06 Briars

Women are a maze through briars in the night, and even they don't know the way. –Robert Jordan, A Crown of Swords

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Harry didn't notice how much the appearance of the red eyed man startled him until he felt his car begin to descend through the thick cloud coverage.

Looking down at his map, he realized that he was flying along the street headed toward Ron's house. He smiled happily and tucked the map away as he continued sinking through the clouds and onto the street below.

His car set down with a light bump as the shocks absorbed the impact and continued up the road for another ten minutes, passing through farming land until reaching a hill in which at the top stood a house that seemed to be held up by magic and of which Harry wasn't sure it wasn't. It must have been the weirdest house he had ever seen and yet it was one of his favorite places in the world. The house was bigger than he remembered, probably due to the money Harry had given Fred and George to build their joke shop with. After all, all geniuses had to have a laboratory and there's no place like home.

Harry pulled his car up to the driveway and stepped out of his car. As he was getting his things out of the trunk a flurry of movement drove him to look up in time to find a young woman with fiery hair, freckles looking down at him, sprinting down to him, smiling, dimples showing. Harry smiled as she ran down and hugged him with all the strength she had. It was enough to make Harry loose his breath. Was this the shy little Ginny he had seen last? Harry thought. She certainly has grown a bit since I last saw her.

"Harry! You came!" Ginny said into his chest. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Of course I came Ginny!" Harry said. "Would I ever pass up a chance to come see my friends?" She stepped back and looked up at him, considering, for a moment, then smiled again her bright eyes alight with happiness.

"No, I don't suppose you would," she said. Her eyes continued to shine as she looked into his and she suddenly blushed and looked away. Now that's the Ginny I know Harry thought wryly.

Ginny took a quick intake of breath at the sight of his car. "Wow Harry! When we heard you'd have your own transportation we figured you'd use your broom or something! That's got to be the most beautiful car I've ever seen!"

Harry grinned and said, "It was a gift from a dear friend." Ginny nodded slowly clearly wishing for a ride.

"I'll give you a ride in it before we go to Hogwarts, Ginny." Ginny hopped up and hugged him again.

"Thank you Harry. Well, come in, come in!"

Picking up his bags Harry followed her into the house. It wasn't until he was in the kitchen that he noticed the silence of the house.

"Where is everyone, Ginny?"

"Hmmm," she asked as he sat down at the table. "Oh, Mum went to the market to get some food for tonight's dinner, Fred and George are at a meeting with some landlords to get their own building in Diagon Alley for their joke shop, Percy is at work, no surprise there, and Ron and Dad went to pick up Hermione. That covers it," she finished sitting down right next to him, continuing to look into his eyes.

"Erm," Harry said, the most intelligent thing he could come up with while Ginny was staring so deeply into his eyes.

This went on for about an hour it seemed to Harry, him asking mundane questions about how the weather has been or something of such, she answering just as mundanely, always staring, him never looking away.

Suddenly there was a loud yell of excitement and they quickly glanced away from each other as Hermione ran in.

"Harry!" she yelled, her brown hair as bushy as ever and her buckteeth gone after Harry's incident with Malfoy and deflected curses, grew them to abnormal lengths and Hermione had them shrunk beyond what was absolutely necessary. "How long have you been here?" she asked. Harry glanced at Ginny, who was watching him again, and back to Hermione, answered quickly, "Not too long. You might want to drag Ron and Mr. Weasly in here before his eyes rust the paint off my car," he added, grinning.

"Hmmm, that would be a problem, now wouldn't it?" and she trotted out the door to fetch them.

Harry became conscious of Ginny's eyes on him, and looked at her. Her eyes were sparkling and she was smiling. He smiled back and winked, his natural clumsiness around the opposite sex dissipating into a warm feeling as she continued to look into his emerald eyes.