Chapter Six - The Night flight.


"Meet me at the Quidditch pitch at nine o clock tonight.
All my love,
Your Harry."

Ginny, bemused, looked up from the note Harry had stuffed into her hand as they passed in the corridor and stared at him.
"Will you be there?" Harry asked her.
Ginny, who didn't need the hint of pleading in Harry's voice to persuade her, let her bemused expression melt into a gracious smile.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," she said and kissed him on the cheek.


Harry, unable to pace the Gryffindor common room any longer, now paced the smooth lawns of the Quidditch pitch, bitterly wishing he'd arranged an earlier time to meet Ginny. He couldn't believe it was only quarter to nine. It was three weeks since Ginny had come to visit him in the hospital wing and fulfilled all of his dreams by telling him his love for her was mutual. In those three weeks, Harry was extremely frustrated to find he had very little time to spend with her, what with his teachers' mercilessly humongous homework piles and his O.W.L revision, for which he had to furiously harass his brain into concentrating during almost every evening in the common room. Only the nights of Quidditch practice remained, and even then, now that Ginny had proved herself as a serious player at Gryffindor's first match of the year, Harry had no excuse to spend any more time with her during practice than with any other team member as he trained them all for their next match against Ravenclaw. As Ginny no longer owned a broom, he let her use his Firebolt during practices, while he borrowed one of the school's Shooting Stars. He found this whole isolation from Ginny very frustrating. They hadn't kissed since Madame Pomfrey had released Harry from the hospital wing, the day after Ginny's first visit…
"Harry!" called a beautiful soft voice from the sloping lawns leading down from the castle.
Harry looked up and there she was, Ginny Weasley, the most incredible person to walk the earth, walking towards him, her long glossy sheets of hair reflecting the pale blue moonlight.
"Hiya Ginny!" Harry smiled. "You're a bit early aren't you? It's only ten-to."
"Want me to go back up to the school for another ten minutes?" she asked him with her gorgeous mischievous smile.
"Nah, I'll let you off this time," said Harry, moving closer.
Ginny wormed her arms around Harry's neck and they shared a short, gentle kiss.
"I've been waiting a long time to do that, Ginny," Harry said quietly, when they drew apart.
"Not as long as I have," she replied softly.
"Oh, sorry I kept you waiting for so long," said Harry quickly. "I had no idea…I dunno what was wrong with me…"
"You don't need to explain, Harry," Ginny said, soothingly, placing a finger on his lips. "Good things come to those who wait. I never understood that until our last Quidditch match, when my waiting paid off…"
"Oh, you've just reminded me," said Harry suddenly, removing his arms from Ginny's back and stepping back.
"Oh, yeah, why DID you want to meet here of all places?" Ginny smiled with a kind of light cheerful suspicion. "And why," she added, staring at the broomstick that lay at Harry's feet, "did you bring your Firebolt?"
"You're about to find out," Harry grinned mysteriously, as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Hogwarts castle. "Accio!"
Puzzled, Ginny gazed up at the castle as something long and thin came soaring out of one of the towers and dived down towards them. It seemed to be long slim box, wrapped in pink and gold wrapping paper, with a single word inscribed upon in Harry's untidy handwriting "Ginny." The curious parcel flew straight into Harry's hands and he handed it over to Ginny, who stared at him curiously.
"What's all this about?" she asked him, her eyebrows raised in that same light suspicion.
"You won't know until you open it," Harry said simply.
Ginny carefully unwrapped the parcel and as the fancy paper fell away, she uttered a loud gasp of disbelief. Polished so the moonlight gleamed across the entire length of it and in a state of perfection that made Harry's broom look like a Nimbus, a dazzling brand new Firebolt lay lightly in her hands, every centimetre glistening magnificently.
"Happy un-birthday, Ginny," Harry grinned as she stared at it transfixed, clearly unable to accept what she was seeing.
"Harry, this must have cost a fortune," was the first thing Ginny whispered once she found her voice. She ripped her gaze from the stunning new broom and stared at his ridiculously green eyes.
Harry shrugged. "I told you I loved you," he smiled innocently.
"But..but Harry, you don't need to go buying me things to show me you love me," she insisted. "I know you do anyway."
"Well…good!"
"Oh Harry, you're impossible!" Ginny beamed as she dropped her Firebolt and flung her arms around him again and rewarded him with a kiss that made their first one in the hospital wing seem like a cold peck. Harry's mind was instantly wiped blank as their tangle of lips and arms intensified, and as he pulled Ginny closer to him. In nothing short of paradise, Harry held her tightly to him, breathing with her, sharing the same heartbeat, the heartbeat that had tripled its pace….
When they mutually yet wordlessly ended their kiss, Harry said, "so, want to take it for a test-drive? Want to go somewhere else?"
Ginny glanced at her superb new broom before grinning at him. "You're on!"
"Up!" they both cried and both Firebolts sprang into their outstretched hands. They boarded their brooms and kicked off simultaneously, the cool night air whipping impressively through Ginny's hair, making every lock catch the moonlight to the tip. Harry's heart lighter than ever before, they rose out of the Hogwarts grounds, leaving the lake and the Forbidden Forest behind, over dark hills and silvery-blue ponds and rivers. Ginny kept cutting Harry off, kissing him on the cheek and flying alongside him again.
After a while, they landed softly on a hillock, overlooking a moon-bathed waterfall cascading majestically into the pool below. They set their Firebolts at their sides, as they sat on the dewy grass, gazing at the wonders of nature, Ginny's head on Harry's shoulder and Harry's arm draped over her back, running his fingers through her glorious hair. Utterly relaxed, Ginny's eyes closed and Harry, unable to believe how lucky he was, held her closer.
Just as he was about to close his eyes too, there was a tremendous bang from the other side of the pool and an enormous formation of emerald green stars rose into the cold night air - the Dark Mark. All around him, Harry heard Death Eaters Apparating, their cloaks swishing as they appeared out of nowhere, closing in. He grabbed Ginny and shook her roughly awake.
"Ginny, come on! Voldemort's…just come on, grab you Firebolt and let's get out of here!"
Ginny didn't need telling twice. She snatched her broom and kicked off the ground, rising as fast as her Firebolt would go away from the pack of Death Eaters. It was a few moments before she realised Harry wasn't immediately behind her.
Some fifteen feet below her, Harry struggled to keep hold of his Firebolt as a Death Eater on the ground made it twitch and jerk violently, furiously trying to buck him off. Harry had only felt this once before - in his very first Quidditch match when Quirrel cursed his Nimbus, but there was no Hermione to set fire to anyone now. Harry's knee slipped and next second he was hanging by his fingertips, still about twenty feet from the ground. Lucius Malfoy's cold laugh issued from under the hooded mask below as he brought the wild Firebolt lower and lower, with Harry clinging on for dear life.
"Ginny, go! Save yourself!" Harry yelled, as his broom, still fighting to kick him off, dropped several metres nearer the Death Eaters.

A/N Okay, okay, corny, I know. Very corny. I dunno why I couldn't just leave it as a "happily ever after". Never mind. And before you all stone me alive, there IS more coming! I'm not that cruel, you know ;-) I just seem to like cliffies.
Oh, and thanx again, soooooooo so much to everyone who reveiwed. Those reveiwes mean a lot to me!