Compilation of Hinny Works

by LegendDairy

I've got too many Hinny one-shots, and there are more coming. So they are all going to be posted here instead of individual stories. And Harry/Ginny pairings only, no others. Will be updated sporadically.

49. Charming the Neighbor

Prompt from Celina Gryffindor- One where Harry is basically stuck in the same situation as the books, except the Weasley's are Muggles, and his neighbors, and Harry falls in love with the girl next door.

()()()

Charming the Neighbor

()()()

It was his first night back at number 4 Privet Drive after his second year at Hogwarts, and he was miserable about it. It would have been so much better if he could have stayed at Hogwarts over the summer. He would have had access to all of the school and resources. He could get all his studies done in the Library instead of having to do them in the dead of night in his bedroom.

Not that he actually would spend his free time in the Library, that was more of a Hermione thing, but at least he would have had the option there.

Instead he had to come back and suffer through ten weeks of them.

They didn't want him here either. The Dursley's would probably have been popping champagne to find out that Harry didn't have to come back.

The only thing they thought he was any good for was house and yard work. No doubt his days would be full of that while Dudley was off beating up primary school kids at the nearest park with his friends.

Harry had noticed right away that Dudley had gained about three stone since the last time he'd seen him. Any bigger and he'd be as wide as he was tall. Thankfully those gene's seemed to have come from his father, but Aunt Petunia should have been doing something to slow down the process. Perhaps like not making an entire pot of pasta for her 'growing boy' and instead trade his portion size for the one that Harry had received.

He wondered if he should owl Hermione or Neville and see if they could send him some food this summer. Or maybe he could sneak away into London one day and go to Gringotts and change out some of his Galleon's for Pound notes. The Goblin's must have had other currency.

"Finally had the opportunity to talk to her today. Seven children that woman has had, could you imagine?" Aunt Petunia was carrying on to her husband. "How on earth does she manage that?"

Well Aunt Petunia, Harry was responding in his head, when the man you sleep beside doesn't resemble a bloated walrus with the temperament of a hippo you might find yourself experiencing these things called hormones.

"I can just imagine all the noise we'll be hearing now that they're home from school. Just the next yard over!" she scoffed.

"There are seven kids living in the next house over?" Harry asked in confusion. That was a four-bedroom house, like this one.

His aunt turned and scowled at him. "If you were listening, you would know that there are only five of them now school aged. Four of them go to Smeltings with Dudley, don't they Popkin?" she smiled adoringly at her son.

Dudley nodded, but didn't say anything. He actually gave a hard swallow and a twitch, then tried to pull off a polite smile at his mum.

That was bizarre behavior from him. Normally he would just grunt in response while shoveling his food into his mouth. Could it be that there was a bully amongst the boys next door that had it in for Dudley?

This Harry wanted to be witness for.

Dudley had bullied him all through primary school and made it so no one would think of being Harry's friend. Hermione and Neville were the only real friends Harry had, they were the first people he met on his way to Hogwarts and they'd stuck by him and helped him out through all the trials and tribulations he'd experienced since stepping back into the wizarding world.

It had been a bit jarring to learn that your new friends knew more about your family history than you do, but he'd grown accustomed to people knowing more about him than he'd like over the last two years.

"Not sure where their daughter goes to school, didn't think to ask," Aunt Petunia carried on. "Mrs. Weasley just carried on about how she was going to be putting her garden in over the next few weeks. Her vegetable garden!" She made a face at the thought that the soil could possibly be used for something other than shrubs and flowers.

After dinner Harry started in on the dishes while his Aunt and Uncle moved to the other room to watch their shows and Dudley went upstairs to play his video games. Out the window through the kitchen Harry had a partially obstructed view of the neighbor garden and made out that the Weasley family was having a family dinner outside and there were balloons and streamers hung up around their gazebo. He could just make out the tops of a few ginger heads over the fence as they moved around.

There was quite a bit of moving around going on. At one point he caught sight of one of them getting a piggyback ride from the other one. It was a boy a few years older than Harry with a big smile on his face. Must be nice to have so many siblings.

On his way up to his room Dudley was coming out of the bathroom and bumped into him in the hall. "Move it, Freak."

"Clever one, Diddy-Duddy-Dumpkins," Harry countered.

"What did you learn at your freak school this year? How to be an even bigger loser?"

"Why? Is that what the new boys next door have taught you?" he asked and was rewarded with a slightly alarmed look in Dudley's face.

"What did you hear?" he asked in a panicked whisper.

Knew it, Harry thought. They really were bullying him! Ordinarily Harry wasn't keen on bullies. However, this was an extraordinary circumstance; Dudley, his aunt and uncle, Draco Malfoy and Snape had all made it their mission to bully Harry so he felt vengeance hearing that Dudley was getting it now.

"What did they do?" he asked spitefully. "Call you names? Hang you up by your knicker-bockers?"

"Shut up!" Dudley said, still managing to stay quiet enough that his parents wouldn't hear them carrying on. He turned tail after that and went straight into his room and closed the door.

Harry very happily went to his own room then and started going through his trunk, in search of something to do and to attempt to find something to amuse him and keep him in his room until it was time to sleep.

()()()

It was the first full day home from Hogwarts and he just knew he would be getting sent out to the garden to take care of shrubbery and the like all day long in the blazing heat. Dudley and his dad had gone off somewhere in the car and Aunt Petunia went to meet up with her Bitter-Old-Biddies club or something, handing Harry a list of chores that she wanted him to complete before she got home in four hours.

One of the last things on the list was power washing the fence. Something that was best done first and would allow him to cross off watering the lawn. He pulled the power washer out from the tool shed and hooked it up to the hose.

He'd been doing this job since he was about seven. At first they had rented a washer, but because the fence looked so much better after the first time Aunt Petunia insisted that it look that nice all the time and that required power washing a few times a summer, thus they bought one to save on rental charges.

Harry turned the machine on and got started on the middle of the side fence so he could get the spray right. He had not expected to hear a scream of surprise emanating from the next yard. Quick as he could he aimed the spray downwards and turned off the machine.

"Sorry!" he yelled. "I didn't know anyone was on the other side."

He grabbed for the step ladder and put it against the fence to apologize properly and found himself looking down at a slightly soaked girl about his age with braided pigtails. She had gardening gloves on and short shorts.

"Sorry," he repeated. "I swear that wasn't intentional."

"Yeah, I believe you. I'm just," she tried to wipe the water out of her eyes with her wrist since her gloved hands were covered in dirt. "I can't see anything."

"I didn't get you right in the face, did I? The power on that thing is pretty strong." The way the fence design was she wouldn't have gotten sprayed directly, but he didn't know if it got her through the slight angles between the slats of wood.

"No, I'll be fine once I can wipe my eye properly."

"Ginny? Alright?" one of her brothers asked as he came out the back of the house.

"Hey," Harry greeted him hastily. "I accidentally got her when I was starting to power wash the fence on this side," he explained quickly.

The boy gave Harry a sizing up and then nodded and went over to Ginny, lifting up his shirt to wipe her eyes himself.

"Thanks," she said and blinked a few times. "All good." She turned to look at Harry and her forehead crinkled a bit in confusion. "This is the twat from your school?" she asked her brother, still looking at Harry.

Harry couldn't help letting out a loud laugh at that.

"No, that isn't him," the brother answered.

"I knew it!" Harry grinned down at them. "What did you do to him?" he asked the boy specifically. "He seems pretty scared of you and your brothers."

"Didn't do anything he didn't have coming to him," the boy said firmly and defensively. He looked to be Harry and Dudley's age too, but he was pretty tall.

"I don't doubt it," Harry assured him. "Dudley is a spoiled bully."

"And you are?" Ginny asked, now looking amused.

"I'm Harry. His cousin. I live here in the summers, but I don't go to Smeltings, I go to… a different boarding school."

"Man of mystery, are you?" she teased. "I'm Ginny. This is Ron," she pointed at her brother.

"Did you say you've got a power washer?" Ron asked him. "Any chance I could borrow it? Mum asked me to rent one today, but that's 20 quid that could go elsewhere."

Harry paused and looked back over at his house, wondering what the repercussions of him lending out the Dursley's tools to the neighbors they weren't fond of might be. "Erm," he started. "It, it might take me a half hour to get the fence done here, then if you do yours right away I should be able to get it back into the shed before they get home." He really didn't want to say no to such a reasonable request.

He didn't miss them exchanging a glance with each other either. With a sigh he explained that he wasn't exactly the Dursley's favorite person. Them finding out he was lending out their things wouldn't go over too well.

Ginny cocked her head at Harry then. "Have you got anything else on your list of chores today?" she asked.

"Yeah, loads," he shrugged.

"How about we do some of it, then you wash the fence over here. Then you won't be lending out their tools," she offered. "I'm great with trimming, and Ron can mow the lawn. You have got a mower, right?"

"Yeah, they've got a mower," Harry said as he thought about it. It seemed a reasonable enough compromise.

"Brilliant," Ron shrugged and grabbed a step ladder on their side, putting it up against their side of the fence and hopped over to the Dursley's property, immediately setting out for the tool shed and pulling out the mower.

Ginny followed Ron's lead, giving Harry a smile and a curtsey when he clapped at her sticking the landing on the grass before going in search of the clippers.

An hour later and Harry was standing in the Weasley's backyard and finishing up power washing their fence. It was much easier taking care of the fence on this side because there weren't any trees or bushes in the way. Mrs. Weasley had pulled out everything that the previous owner had put in and made a raised garden around the perimeter of the yard for her vegetables.

Ron and Ginny chatted with him a bit, which was slightly difficult because it required yelling over the sound of the motor. By the time he was done with the power washer and had put it back in the Dursley's shed none of them had arrived home yet and Ron had hollered over the fence at him to meet them around the front of the house.

Both of them were waiting there for him, resting against the white picketing on number four's side.

"Coming with us?" Ron asked.

"Where?"

"Ice cream," Ginny grinned. "You saved us a few quid, now we may as well treat you."

"Plus, it's a hot day and we earned it," Ron told him.

Harry stared at them for a moment considering his options. Ice cream did sound like a good idea, and all of his chores were done. "Alright."

That was the start of a beautiful friendship with the Weasley's next door. They were a real rag-tag bunch of people. His Aunt and Uncle weren't happy that Harry had made friends with them, it didn't reflect well on them for their 'delinquent' nephew to be making nice with them. Petunia had to tell the others that he was really learning how to be better behaved while attending St. Brutus'.

Mrs. Weasley had been very welcoming and fed him incessantly when he was over visiting his new friends.

Turned out it was the twins, Fred and George, had been the one's that had really made Dudley's life hell at Smeltings. Apparently, Dudley had attempted to let Ron know who was running things in their year. The twins had stepped right in and set a firecracker off in Dudley's trousers. They had also made his locker explode with some kind of foam that solidified and Dudley had needed to chip his belongings out of it.

Ron had started pranking Dudley as well.

Essentially, the Weasley's had made Dudley's life hell and Harry saw it all as partial retribution for the poundings he'd had to take from Dudley and his gang before going off to Hogwarts.

They'd had Harry over for movie nights, barbeques and Ginny and Ron were frequently inviting him to go and watch football practices and just get out of the house in general.

It was easily the best summer of his life and by the time September first rolled around he was regretting having to pack up his trunk and head off to school.

()()()

His aunt and uncle brought him home from his third year at school and the entire ride was in silence from Kings Cross station. They had just found out that Harry's Godfather was alive and had just been released from prison and may be stopping by from time to time.

This was a new discovery for Harry as well. His Godfather had been falsely accused of killing his parents. It was Ministry of Magic mandated that every decade prisoners were given a review and their crimes discussed. It had been the first time Sirius had been given Veritaserum, or given any trial of any kind. The potion was only approved to be used at this point to save time and see if the prisoners were truly remorseful. That was when he told them he hadn't been a Death Eater, nor did he betray Lily and James Potter; that had been Peter Pettigrew, whom had blown himself up and taken out those Muggles. From there his wand had been pulled from evidence and had the charm cast on it to show the last spells used.

Something so simple and straight forward. It would have saved him those ten years in prison.

Eleven actually. Apparently, Azkaban wasn't too worried about keeping to a schedule with these prisoner reviews. That, and there were a high number of prisoners locked up in Azkaban in 1981 and it took some time to get through them all.

Sirius had come to Hogsmeade one weekend and met with Harry and his DADA Professor, someone who had been friends with both Harry's parents and Sirius. It had been an emotional meeting for Professor Lupin and Sirius Black.

From there Harry had been in constant correspondence with Sirius.

Generally, Harry wasn't happy to be leaving Hogwarts, but now he had friends on Privet Drive and he was looking forward to catching up with them and finding out how they had been torturing Dudley that year.

After he'd carried his trunk into the house and hauled it up the stairs to his room he went right back down the stairs and stood in the foyer for a moment to see if he would immediately be told what to do, but the Dursley's weren't interested in spending any more time with him than they had to, and he knew the rules of the house; be home for dinner or you won't get any.

Well, that didn't really matter. He knew that if he went next door that Mrs. Weasley would make sure he was fed much better food, and much more, than he would get at the Dursleys.

Being careful not to close the door too loudly he went over to number six and rang the doorbell. He was already smiling hearing the noise going on inside. There was never a moment of silence in this house. Mister and Mrs. Weasley must have breathed a sigh of relief when all their children were off at school and they could hear themselves think again.

The door opened and it was Ginny on the other side of it. She'd grown about half a foot since he'd seen her last. Her face had lost some of that child-like appearance. "Harry!" she grinned and launched herself at him in a hug. "So good to see you again. Come on in!" she pulled back and tugged him by the elbow into the house. "Guys! Harry's back," she called out to the house.

"Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley was the next into the hallway and also pulled him into an embrace. "Good to have you back. Did you just get in today? Are you hungry?" She wasn't giving him a chance to answer.

"Hey mate," Ron called through the open door that led into the family room. He wasn't looking away from the television though. He and the twins were playing some kind of video game that involved a lot of violence.

"Harry," the twins said in unison, also not looking away from the screen.

"Don't mind them, they've been like that for hours," Ginny told him dismissively. "I've got crisps and soda."

That was all the invitation and greeting required. He loved it. It was like he was simply one of them and expected to behave like it too.

Ginny took up at one end of the sofa and curled her legs up with a magazine while the guys continued playing their game. Eventually Harry was given a controller and tried to figure out what it was he was supposed to be doing. He'd never been allowed to play any of Dudley's video games before so it was all new to him.

That summer passed much the same way the previous summer had. Except this year he had more correspondence going out between his house and wherever Sirius was staying. He sent and received a letter at least once a week and they were really getting to know one another. Sirius' personality shone through with the sadistic humor behind a few remarks he'd made about the Wizarding world at large. He was very glad that Harry had a bunch of Muggle friends he could spend time with so that his whole life wasn't about him being The Boy Who Lived.

They had talked about what his life was like at the Dursley's as well. Harry didn't get into the deep and darker parts of his childhood living in the house, more that they treated him like a House Elf that needed to earn his keep.

After he'd befriended the Weasleys last summer though they weren't on his case about anything really. He just needed to get his chores done and be home before ten when his aunt and uncle went to bed so they could lock up. And that was the same rules for this summer too.

Ron and the twins had filled him in on all the stunts they'd pulled on Dudley and his friends over the year, and now whenever he saw Dudley, Harry gave a small laugh. Then Dudley would turn red in the face and look like he wanted to yell, but said nothing.

"Did you know that there is an owl that has made a home in your attic or something?" Ginny asked him while they were seated in the stands watching Ron's football match one Sunday morning. The twins were watching too, but one of their mates was there and they went over to say hello.

"She doesn't live in the attic, she's mine," Harry told her.

Ginny looked gob smacked. "A whole year we've known each other, and you haven't told me you have a pet owl? If I had a pet owl it would be the first thing out of my mouth when I meet new people."

Harry chuckled. "Her name is Hedwig and I got her when I turned eleven."

"And you can let her out of her cage and fly off, and she'll still come back to you? She's that well trained?"

"Yeah, like a carrier pigeon I guess you could say. She knows where she lives," he shrugged. He hadn't brought it up at all, and probably wouldn't have, because it was odd to Muggles.

"Amazing. Does she sit on your arm or let you pet her or anything?"

"Yeah. Normally she's either out for a fly or sleeping in her cage though."

"Can you bring her by the next time you come over?" Ginny knew that they weren't welcome in the Dursley household, so him bringing Hedwig over was the only way she was going to meet the owl.

"Sure," he promised her.

It was nearing the end of the game when Ginny gave a groan under her breath beside him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Girls from my school. Not particularly nice one's either. It looks like they've spotted me and are coming over."

"Hold on a minute," Harry exclaimed in false shock. "Are you telling me that the incredible Ginny Weasley has… bullies?" He whispered the last word.

She rolled her eyes at him. "They aren't really bullies. They just have money and look down on me a bit. They aren't shoving me in lockers or whatever. There is just a never-ending supply of tips on how to look better and comments about this and that."

"I can relate," he said, thinking of Draco Malfoy.

"Ginny," greeted a girl about fourteen with straight black hair and very white teeth. She had a girl on either side of her that held the same fake expression. "So good to see you here. I didn't know you liked football."

"That's because you don't pay attention to who is on the school teams," Ginny pointed out to her. "I suppose you're here because you're dating one of the players?" There was the same hint of false politeness in Ginny's voice as there was in the other girls. It had to be some code that girls went by were they silently agreed to be passive aggressive instead of admitting they simply didn't like each other.

"I am," the girl preened. "What about you? Who's this?" she indicated to Harry.

"He's my friend," Ginny said pointedly. "We're here watching my brother."

"Brother, riiight. You have a few of those, don't you," said the blonde girl to the left. "Youngest of, like, a dozen or something."

Harry didn't like the way they were looking at Ginny. They basically hadn't acknowledged his presence either. "Do you three mind actually?" he asked. "You're in the way." He pointed towards the field they were blocking the view of.

"Wait," the one on the right smiled. "You're actually watching? It's just a rec league. It isn't like it matters." She and the other two giggled like he'd said something really lame and it was amusing.

"Good, so you're about to piss off then," he said with a fake smile.

Ginny was silently snickering beside him. That helped reinforce the optimistic expression he was trying to keep on his face. If she wasn't mad that he was being caddy to these girls then he wasn't going to back down.

"Whatever," the middle girl pouted. "Laters," she said specifically to Ginny and then led the other two down to the other end of the stands.

"Thank you for that," Ginny told him before linking her arm in his and giving his bicep a hug. "They are super irritating, but there's this whole school hierarchy thing that I'm trying to navigate."

"I didn't just make things worse for you then?" he asked.

"No. It wasn't me being out and out rude to them. I'm sure they'll get over it." She gave his arm another squeeze and they wound up watching the rest of the game sitting like that.

Harry was rather comfortable the way they were leaning against each other slightly. It felt almost natural for her to be holding on to him like this. It was pleasant. She had hugged him hello and goodbye a few times, but this was different. It didn't mean anything, but it was nice.

Eventually the twins came back over and the game ended. They met up with Ron and congratulated him on his game. He'd managed to block a lot of shots on net and was covered in sweat, after he'd squirted a bunch of water over his own head he'd shot some of it at the four of them as well.

The whole walk back Harry was reflecting on how normal he felt with these friends of his.

()()()

A nightmare.

That's what his fourth year was.

It was one giant fucking nightmare.

His life at Hogwarts had been very exciting in his first three years there. There was so much to learn, not just in terms of his magical education but about his past and about the ways of the wizarding world and corruption and such as well. Neville was trying to help him understand, but it was all just boggling.

Draco Malfoy and Snape had been the worst parts of his life at school up until his fourth year. This year had been an eye opener.

There was a tournament at the school and they'd Hogwarts had hosted a few kids from two other magical schools. There was supposed to be one kid from each school chosen to compete in the tournament.

Supposed to be.

Then Harry's name came out.

He was forced to compete, forced to have a bunch of Hogwarts students think he'd done it for the attention. As though he had enough knowledge to trick the magical object that chose the contenders that the other, older, students hadn't managed to trick.

One terrifying task after another and it all ended with him in a graveyard, tied to a grave stone, and Voldemort coming back to life before his eyes.

He'd shown his memory of what happened to Sirius and Dumbledore after and Sirius had recognized the man who'd helped Voldemort. It was Peter Pettigrew, the man Sirius had been accused of killing. The man who betrayed Harry's parents and caused him to be orphaned.

It turned out the man who had been acting as his DADA professor all year had been a Death Eater as well and he'd been the one to put Harry's name into the tournament.

But he was back on Privet Drive now.

Back with the Dursleys.

Back with the Weasley's really.

Harry had questioned Dumbledore extensively about the wards and protections around his summer home and was assured that no harm would come to him, or his neighbors. There were measures in place that prevented Death Eaters from coming near his home. Protections that fell away once he turned seventeen and was legally of age to the Wizarding community.

Once he was back in his bedroom and had his trunk set down and Hedwig situated on the desk he was torn between wanting to rush next door and say hello, and wanting to lay face down on his bed and pull the pillow over his head and simply wish it all away.

The bed won out.

He was emotionally and physically exhausted and he hadn't done anything other than sit on a train or in a car all day. Next door seemed too far. Putting a smile on his face and pretending everything was all hunky-dory was too hard.

He'd still be given a list of chores to get done tomorrow. Today though he could curl up in a ball and let sleep take him.

The next thing he was aware of was a rapping sound on his window. He blinked his eyes open and sat up, looking around bewildered. There was a freckle faced, gangly boy in his window waving at him and pointing up at the latch.

Harry couldn't help the laugh that came out of him seeing Ron in the window having climbed up the lattice.

It was dark outside so he must have gotten a few hours of sleep. He pushed open the window as Ron moved back out of the way.

"Thought you were supposed to be back today," Ron said as he hung off the side of the house. "You coming over or what?"

"You couldn't just use the door, could you?" Harry chuckled.

"Nah, no fun in that. Come on, I've challenged the twins to badminton and I need a second," Ron told him, starting to climb back down the lattice, clearly assuming Harry would just follow after him.

Harry blinked a few times in surprise and then figured he may as well, so he climbed out through the window and followed Ron down to the ground, taking a look at the clock in his room and seeing that it was nearing ten. His aunt and uncle weren't likely to assume he'd snuck out. They never checked on him, so what was the harm. Their windows didn't look out over the backyard.

"Couldn't Ginny have been your fourth?" Harry asked after they'd hopped over the fence.

"No way! Have you never played anything competitive with her before? She's bloody merciless!" Ron exclaimed.

"I wouldn't have to be if you lot were any good at sports," Ginny's voice defended from the deck.

Harry was a bit taken aback at the sight of her. She'd grown up quite a bit over the past year. Ron had gotten taller, but he still looked overall the same. Ginny though. She had curves that hadn't been there at the end of the last summer. Something about her face too, she looked way more mature than she was supposed to.

Or maybe he just hadn't really paid any attention to the girls he went to school with. They didn't all have those slightly pouty lips and lined eyes, did they?

The expression on her face when she came to greet him though, that was the one he was familiar with. Her smile and the soft, twinkly expression in her eyes, that was still the same Ginny. He missed her hugs. Hermione was the only other person who really hugged him, but it wasn't the same. He felt like he could hug Ginny for a bit longer than he did Hermione and it wasn't weird.

"Vicious player then, are you?" Harry teased her.

"No," Ginny defended. "I just know how to win, everyone else gets in the way of that."

"I take it you aren't the favorite on the football team then?" he asked. He'd seen a few of her games last year and she really dominated the field. She'd been hoping to move up to varsity level this year.

"Golden girl there?" one of the twins scoffed. "Yeah right, they were about ready to bow down to her at their championship game."

"I was hoisted up on a few shoulders, that was close enough," she bragged.

"Still, you don't want to play a game with her," Ron told him and handed him a badminton racket.

Being able to hang around with the Weasley's again was like taking a breath of fresh air that summer. Every time his scar was hurting him or his mood was growing dark about what was potentially becoming of the other world, because no one was telling him in any of their owls, he would just go an hang out with them.

Then word finally did come. He would be spending the second part of his summer with Sirius, not at Privet Drive.

And he didn't know if he really wanted to go.

This time he spent on Privet Drive had been a vacation away from everything. He'd played badminton, had water balloon fights, spent hot afternoons with his feet in a kiddy pool laughing and eating popsicles with his friends. He and Ginny had made truly exceptional brownies for a movie night, the twins had snuck them all a bottle of rum and they'd taken turns having swigs of it and playing embarrassing drinking games.

Now he knew it wasn't going to last much longer.

His dreams hadn't helped the foreboding feeling that overtook him at nighttime either. He was sure he was seeing into Voldemort's mind or plans, but he didn't know why. It had to be something to do with what had happened during the ritual at the graveyard, but he was actively trying not to think about it.

()()()

Dudley hadn't been with his parents at the train station to pick him up from school, so it was a bit of a shock to see him standing in Harry's room looking out the window when he got home. "What are you doing?" Harry asked him.

Dudley jumped slightly. Apparently the sound of his trunk being hauled up the stairs on his own without magic wasn't enough of a warning that he was headed this way.

"N-nothing," he stuttered a bit and walked towards him, nudging him hard with his elbow as he went out the door.

Harry ignored his cousin but went to the window to see what Dudley was looking at. He'd definitely been looking towards the Weasley's yard.

Upon first glance Harry knew exactly what Dudley had been looking at. And he was having trouble looking away from the sight as well.

Ginny was in the backyard, laying down on a beach blanket in shorts and a bikini top, laying on her front and reading. She was up on her elbows and from this angle you could follow the line of the bathing suit top around her side and make out the curve that followed up to where there was more material in front.

It was a tantalizing amount of skin that he was seeing right now. The closest he'd seen to this was the posters that his dorm mate Seamus had up under his canopy bed.

This was different though. Ginny was real. And he could go over there right now and greet her. An image of what would happen if he went over there started playing out in his mind and he couldn't stop it; she'd get up from her beach towel and walk towards him real slow with only the purple stirps of triangle shaped material covering her breasts before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and letting him wrap his arms around her too.

Touching her bare skin.

No, this probably wouldn't be an ideal time to give her a hug. Currently he didn't feel like he had any control over his hormones, or his breathing.

By the time he'd left last summer it had been obvious that Ginny was getting to be quite nice to look at, now he was seeing a lot more of her than he ever thought he would.

Forcing himself, he looked away and started to focus on unpacking his trunk and getting things organized for when he would next need to leave, and pulling out all of his Muggle clothing from last year that didn't fit properly anymore.

He had meant to ask Hermione about doing a sizing spell on them so that he could make them last longer before they'd left Hogwarts, but… well he wasn't really in the right headspace for remembering to do that, was he?

His Godfather had just died and he'd walked his friends into a trap at the Ministry that nearly got the rest of them killed as well. He had thought that his fourth year was awful, but he'd do that all over again in place of what had gone down this year.

At least Umbridge was gone now, and she'd been tortured a bit by the Centaurs on her way out. She deserved worse than that. The Minister of Magic finally believed he and Dumbledore now, he was eating crow after all the public shaming he'd put the two of them through. At least Dumbledore had been able to wear that admirably.

Harry on the other hand had simply wanted to lash out left and right.

But he was back here now. And he would be staying here for two months, in his bubble of happiness that was Privet Drive.

He let out a disbelieving chuckle at that.

Privet Drive was his sanctuary now. Ridiculous.

But it was, and it was all thanks to the Weasley's next door.

Harry's feet led him back to the window and he looked over at Ginny again and frowned. She wasn't alone anymore. There was a guy laying down beside her in his swim trunks and a sleeveless tee that was sharing her beach towel. They were basically pressed right up against each other. Now the guy was leaning over and kissing her!

Harry felt betrayed for some reason.

Ginny had a boyfriend?! How? Didn't she go to an All-Girls school? Where would she have met him?

She was kissing the guy back.

It wasn't like they were full on snogging but Harry could see their lips meeting for small kisses over and over again.

Again, he turned away from the window.

All year his temper had been on edge. He'd bloody destroyed the Headmasters office because he hadn't been able to contain it. After Umbridge, and the Daily Prophet, and several students thinking he was full of shite, then Sirius dying because of his stupid mistake. All that it made sense for him to be angry about. He was also sharing some kind of consciousness with Voldemort and that guy was pissed off most of the time too.

This was just the tip of the iceberg.

And the realization of that washed over him as though he'd been hit by that iceberg.

He fancied Ginny.

A montage of all the time he'd spent with her over the past three years went through his mind and it became so obvious to him now.

How had he not realized that before? He loved hanging out with the twins and Ron, but the main thing he looked forward to every time he went next door was spending more time with Ginny. He loved arguing with her, baking with her and just overall being around her.

Now he was too late.

Not that he knew whether or not he would have had the nerve to make a move on her or anything. He had no idea if she was interested in him the same way. And it was one thing to come face to face with death defying moments, but he wasn't emotionally invested in those like he now realized he was with her.

And now he was too late.

She was seeing someone.

But… maybe it wasn't anything serious? Maybe him going over there and saying 'hello' would make her see him and this other guy side by side and she'd realize that Harry was the way better choice. Then she'd just ditch that guy then and there and start furiously snogging with him instead.

The likelihood of that scenario playing out was effectively zero, but it was a nice daydream to have.

And he found the motivation in him to go over and say hi to the Weasley clan.

George was the one to open the door. At least, Harry was pretty sure it was George given that he had a 'G' on his shirt, but the 'G' could have easily stood for Gred and it would have been Fred wearing it. He still couldn't tell the two of them apart.

Anyhow, he was invited in and the twins filled him in on how they'd gotten internships in the city at a thinktank type operation that created and manufactured toys and gadgets and the like. That was something that was completely up their alley.

Ron was bummed that his brothers wouldn't be at his school next year, but he'd established himself enough that he wasn't worried. He had a good crowd of friends and was the schools best goalie.

The whole time that Ron and the twins were carrying on Harry was trying to be discrete about looking out through the window into the backyard. Ginny and her boyfriend hadn't come in yet, but Harry had seen her walk by the window and she'd pulled a shirt on as it was growing colder out. Her brothers hadn't brought her up yet either.

Harry found his opportunity to mention her when he saw the guy walk past the window.

"Who's that?" he indicated towards the backyard.

"Oh, that's Justin," Ron said sounding unimpressed. "He's on my team at school, a forward. Ginny met him at one of my games and they've been seeing each other for two months now."

The twins looked equally enthusiastic about the match.

"You don't like him then?" Harry asked, trying not to sound so happy about it.

Ron gave a shrug. "He's an alright mate to have, but, you know, locker room talk and all. He's dated a few girls before and I already told him that if he starts sharing those kinds of stories about Ginny he's going to be missing a few teeth."

Harry didn't know exactly what kinds of stories this Justin guy had shared about other girls but he was already willing to back Ron up if anything untoward was said about Ginny.

Unable to hold back any longer, Harry got up from the couch. "Well, I should go and say hi to her. Maybe size this guy up a bit and see if he's worthy," he joked to the boys.

From their expressions they didn't read anything into that and let him head to the back.

He hadn't even closed the door behind him before his name was called out in excitement and he found a very happy Ginny with her arms wrapped around him. He grinned and hugged her back, his face buried in her lovely soft hair that smelled so good.

"Missed you," he murmured to her.

"Missed you too," she replied a bit louder than him and pulled back. She cupped the side of his face and there was worry reflected in her eyes. "You okay? You look so worn out."

"Way to flatter a bloke," he deflected. "You're supposed to mention that I'm taller, or I need a haircut or something. Not tell me I need a good sleep."

She rolled her beautiful brown eyes. Had she always had that lovely a pattern of freckles across the bridge of her nose? And there it went, she had this cheeky smile of hers and when she used it, one of her eyebrows would go up and down once or twice and you just knew she was going to say something smart. "You are taller, but then so am I. And you do need a haircut." She then ran her fingers through his hair and he was suddenly seconds away from being obviously turned on by her.

Luckily a shadow fell over them then. "Hey, I'm Justin." Ginny's boyfriend had come over.

Harry couldn't blame him for the expression on his face. He quite obviously was not amused by how his girlfriend was hugging and touching a guy he knew nothing about.

"Harry," he introduced himself. "I live next door. Just got back from school and came over to say hello. Ron mentioned you are on the football team with him?"

Justin was giving him a good looking up and down to size him up. It was obvious to Harry, but Ginny didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I am." Justin wrapped his arm around Ginny and pulled her to his side. Rather too aggressively for Harry's liking, and from the look on Ginny's face she wasn't all that happy about it either. "Do you play?"

"No," Harry admitted. "Nothing outside primary school gym class."

"Do you play anything?" Justin asked, clearly thinking that one's ability to play a sport equated to manliness.

Well, Harry couldn't very well launch into his abilities when it came to the Quidditch Pitch, could he?

"I'm decent enough when it comes to Badminton that Ron will use me as a second," Harry joked.

Ginny thought it was a funny enough response. Justin didn't look very impressed though.

"Anyway," Harry continued, unsure of how he should be proceeding. "Just wanted to say hi to Ginny. I'll head back inside now."

Leaving her out here to be alone with her boyfriend was not at all what Harry wanted to do, but what else could he do? Just stand there awkwardly while Justin stared him down for a while longer?

Turning back towards the house he heard Ginny muttering to Justin under her breath, "why don't you just pee on me next time to mark your territory?"

He was glad she had that reaction to him being all dominating over her like that, and he hoped that it might start them bickering, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to make her laugh. So as he stepped back to pull the door to the kitchen open all the way he turned back to her with a stage whisper and said "that's called a 'Golden Shower'."

Sure enough, she burst into laughter. Even Justin looked to be biting his lip to stop from smiling in favor of maintaining his superior façade over Harry.

Walking back through the house he felt pretty good about the way that played out.

Unfortunately that first greeting of the summer did not automatically queue Ginny to break up with Justin and fall into Harry's arms and he was forced to watch the two of them walking around together and had seen them kiss in greeting and farewell more times than he cared to.

He didn't understand Ginny's attraction to the bloke. She was so much better than him. She was witty and Justin was a dunce. She was quick to a laugh, Justin was too cool to show emotion like that. She would initiate conversations and Justin was always just standing there looking like he was part of the conversation, but never contributing.

Harry had been careful not to wander too far from Privet Drive that summer. The park at the end of the road was basically the furthest he'd travel. He didn't know how far the protection left to him by his mother extended. Perhaps it simply meant that the Death Eaters had no idea where in Britain he lived, but he didn't want to take that chance.

The only time he went further than the park was when he went with Ginny to watch Ron's football matches that were at the field that was two kilometers away. She was going to watch Justin more than Ron now, Harry thought depressingly. At least he got to sit beside her in the stands though.

"Any end of the summer bash planned at yours for this year then?" Harry asked her when they were settled. The twins were usually the orchestraters behind a summer wrap up party at the Weasley residence before they all went off to school.

"Don't know how good it'll be this year, but we'll probably call up a few of our friends and invite them over. I think there might be room enough for you to come as well," she said and leaned towards him so their arms touched.

"How magnanimous of you to invite me," he joked. There was one question he really wanted to ask her, but didn't have the nerve. It was about whether she and Justin were going to keep seeing each other when they went to different schools. They wouldn't be seeing each other face to face and if they were going to try and stick it out then Harry knew that Justin might actually mean something to her. But if she admitted that they were going to be done…

It wasn't like that meant he would be free to start up with her. That would be well more complicated, he wouldn't even be able to send her a letter in the post, let alone call.

But it would mean that she wasn't emotionally invested in Justin. That meant that maybe next summer he'd have a shot.

Maybe next summer he could be holding her hand while they watched Ron's games, or slip under the stands and get up to all kinds of fun things out of sight of the other spectators. He wouldn't mind if they just sat there like this staring at each other they way they were right now. Even in the fading sun with the blaring stadium lights distorting things he could see how lovely her eyes were.

"Harry?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

Was that a blush growing on her face? She bit her bottom lip and chewed on it a bit, then let it slide out from between her teeth and gave a nervous kind of smile. "You're staring at me," she told him.

Oh shit. He was.

He blinked and wiped his palms on his jeans, sitting up straight and forcing himself to look out at the players on the field. "Right, sorry." He gave himself a mental kick for that. What if she started to think he was creepy or something?

They managed to move past that awkward moment and enjoy the rest of the game.

Nice as football was, it was nothing compared to Quidditch. If they were watching a Quidditch game he would have been able to distract himself with more of what was going on, rather than replaying just how stupid he must have looked over and over again in his head.

Once the game wrapped up they met up with Ron and Justin and walked back to the Weasley's. Harry bid them goodnight before going to the Dursley's and waiting until he was securely closed up in his room before clenching his fists and vibrating with frustration at himself and letting out a silent scream.

Couldn't anything in his life go right?

Why couldn't he catch a break?

As the summer wore on though he started to notice less and less of Justin around the Weasley's. And if Ginny wasn't there it was because she was over at a friends place, a female friends. And he'd found proof that that hadn't just been a lie she'd told her brothers and parents, she had actually been at a female friends house hanging out.

Then came the party that Ron was hosting before they all parted ways the weekend before school started.

Harry was excited to go to this party, even though he didn't really know anyone but the Weasley's that would be there, and undoubtedly Justin would be there and possibly pawing at Ginny.

This was the last party he would be able to go to though that would allow him to feel like the average teenage boy that he was for a long time, probably ever. So tonight, he was planning on having a few too many drinks and then climbing the trellis up to his bedroom or passing out in the yard, whichever was preferable at that point.

They had busted out a karaoke machine for this and the twins had promised to 'chaperone' while Mister and Mrs. Weasley went to her Aunts house for the evening on the other end of London. There as a full keg of beer in the kitchen and red solo cups everywhere. It was like something out of a typical teenage movie. Harry was having a great time; he'd played beer pong and lost, exchanged dirty jokes with several different groups of people that were equally as inhibited as he was, and clapped and cheered along through several terrible renditions of Bohemian Rhapsody.

There was only one thing missing. One person.

He kept missing her though. She would get pulled along by one of her friends outside, or up the stairs, or wherever.

It was late and the party was in full swing when he saw one of Ginny's friends come back down the stairs without her. So he took a chance and hiked up the stairs himself.

He'd been upstairs at their place a few times, but always to go into Ron or the twins rooms, never Ginny's. She had the same small room that he did considering the layout of this house was the same as the Dursleys. Now he was interested to know what she'd done with the layout to her room.

There were a few people upstairs, he could hear some people getting up to things in the twins room and chatting from Ron's room. The bathroom was in use too, but the Master bedroom door was closed and from the sign on the door it was locked and rigged to blast someone with a stink bomb if they tried to go in. Ginny's room sounded quiet and the door was propped open just a bit.

He rapped lightly on the door and pushed it in a ways.

"Just a sec," Ginny called out and pulled the door open. She had changed her shirt. "Harry," she grinned. Her eyes were a bit glazed from drinking.

"Ginny," he replied in the same manner.

She giggled and stepped back to let him in the room. "Monica knocked her drink all over me, so I had to change," she explained.

"I haven't had a chance to talk to you much."

"Tonight, or this summer?" she asked with a pout. "Because I feel like I haven't seen you much and I miss you."

He gave her a dopey grin at that. "I miss you too. You should stay home more and spend more time with me."

Ginny pursed her lips and shook her head. "I've invited you to come into the city with my friends and I a few times, but you keep saying no. Is it because the Dursley's won't let you?" she asked. "I don't understand why they don't like you. You're so good to them. You do more than that worthless Dudley blob." A shiver ran through her. "You know, I caught him leering at me a few times through the window."

"What?! I'll hurt him for that!" He'd only caught Dudley doing that once. When had he done it again? And how had Harry not known about it?

He stood up straight and wondered for a moment if he should go next door right now and set Dudley straight.

Ginny chuckled and put her hands on his arms. "My great defender, are you? I have enough of those. I don't need another one."

"I know you can take care of yourself. But Dudley is my problem, not yours. You can beat up Ron when he turns into a letch."

"Deal," she grinned and took a step closer to him. "Really though. I'll miss you while I'm at school."

"I miss you when I'm at school too," he told her softly and also took a step towards her. "You're always the best part of my summers," he admitted.

Her hand glided up his arm and to his cheek, stroking him there gently and his eyes drifted closed at the feeling of it. He felt the warmth of her body move towards his before feeling the pressure of her against him. He wrapped his arm around her and felt her other arm go around his shoulder. He couldn't open his eyes now. If his eyes were closed then his other senses were heightened and he wanted to remember this touch, and smell, and the sound of her breath somehow drowning out the voices from downstairs.

And the taste of her. Because now her lips were pressed against his.

It was slow and it was tentative, but it was actually happening. She was really kissing him, this wasn't a dream. He knew because in his dreams she tasted slightly of coconut, like how her hair smelled. The real Ginny tasted a bit like strawberries and a hint of the beer they'd both been drinking.

His brain went all fuzzy as he began to kiss her back. Two months he'd been dreaming of this moment and now here it was. His arms wrapped tighter around her and he fought the urge to kick the door closed with his foot, too worried that might come off as presumptuous.

Ginny was the one to do that though.

"Mmm, what about," he didn't want to say it, "what about," but between their kisses the words were coming out of his mouth. "What about Justin?" The way his body was reacting it didn't care what her answer was going to be, he just wanted to keep holding her this close and never let their lips fully separate again.

"We broke up," she muttered against his mouth, "days ago."

That was what he wanted to hear! Now he held her closer to him and began kissing her with more gusto while she gave soft moans against his lips. Harry didn't have any control over where his hands were going, he was only able to stop them from thoughtlessly going too far across the line. If they wandered too far South a warning bell would sound off in the back of his mind and send them in a different direction. It was like pinball; ding- to close to her chest, ding- to close to her arse.

Ding, ding, ding! Now your erection is pressed right against her you moron! Pull back, pull back!

It wasn't him that made them pull away though. Someone came bursting through the door as though the lock was simply for show.

"What the fuck?!" it was Justin.

Harry looked from Justin to Ginny and back again.

"What?" Ginny asked him in challenge.

"If fucking knew it!" he raged, pointing a finger at her. "You were doing him behind my back, weren't you!"

Ginny turned entirely red, and not from embarrassment either. "No, I WASN'T! I TOLD you I wasn't, and I didn't lie."

"Then what the hell is this?" he aggressively gestured between Harry and she.

"We're broken up. This has nothing to do with you. So, if you don't mind BUGGER OFF!" She picked up the closest item to her, a book, and tossed it at him. He ducked it, but got hit by the next item she chucked at him. Then Justin took off back towards the stairs and Ginny slammed her door shut.

"Argh!" she growled. "What the hell did I ever see in him? Jealous bloody git!"

"I've no idea what you saw in him. Sorry I didn't point out earlier that he was a git," Harry grinned. He was too happy right then to care about Justin coming and disrupting them. Because he'd just kissed her. They'd snogged. For ten plus minutes too! His lips tasted like strawberries now.

He could make the brightest Patronus right now!

Ginny didn't look very angry anymore either. "My brothers are no doubt going to hear about this," she warned him.

"I don't care," he told her honestly. "They can beat me black and blue if they want to, but I think they'll be a little understanding."

"Yeah?" she grinned.

"Yeah." And he pulled her to him again.

They spent the rest of the party holed up in her room, just talking and kissing until they fell asleep.

When he woke up the sun was just breaking over the horizon and he knew he should climb back into his bedroom shortly, but he was still cuddled up with Ginny in her bed, and it had been the best sleep he'd had in a long time.

She looked like she was having pleasant dreams too.

"Ginny," he whispered before attempting to move her. "Ginny, I need to sneak home."

She gave a moan in protest and an even louder one when he actually slid out from her grasp. "Why?" she groaned.

"You know they won't be happy learning I've been out all night."

"It's not like you're far, just come back and keep me warm."

"Ginny," he protested her plea. "I promise I'll come back later today and help with the clean-up, alright?"

"Okay," she muttered in resignation and buried her face into the pillow.

He tiptoed out of the room and through the quiet house. The whole place was a disaster, but nothing that the five of them couldn't tackle with hefty bags and a mop. It looked like everyone had fun last night. And considering none of the Weasley boys had come upstairs to break he and Ginny apart, Harry was thinking they'd be okay with the fact that he and Ginny were…

What where they exactly now?

Nothing.

They weren't anything. In a few days, a few hours really, he was going to Hogwarts and she was going to her school. And there wasn't any way that they were going to be able to keep in touch through the year.

The only thing that he and Ginny were right now was friends with benefits. And later that day they would have to have a chat about that, because he could tell her over and over again that he wanted to pick up right where they'd left off when he came back next summer, but how was that fair to her? How would she know he was serious about it?

Perhaps he could have Hedwig drop her letters and somehow explain to the owl that she wasn't to be seen dropping off the letters. But what would those letters say? How could he possibly explain their sudden and miraculous appearance at Ginny's bedside?

The Dursley's had kept up the rouse that he went to some school for incurably criminal boys for the past five years, but there was no way the Ginny would buy that, and he didn't want to lie to her.

As he climbed back into his room up the trellis he wondered over how they might be together without actually being together all year.

Then he realized; Hermione.

Hermione always had the answers! She would know if there was some way that he'd be able to correspond with Ginny that would make it look like Muggle correspondence.

All was quiet in the Dursley household. He didn't know if they realized he had been next door all night, or perhaps they had just given up keeping tabs on him figuring that if he was next door then he wouldn't be their problem. So long as the chores he was assigned were done and they didn't have to look at him then they were fine with whatever he was getting up to; like a House Elf.

Harry occupied himself with repacking his school truck while he waiting for the sun to come up properly, after he had quickly scrawled out a letter for Hermione and sent it off with Hedwig. The whole time he was keeping himself occupied there was a big smile on his face because memories of he and Ginny from last night kept flashing through his mind.

He couldn't believe his luck.

She liked him back!

Maybe if he had said something at the start of the summer then she would have ditched Justin and they could have had months together instead of the 100 or so hours that were left before September first.

As he was repacking his trunk he came across a slip of paper in one of his trousers that Hermione had given him, that he had completely forgotten about!

They had been corresponding once every other week or so, but she was usually off travelling with her parents somewhere during the holidays and it might not have made a difference, but in his hand now was Hermione's phone number.

Checking the clock he saw it was nearing 7:30. On a Sunday, but still, Hermione was an early riser.

Harry listened at the door to see if there was any sound of movement from the Dursley's but couldn't hear anything. He went down the stairs, careful to do so as quietly as possible, and went to the phone on the wall in the kitchen.

He couldn't remember the last time he had ever used a telephone. It wasn't like he had many phone numbers or knew people who used them. He did know how to use one though. He lifted the receiver and punched in the eleven digits on the slip of paper then listened to the sound indicating it was ringing on the other end. Five times the sound went off before someone answered. It was a man's voice and he didn't sound to have been fully awake.

"Hello?" the man greeted.

"Er, hello. Sorry to call you so early. My name is Harry, I'm a friend of Hermione's… from school."

"Oh! Harry!" the man, who was presumably Hermione's father, sounded in much better spirits now. "Yes, Hermione's mentioned you a few times. She keeps mentioning she hopes you and Neville have been on top of your assignments," he chuckled.

Harry cringed a bit at that, he should probably make sure he'd finished all of them. "Right," he forced a laugh, "I'm sure she's got study schedules for the three of us done up already."

"Oh yes. We had to go down to some fancy stationery shop to get the perfect notebooks and coloured markers and such for her. Hold on, I'll let her tell you about it herself, she's just come into the room." Then his voice sounded far away as he was obviously holding out the phone for his daughter. "It's Harry for you. I don't recall his surname. Your friend from school."

The Hermione's voice came on sounding out of breath with surprise. "Harry?!"

"Hey Hermione,"

"Harry! I can't believe you are actually calling me! You've had my number for two years and we'll see each other in three days, now you decide to call?"

It wasn't easy for him to tell from her tone which point she was berating him about; the fact that he could have waited three days to talk to her in person, or the fact that he had waiting too long to ring her up.

"Well, I sent you an owl, but then I found your number and thought I might get an answer quicker this way," he reasoned.

He could picture perfectly how she would be standing on the other end of the line rolling her eyes at how obvious a statement that was. "What did you need?" she stifled a giggle.

"Right, er, is there a way for me to send a letter to my … friend… from school that wouldn't let… them… know that it was a Magical school?" he chose his wording carefully.

It wasn't lost on her what he'd done though, he could hear her smiling through the phone now. "Your friend? Well, if your friend's friend had ever thought to read Hogwarts- A History like I've been nagging him to do for the past six years then he would know that he could send his letter to the Ministry of Magic and they would forward it on with a return address that would allow this friend to get mail back to you."

He had been so hopeful when he'd picked up the phone that there would be a way to do it. Unfortunately, that wouldn't work. "Only through the Ministry?" he asked, depressed.

"Sorry, but yes." Hermione knew that he didn't trust the Ministry of Magic, not with how they had slandered him all last year. Even if they did have a new Minister, he didn't trust the system or the people in power.

"Okay, well… thanks."

"Sorry Harry," she said again.

"I just had to ask. I'll see you soon," he said, then hung up.

An hour later he was back over at the Weasley's and started to help with the clean-up. Ginny hadn't come back downstairs yet and he figured she was having a lay in, which he was fine with because he still wasn't sure what he was going to tell her about how they wouldn't be able to communicate with her until he came back next summer.

Ron and the twins weren't acting too different towards him, but they were hung over, and he was helping them clean up. He had also immediately set to cooking up some bacon he'd found in their fridge when he came back over so they would start their morning off being somewhat indentured to him.

"Alright, my head's not pounding too much anymore," Ron told him after they'd gotten the last of the trash out of the sitting room and were taking a five-minute break sitting on the couch. "What's happened with you and Ginny then? You treat her right?"

"Of course!" Harry started. "I… I don't know if I was being a bit too obvious this summer." Ron gave a scoff that clearly indicated he'd noticed how much Harry was looking at Ginny, and how, over the past few weeks. "I really like her. I wouldn't do anything to make her uncomfortable. And we didn't get carried away or anything," he assured him. "But I do need to talk to her. I mean, we're both going our separate ways soon."

"Right, cuz you go to some school up North somewhere." Ron closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the couch.

Harry had told them that, though his aunt claimed he went to some school for Incurably Criminal Boys Harry explained it was only because he'd been accepted into a private academy in Scotland that Dudley wasn't bright enough to get into and they wanted to make Harry look bad. It was close enough to the truth. He claimed is deceased fathers family had all gone to the school as well, so there had been a bit of nepotism there also.

It was a relief to see that Ron wasn't bothered about what had gone on between Harry and Ginny. The Weasley's had all been a source of comfort and sanity for him, doing anything to upset them would destroy him a bit.

"Yeah. And I'm crap with keeping in touch through letters and such. I really like her, and I want to see where this goes and all that, but I just know I'm not going to be on top of it enough to keep her happy."

"And you know what'll keep me happy?" Ginny asked from the stairwell behind them, causing Harry to jump. Ron didn't flinch, but he had his eyes closed and an arm over his face to try and combat the remnants of his hangover.

"Ginny," Harry got up from the couch and went over to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. "Did you sleep alright?"

She looked adorably disheveled. Her hair was a bit of a mess and she'd changed from the clothes she'd been wearing for the party, the one's she'd still been wearing when he snuck out of her room hours earlier, into comfortable pajamas. Her face was completely free and clear of the bleary eyed and worn expressions of her brothers who had forced themselves to get up earlier and start the clean-up.

"You know I slept fine," she smiled, but her smile slipped away into a frown of concern. "You really don't think you'll be able to keep in touch over the school year?"

He felt an anxiety growing in the pit of his stomach knowing it was time to get the words out. He grasped her hand and pulled her towards the kitchen. Looking through the window into the back garden he saw the twins were working on cleaning up the yard so they should have a bit of privacy now.

"It's not that I won't want to. I've been hoping something would happen between us all summer. But with how difficult my school is, and how far. I just know that we'll keep missing each other, and I'm already anticipating you sending me a letter, then I take two weeks to send you another one, then it's a month, then I come back next summer and you completely resent me for it. Honestly, I'm already worried about that happening."

She was looking at him deep in thought, a frown on her face while she contemplated what he said and was no doubt parsing it for hidden meaning. Instead of saying anything she took a plate from the cupboard and started putting together breakfast for herself.

And he just stood there, waiting for her to tell him where she was at.

She was spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread when she finally said something, and it was not at all what Harry wanted to hear. He didn't want her thinking his hesitation had anything to do with that.

"Your school is co-ed, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

He gulped. "It is. But that has absolutely nothing to do with it. There aren't any girls at my school that I'm interested in." That was a bit of a lie. He had felt a bit of interest in a few of the girls before, but nothing like he felt for Ginny. And his school year was going to be full up with other drama completely unrelated to females and entirely related to the madman that wanted him dead.

Dumbledore was supposed to be having private tutoring sessions with him this year about that too.

"Ginny, I like you so much. And it is killing me to say this, but I just don't want to get your hopes up while we're at school."

She took a bite of her food and chewed it slowly, staring out into the yard at the clean-up being done. "So, after we go to school this year, you are saying I won't hear from you until next summer."

Yes, that was exactly what he was saying. Except that there was this lump in his throat that was not letting him get those words out.

Then she turned her eyes on him and he was completely frozen to where he was. She was hurt.

"I'll find a way," he found himself promising her. "I'll figure out how to let you know that I'm thinking about you. Because I will be thinking about you."

()()()

He had managed to send Ginny things through out the year. With Hermione's help he found a way to contact florists in London that would send things to Ginny at her school. Not just flowers either, because she wasn't really a hearts and flowers type girl. They had fruit baskets and lovely stationery options. Harry had managed to do it through a location in Hogsmeade that had a phone Hermione had used a few times to contact her parents. Harry was able to get funds for Gringotts sent to the florist ahead of time to cover it and sent things to Ginny on three separate occasions: Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day.

It after Valentine's Day that he really needed to buckle down in his studies and there had been more tutoring sessions with Dumbledore.

The man who was now no longer with them.

Harry had thought for some reason that Dumbledore would live forever. To have watched him fall off the highest tower of Hogwarts, killed by the man that Dumbledore had vehemently trusted, it had broken something in Harry.

Now everyone thought for sure that Harry was going to be the one to save them all.

It was just too much pressure.

Too much pressure and not enough time to come to terms with it.

There was only one month before he turned of age and then the protections around Privet Drive were going to fall.

Remus had come to talk to him after Dumbledore's funeral and explained how the Dursley's were going to get moved to a safe location. But Harry didn't know how to tell the man that it wasn't the Durley's that meant anything to him, it was the Weasley's next door.

No one but Hermione knew about the Weasley's though. Not even Neville.

Now he was back at Privet Drive for one month.

He and Hermione had planned it out. It wasn't going to be safe for them at Hogwarts now, there was no doubt that things were going to change drastically in the next few weeks and they knew they couldn't go back. So she and he were going to strike out on their own.

He'd tried to tell her just to run, hide herself and her parents and let it be his problem, but she wouldn't hear of it. To her this was not just his battle and she was in it 100%. And there was no talking her down.

They hadn't told the Order that they were going to be running away into hiding to do what they could to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcrux's. He had promised Dumbledore that he wouldn't tell anyone else and he was keeping that promise.

As soon as the Dursley's were moved to a safe location, Harry would don his invisibility cloak and meet Hermione at the pre-arranged location. He'd already gotten plenty of his Galleon's converted into Muggle currency and put in a Muggle bank to cover their possible expenses if needed, but they would start out at Grimmauld Place, which had a few safeguards in place should anyone try to search for them there.

But now that he was standing in his bedroom again, the task before him wasn't related to Voldemort and his Death Eaters, it was related to Ginny.

He couldn't let anyone else know how he felt about her. He'd dreamt of her so much over this past year. He'd even doodled her name a few times over the study notes that Hermione had given him. Pictures of her image would pop into his head from times he'd seen her last summer, the most prominent of which being her in the bathing suit through his window at the start of last summer. It was that and replaying one of her final goals at a football match he'd watched of hers. She was getting so good.

The Dursley's had picked him up at the station and then driven him home without a word. Once they arrived the three of them went into the house and left him outside to deal with his luggage. He didn't notice the Weasley's car in their drive. Now that he was looking at their backyard though it looked like Ron was home.

Harry wasn't interested in going back through the house and potentially running into one of the Dursleys, so instead he popped open the window and climbed down the trellis, jumping over the fence and landing three feet from Ron, who didn't seem surprised to see him there.

"You're getting really good at that," Ron commented, his expression portraying how pleased he was to see Harry again.

Harry grinned back at him. "It has been a few years of me doing it, I would hope I have it nailed by now."

"Your landing still needs work," he shrugged. "I'd only give you a seven out of ten."

Harry sat in the patio chair beside him and they caught up chatting about their school years, Harry keeping an eye out for any movement inside the house.

After a half hour of chatting he finally gave up on letting Ron be the one to bring up Ginny.

"Is Ginny out?" he asked.

Ron grinned at him then. "Knew you had to crack eventually. She's up in her room."

Harry let out a groan of exasperation. "And you just let me sit here and carry on with you all this time? You're a nice bloke and all, but not near as pretty as her."

Ron put on a shocked face and held a hand to his chest. "How dare you! I'm beautiful," he gasped.

Harry just shook his head and let himself into the house. He went up the stairs and stood outside Ginny's room for a moment. He could hear her on the other side of the door, it sounded like she was singing along to something under her breath but he couldn't hear any music coming from anywhere.

He tried to ready himself for whatever kind of reaction he was going to have when he saw her for the first time but he wasn't sure what exactly to be prepared for. After they had finished cleaning up the End of Summer bash mess she seemed to have come around to believing that he wasn't just feeding her a line. They'd kissed a few more times before he'd left on the Hogwarts Express, but it hadn't been anything like they had the night of the party.

Finally, he knocked on the door.

When it opened he saw her standing there and was frozen looking at her. She was wearing short overalls and a tight black cropped t-shirt underneath them. Her hair was long and pulled up in a ponytail on top of her head. There was a yellow Walkman in her hand and the headphones were hanging down around her neck.

She looked far more beautiful than he remembered.

And he was very much regretting not having changed into something else or at least checking his hair before knocking on her door.

"Harry," she said his name wistfully.

"Wow," was all he could manage to get out.

It looked like that was all she had wanted to hear from him though. Ginny reached out and grasped the front of his shirt, pulling him into her room and pushing him back up against her wall beside the door, the door closed and her lips were on him less than a second later.

His whole body relaxed in relief that she wasn't mad at him for how the year had played out. He kissed her back with everything he had. They struggled with the cord of her headphones as it grew tangled between them and finally pulled it free, setting it and the Walkman down on the dresser before wrapping their arms around each other properly.

"I missed you so much," he muttered against her lips.

"I missed you so much!" she said back and wove her hands into his hair, then pulled him back towards her bed.

He'd thought about what they'd done in this bed, replayed that memory over and over through out the year as well. It had been a haze of wandering hands and lips though. He knew that it had lasted hours, but it had felt like only a minute. Thus, he was overly eager to relive that again.

"Thank you for my gifts," she told him just before they were horizontal. She scootched back on the bed and pulled at his arms to bring him up level with her before their lips were occupied once more.

"I wish I could have gotten you more," he said and started trailing his lips down her neck.

"I don't need gifts, I just need this," she panted and brought her legs up to wrap around him.

He fought letting out the loudest groan of his life then. She was literally the girl he'd been dreaming about for a year now and her legs were now wrapped around him! He had gone from semi-aroused to full on erection and there was no way to calm that beast down when they were laying here like this.

Her legs were fully bare from her upper thigh all the way to her toes and he was unable to help himself running his hand up and down the stretch of thigh available to him. Ginny had pulled up on his shirt and her nails were gently scratching his back, it was the most amazing sensation.

Their lips met again and she shifted beneath him, letting out a moan of her own against his mouth with how he was now pressed up against her.

Not five minutes ago he'd been on the other side of the door to this bedroom and already they had escalated to this! He was in heaven.

Ginny rolled them over so she was on top and he wasn't able to control the sound coming out of his mouth when she purposefully ground herself against him. It was just the once, and he tried not to be greedy about wanting her to do it again.

And again.

And again.

Instead, he simply focused on making sure every bit of this snogging session was ingrained in his brain for future reference. He had no doubt he would be wanking to it later than night and needed to remember every touch he felt and every sound she made.

There was a knocking at the door ten to fifteen minutes later that had them jumping apart.

"Mum and dad should be back shortly," Ron hollered through the door. "Fair warning."

"Thanks," Ginny managed. She was sitting upright and still straddling him.

Harry's brain wasn't working quite right in that moment. He was too heavily aroused to be thinking properly, all his blood was flowing South.

She looked back down at him and bit her lip in a grin. "Right, we'll have to pick this up later."

He could do no more than stare at her and nod dumbly. More of that sounded very good.

And more of that occurred too.

The twins had officially moved out of the Weasley house over the past year so it was much quieter there. Ron had his football mates over regularly, and Harry met a few more of Ginny's friends as well over the next few weeks and he always got a little thrill when she introduced him as her boyfriend.

They had fit in quite a few heavy snogging sessions through out the days while her parents were at work and Ron was otherwise occupied, but he was very careful to not cross any lines. They'd ground against each other, she'd let him touch her breast over her clothes, but that was generally the extent of it. And he was more than happy to have gone that far.

But as the end of July grew closer he knew he would have to leave her. The date that the Dursley's were scheduled to be put into hiding was drawing nearer and he had to tell Ginny that he would be going with them.

He wouldn't actually be going with them, but she didn't need to know that.

And he'd thought of an idea that might work.

It would be a flat out lie, but it would be believable. And it could be left to the last minute so they could both enjoy as much time together as possible without having that dark cloud hanging over them.

Gods he loved her.

He was sure it wasn't just some sappy teenage love too. He was positive it was the real thing. He pined for her, even when they were only a few yards apart physically. One night he had been playing a video game with Ron and Ginny had been in the kitchen having a chat with her mum, but he could see her out of the corner of his eye and he had just wanted to go over to her and wrap his arms around her.

He'd heard stories of how young his dad had been when he'd known that his mum was it for him and Harry was sure that this was the same thing. He just needed to be given the opportunity to get to the point of it being safe for he and Ginny to have a happily ever after.

Only, one deranged lunatic, and all his crazy followers, needed to be taken down then Harry would be free to spend the rest of his life with Ginny. He didn't care that she was a Muggle either. He would happily live outside of the Wizarding World if that would make her happy. He'd support her while she put her all into becoming a professional football player. He would do whatever he could to be whatever she needed.

And he was nearly positive that she wanted to be that for him too.

She'd asked him the hard questions about why he lived with the Dursleys, she had kissed a few of his visible scars and given him this look like she wanted revenge on the person responsible for putting them there.

She made him feel loved.

And now he had to leave her, to protect her.

She didn't need to know that though.

When he wasn't with Ginny or hanging out with Ron, he was preparing for what was to come. And he was immensely relieved that he and Hermione had a plan of their own that didn't involve the Order. It meant that they weren't relying on other people to make decisions for them.

He had several letters done up that were addressed to Ginny as well, ones that he would mail to her before he 'started school'. He knew that he wouldn't have the time to do them while he was on his, for a lack of better word, crusade. And he knew that he would be likely to forget what fabricated story he had made up to put in the last one.

When the day of the Dursley's departure was upon them Harry went over to the Weasley's via his usual method of sneaking out of his room and jumping the fence. Ginny was in the kitchen when he let himself into the house.

She went to give him her usual hello but paused when she saw the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"They're making me leave," he told her heavily. His emotions at this point were wracking through his body so much that they truly portrayed how devastated he was that he had to leave. "Vernon's sister had a fall," he lied. "She needs looking after and they're making me go with them. For the rest of the summer."

"What?! Why can't she just come here?" Ginny asked. "Isn't there anyone else to look after her?"

"No. She's horrible, I doubt anyone else could stand her. She's got some kind of dog breeding operation and needs help with that. Guess who's been volunteered for that job," he scowled.

Ginny looked about to cry. "So, you have to leave? Maybe, maybe I could ask mum and dad if you could stay here instead? We've got the extra room now!"

He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her tears start to roll down her cheeks and onto his shirt. He let a few of his own fall as well. "I promise I'll write you the rest of the summer," he whispered to her.

When she looked back up into his eyes again his heart completely broke. Her eyes were so wide and searching, desperate for there to be a way for them to stay this close. He knew that even if he was telling the truth, there was no way that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would be okay with their daughters boyfriend moving in with them. Ginny knew that as well.

Harry leaned down and kissed her. "I love you," he told her.

She shuddered against him from her fight to hold back a sob at those words. "I love you too."

Leaving her there in the kitchen was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.

()()()

Professor McGonagall had been adamant that Harry stay at Hogwarts until the whole mess after the Battle was sorted.

It took weeks.

Hermione and Neville had stayed with him in Gryffindor Tower for the duration as well. Neville had stayed behind at the school through the year and helped to protect the students. He didn't begrudge either of them for choosing to stay in hiding without him while they went out in search of the Horcrux's, he said he would have chosen to stay and help protect the school as much as possible if given the choice, and he had wound up being instrumental in the take down of Voldemort as well.

The three of them had done what they could to help with the clean up after the battle. All the other students had left and the Aurors, those that were still alive, had gone on the hunt for remaining Death Eaters. Most of the Death Eaters had perished in the battle though.

It had turned out to be the citizens of the Wizarding World who had more of a hand in bringing the remaining Death Eaters to justice. In France, Belgium, America and South Africa there had been known and wanted Death Eaters handed over to the British Aurors. This time they weren't just socked away in Azkaban either, repeat offenders or those with the Dark Mark were given the Dementors Kiss. It was widely known now that those with the Mark had taken it willingly.

By the time everything was cleared up it was mid-June.

Hermione's parents were still in Australia and she was planning on going down there to remove the memory charm she had placed on them but there were several political hoops she had to jump through to get the permits and Portkeys.

In the meantime the two of them had been invited to stay at Neville's family home until each figured out their next move.

All Harry could think of though was Ginny.

He was amazed that it had only taken under a year for Voldemort to be dealt with and his rouse was still in place. He had figured out when Ginny's school let out and when she would have been getting home. He had no idea what state the Dursley's were going to be in though and wasn't interested in so much as seeing them.

Hermione was interested in giving them a piece of her mind though.

As he and Hermione had been side by side through all of this past year it only seemed natural for him to have her with him while they walked down Privet Drive toward number six.

That was, at least, until he saw that Ginny was on the sidewalk headed towards them as well, and she did not look overly thrilled about seeing him.

At first Harry didn't understand. Had she moved on? They were drawing closer to each other and he wanted to run the rest of the way and pull into his arms, but her expression was guarded.

"Ginny?" he called to her in question.

She looked… hurt? Her eyes darted from him to Hermione and back again. Then it clicked.

Hermione was a girl. She had grown into being a rather pretty girl too. She was also currently carrying the flowers that she had helped Harry pick out to give to Ginny and looking excited to be there for this reunion and meet the girl he'd been obsessing over for ages.

"No!" he shouted and took a step away from Hermione as though to prove his point. "No! Ginny, she's not. I… I'm still in love with you!" he declared, loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear as Ginny was still standing one house yards distance away from him.

"Really?" she said, barely audible to his ears.

He strode towards her going as fast as he could without running. "Really," he assured her once they were close enough to touch. "If you'll still have me."

"I didn't hear from you at all this year," Ginny worried.

"Trust me, that doesn't mean he didn't talk about you endlessly," Hermione assured her while smirking at him. "These are for you, by the way. They're from Harry, I was just smelling them."

Ginny didn't look like she knew what to do after Hermione handed her the flowers. "Thank you," she said awkwardly.

"I missed you," Harry told her. "And I'm here now. And … and I don't ever have to leave again. I can, I can be here all summer. I can meet you on weekends next year. I can spend Christmas with you if your parents will let me,-"

His further promises to her were cut off by her lips.

"Yes!" she nearly screamed at him before kissing him again. "Yes, you bloody idiot!"

Tears of joy were falling down his face now.

It had all worked out!

Ginny invited them back to hers and the two of them walked hand in hand with Hermione trailing along behind them looking happy for them.

Ron met them at the front door. "Harry! Good to see you. Ginny, where's the milk?"

"Oh! I forgot."

"Never mind," he rolled his eyes smirking, knowing exactly what had distracted her from her task. "I'll go and get it."

"Mind if I come with you?" Hermione asked him. "Give these two a minute alone to catch up?"

Ron gave her a looking over and appeared to have no problem at all going on a casual stroll to the corner store with her. "That sounds like a great idea."

Harry went to every one of Ginny's football matches that summer and every one of her school football matches over the next year. They went on dates, spent the holidays with the Weasley's, chatted on the phone and he got a flat not too far away from Privet Drive so that he could be closer to her with an actual Muggle address so that they could send letters back and forth.

He told her that he got a job doing some basic office administrative things in London, but really he wound up helping Mr. Ollivander with his wand shop learning the trade of the wandmaker.

When Ginny finished up with her schooling, she went to a training camp and got recruited to a professional football team but a few months in she got a fracture to her knee that wound up ruining her dream of ever being a starting player. She spent her recuperation time living at Harry's flat.

He let her wallow around in self-pity for a few weeks before he told her he'd had enough of that and encouraged her to figure out where she wanted to go from there if professional football wasn't the plan anymore, which turned into her going to post-secondary school to become a Physical Therapist.

It was on her nineteenth birthday that he proposed, and they had been engaged for six months when he told her the truth about who he was and the Wizarding World.

To say she was shocked was putting it mildly. She had required several demonstrations of magic before she believed him. Her first trip to Diagon Alley had reminded him of his own with the look of wonderment on her face. He took her to Mr. Ollivanders and explained to her what his actual job was and she hadn't been able to stop giggling over how he made 'magic wands' for a living. Not just 'wands', she had to add the 'magic' on there too.

By the time their wedding day had arrived she had heard the whole story of what had happened to him over the years and he'd told her just how much he'd come to depend on she and her family for that bit of normalcy and care that he hadn't felt he got from anywhere else.

She'd launched herself at him over that one. In the best possible way. They had even been at the dinner table when he'd told her and she wound up straddling him in his chair and riding him until they were both satisfied.

Amazingly, Hermione wound up dating Ron when she got back from Australia with her parents. She had taken a year off from the Wizarding World and went to Oxford. The two of them were going strong and Ginny claimed she would give them one more year before they were married too.

()()()