harry kept his hand up, as though it would stop his beloved from moving further and further away, but in several seconds, she, the train, his happiness, disappeared.

At least he thought his happiness was gone. Ron clapped a hand on his shoulder, and Hermione wrapped an arm around him.

"We've got to go to the Aurror's place now, mate." Ron muttered. Harry turned just in time to catch a glimpse of Hermione throwing him a dirty look.

"Yeah, okay." Harry actually smiled. His best friends looked slightly surprised, but they still walked arms over shoulders back to the little huddle that was the Weasleys. As they were walking, the eyes of the crowd were on the three of them. Harry was beyond used to this, but Ron and Hermione realized the attention was directed at them, too, and they weren't used to that.

Harry was so well practiced in ignoring stares that he could do that without a thought about it. What he was thinking about was tomorrow, his and Ron's first day at AT, Aurror Training.

A/N: Let me know in a review (hint) if you want to see the Auror training thing.

I have a picture for this! That last part with the kissing people, I drew an illustration for a couple weeks ago, but I've got to warn you, it's not professionally perfect. Please see my author's page if you want to see it. Look for a bunch of stars at the top for further instructions.

You know that speech I promised to write back in chapter Seven? It seems like ages ago, but I just recently found the file and decided to follow through on my promise. If you would like to see it, it's under my profile page, called Harry's Speech.

Another note, thank you to all who voted, it means a lot. A reminder: My poll asks whether you want chapters that are short with shorter waits for them, or longer ones with longer waits. There are a few other options so please check it out.

Joke:A thief breaks into a bar. He quickly finds the cash register. As he opens
it, he hears a voice say, "God is watching." The thief looks around and sees
nothing. He starts to grab money. The voice speaks again, "God is watching."
The thief stops and looks around. He finds a parrot sitting in a cage near
the window.
The thief asks, "What's your name parrot?"
The parrot replies, "John the Baptist."
The thief laughed, "Who names a parrot John the Baptist?"
The parrot replies, "The same guy who named the rottwiller, God."

Thank you so much, tdogg, for sending that one, along with the next two chapter jokes in! If you have a joke you'd like me to add, I would be happy to do so, I will add them in order I get them.

P.S. Hi Bob! Thanks for reviewing.

Hi just realized something, and I'm so proud of myself for realizing it, I have to share it with you. Ron is in Hermione's name! heRmiONe! Ha! If that isn't coupleylike, I don't know what is.