Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That's JK Rowling's privilege.
Enjoy the story xx
Ginny's P.O.V.
It was Christmas night at the Burrow. Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood were all sitting on the floor up in the dusty attic, an empty Butterbeer bottle set between them.
Sixteen year old Ginny Weasley watched as the nozzle spun and stopped pointed at Luna.
The sixth-year Ravenclaw just looked mildly amused at being chosen and stood up, waiting for Hermione to spin the bottle again to decide her partner.
Ginny's heart fluttered in her chest and she mentally crossed her fingers.
It seemed the bottle would never slow down. Finally, it began to lose speed and Ginny cringed as it slowed to point at Harry Potter.
So far he had not been chosen, much to her happiness. Harry Potter had been the object of Ginny's fantasies ever since she could remember. When she was a child, the story of the famous Harry Potter fascinated her and she had developed a crush on the young wizard, vowing to marry him one day.
It had been just under five years now that she was been in love with him, though. Ever since her first year when he saved her from the Chamber of Secrets and the young Lord Voldemort, he had been much more than the Boy Who Lived. Now he was Harry, the sweet, shy, funny boy who she had fallen in love with.
After years of trying to push it away, ignore her feelings, fill the gap with others, Ginny had finally resigned from attempting to convince herself that she would get over her feelings for Harry.
What made it worse, was that not only did Harry have a girlfriend, but he and Ginny were barely even friends. If it weren't for Ron, Harry's best mate and Ginny's older brother, it was likely that they wouldn't have even met.
Harry's girlfriend, Cho Chang, was actually due at the Burrow that night soon and therefore Ginny was highly strung.
Harry stood too, smiled at Luna, and opened the door for her. Harry had been rather reluctant to play Spin the Bottle, being in a relationship and all, but Ginny knew that there would not be any snogging going on between Luna and Harry.
The door closed on the pair just as Cho Chang Apparated into the attic with a faint 'pop'.
She took one look around the room, her face a question mark.
'Is Harry here?' she asked, frowning a little.
Ginny thought she looked rather ugly when she frowned.
But then again, Ginny always sort of thought she was ugly. But maybe there was some bias involved... Ginny just didn't think hair black and straight as Death, with eyes to match, were really pretty features on a girl... as petty as she knew she may have been.
'Er, no, he's... outside with Luna,' said Hermione.
Cho looked puzzled.
'Spin the Bottle,' Ron grunted by way of explaining.
'Care to join?' asked Ginny sweetly, rather a contradiction to hate bubbling in her stomach.
Cho smiled.
'Yeah, I s'pose,' she shrugged, walking over to a dusty couch and sitting herself down with way too much daintiness.
Another fifteen seconds later, Harry returned with Luna whose look hadn't changed one bit since her kiss with the Boy Who Lived.
Harry, on the contrary, spotted Cho and immediately brightened. He walked towards her and sat down, bringing his arms around her for a deep kiss regardless of their audience.
It wasn't often Harry had such audacity when it came to his private life. But he seemed particularly proud that he had Cho as a girlfriend and took everything opportunity he could find to flaunt that. Ginny didn't blame him, what with there being scarce a moment in his life before now that he could really enjoy something like a girlfriend... but she also blamed him very much because each time he demonstrated his commitment to Cho, something inside Ginny darkened until she almost felt a part of her heart wasn't quite whole.
After Cho and Harry broke apart, Harry shifted so that his arm was draped casually over Cho's shoulder.
And Ginny's stomach twisted.
'Can we hurry it up a bit?' asked Ron, shooting a disgruntled look at Cho and Harry.
Without waiting for assent, he reached out and set the bottle spinning.
It was quick to show its allegiance to Harry this round, which had Ginny shrinking back, caving down over herself and wishing to be invisible for just a few moments...
From the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Harry make a face at being chosen again.
Holding her breath, Ginny's eyes locked on the bottle as Hermione set it to a spin once more... legs weak... breath short and sharp... hands clammy...
The bottle twisted and twisted and twisted and...
Stopped.
Pointed straight. At. Ginny.
Ron leapt up, the most animated he'd been for this game all night.
'No bloody way,' he said, eyes wide.
Ginny rolled her eyes, forgetting for a moment that she had just been chosen for spin the bottle with Harry.
'Yes bloody way,' she said, irked at his persistent and overbearing protection of her.
'No, it's not happening, not with him,' snapped Ron.
Harry blinked and snorted, trying to hide his grin at the sudden alienating nickname his best mate had given him.
Hermione, however, was quick to stand up.
Placing a hand on Ron's arm, she said, 'Honestly, Ron. It's only a kiss. And this is spin the bottle,' she reasoned. Ron turned to her and glared. But upon a simple look from Hermione, the glare morphed into a glower.
It was times like this that Ginny had to marvel at Hermione's skills at calming her brother. It made sense, though, as they had been dating for two years now.
Huffing out a growl, Ron fell back down to his seat and proceeded to send narrow-eyed looks at Harry, who was looking both amused now and slightly awkward, as the truth of what was about happen slowly caught up with him.
Well of course. Ginny didn't blame him. Kissing your best friend's mate that you knew had once had a crush on you must be awkward. Harry, of course, was currently unaware that when Hermione had told him that Ginny had gotten over him, she had been lying. Ginny had tried, of course she had. But love was easy to fall into and impossible to escape from.
Ginny stood, willing herself not to shake, and trying to look like it was no big deal. Like she wasn't about to go kiss the guy she was in love with, and who she had been in love with for years now...
'Come on,' she said grudgingly, putting on quite a good show, she hoped.
Striding out of the room, Ginny went with Harry on her heels, who turned to shut the door once they were out.
Ginny made her face emotionless and looked up at Harry, who was far less accomplished at hiding his emotions. She could easily tell he was more awkward than he had been in a while.
'So, er, I guess I should kiss you,' he said.
'Hm, yes that would be a good idea, considering we are playing Spin the Bottle,' said Ginny.
Harry smiled feebly and Ginny sighed. Stretching up (Harry was a good head taller than her) she brought her lips to his.
And it was like magic.
The kiss was muscle-melting, earth-shaking and knee-weakening; like nothing else Ginny had ever felt before. It was definitely... magic.
And he was kissing her back with equal the enthusiasm she shouldn't have been feeling.
She brought her arms up around Harry's neck while Harry rested his hand on her waist, pulling her closer to thread his fingers through her hair...
Ginny knew she shouldn't have been doing it. Of course she did. Harry had a girlfriend and she was supposed to be "over him"... So she'd just make one attempt to step back from him...
Pushing against Harry's chest, she tried for release.
She actually felt Harry's breath hitch and he gave a tiny moan at the back of his throat, tightening his hand on her waist to pull her body even closer against his...
This shocked Ginny. But... she had little time to feel that emotion for soon the kiss had completely overwhelmed her and she went weak in Harry's arms, letting herself just kiss and kiss and kiss him...
Finally oxygen caught up with them and the two broke apart, gasping for breath.
For a moment... they just blinked at each other, almost as if in confusion.
Then slowly... Harry breathed out a sigh.
'Erm...' His voice shook and Ginny's lips twitched.
Slowly... she nodded.
'Yeah. Tell me about it,' she said, eyes glinting.
Blinking at each other for quite a while... neither made another move.
'Should we...?' Harry frowned and motioned to the door.
'I... I guess,' replied Ginny.
But there was something in Harry's eyes that was telling her he wanted to go back in about as much as she did.
Still... gathering what little common sense Harry's lips had left her with... she shook her head and reached for the door.
Without lingering to glance at Harry and stay even longer with him alone... she stepped back into the room.
She met five pairs of eyes at once in a total silence that was easy to read.
Ginny raised her eyebrows.
'Glad we could provide entertainment,' she said, with an edge of annoyance to her voice. So much for privacy.
'Oh, we weren't...' Hermione blushed and looked away but her little smile told Ginny more than enough.
'Yeah, sure,' said Ginny. Her eyes found Cho's and immediately she was met by a frown.
Cho was looking at Ginny as though she had just realised she posed some sort of threat to her relationship... like she could possibly interfere with her and Harry...
But that was impossible. Preposterous. One kiss couldn't do that to a relationship and both Cho and Ginny were stupid for believing that things might -
The second Ginny realised she'd been subconsciously hoping this kiss would change something between her and Harry was the moment she hastened to tear her gaze from Cho, chastising herself thoroughly.
Merlin's pants... Anyone would think I haven't learnt my lesson.
Her pessimistic side may have argued that she hadn't in fact learnt her lesson, evidenced in the kiss she'd just shared with Harry.
But she decided to ignore it for the moment and just move on into the room, clearing the way for Harry to enter as well, closing the door once more.
The rest of the game went by quicker than Ginny had expected. Harry didn't act like anything had happened between them in the hall was anything but friendly chat and no matter how many times she tried to catch his eye he wouldn't look at her.
Ginny understood why but the understanding didn't help with the hurting at all...
Regardless... very soon it was midnight. Thus, Ginny went straight to bed feeling utterly beaten down and wanting to forget that the kiss had ever happened.