All is Full of Love

by Hildigunnur

Chapter 6

Trainspotting

Author's note: My everlasting gratitude to my wonderful beta-reader, Zsenya. My reviewers who never fail to make me smile and this chapter is dedicated to my Slyth-o-meter, Sarah Black. And Stephen Cornfoot appeared on JKR's student list in the BBC documentary about her.

The snow covered mountains of Scotland zoomed past as Harry gazed idly out of the window of the train. Ron sat across from him and was sleeping. Hermione was sitting besides him, engrossed in some book. She was going to spend the Christmas with her parents and then join him and Ron at the Burrow two days before New Year's Eve. Harry grinned, he was looking forward to the party Fred and George were throwing. They seemed have no worries about their parents and Harry supposed that it wasn't his place to worry about that either.

He looked at his watch; he had a meeting with Ginny. They were going to do a bit more spying. It was fun to spy with her, listening to conversations that people were having all over the Hogwarts castle. He had even brought his Invisibility Cloak and they had hid in a girls' bathroom. That had been a very interesting experience. They hadn't had any luck in finding more information about the secret admire, but knew now a lot about the dilemmas of several seventh year Hufflepuff girls. Harry had certainly got more information then he'd bargained for. He knew now all about shaving under the arms, cramps and how the wire in underwire bras would sometimes stick into one's ribcage. The Marauder's Map hadn't helped them either, even if he had tried to stay awake the whole night watching it. He had of course fallen asleep, dreaming that he was leaving Ginny love letters under her pillow. This espionage business was getting to him.

"I'm going to the loo," he said to Hermione, standing. She looked at him and kept reading her book. There were groups of people along the aisles of the train and sometimes he had to turn sideways to get past them.

"All right, Potter?" said Ernie Macmillan as Harry walked past him. He just knew Ernie wanted to talk about Quidditch so he pretended he hadn't heard him. This wasn't the time for idle talk. Finally, he saw the person he'd been seeking – her red hair stood out against the dark panelling of the train.

"Waiting long?" he asked as he reached her.

"No, I'd just managed to slip out of a very heated debate about nail polish." Ginny grinned and he couldn't help but smile back. She seemed to make him oddly happy.

"How stand things?" he asked.

"Well, I found out that we almost eliminated the Ravenclaw fifth years, Lisa Turpin is going out with Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst and Stephen Cornfoot are an item." Ginny's tone of voice was very business-like.

"That seems rather rounded up nicely, I wonder how they all got paired up like that." Harry couldn't help but wonder.

"Oh, you know how it is with those Ravenclaws, all those late hours pouring over Arithmancy homework," said Ginny impishly.

"How about Padma Patil? She isn't seeing anyone, is she?" Harry asked.

"It could be her! Why not? Parvati could be the one delivering the letters to George for her." Ginny crossed her arms. Harry didn't say anything. Padma wasn't as forward as Parvati but then again he didn't know Padma well. His only interaction with her had been on the Yule Ball last year and even then they had hardly talked.

"Oh, no!" sighed Ginny suddenly looked over Harry's shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Malfoy is heading our way," said she in an irritated voice. "Let's pretend not to notice him … so, Harry, the Underground system in London consists of many tunnels? The rail tracks are inside those tunnels?" Harry understood right away that she wanted to engage him in some idle conversation, dull enough to make Malfoy not bother them. Though he suspected it would be in vain.

"Potter, heard you're going to help the poor this Christmas. Struggling with your saint status now?" Draco said in his drawling voice. He had stopped seven feet away from them and was now smirking. Harry clenched his fists, preparing for the next wave of insults.

"Oh, was I interrupting something with you and Girl Weasel? You should choose your girlfriends more wisely, first the Mudblood and now a poor …" Harry had grabbed his wand but Ginny had been quicker to act.

"Malfoy, I think it would be wise for you to shut your mouth because I don't like what comes out of it," said Ginny fiercely.

"Are you going to make me or what?" asked Draco wryly.

"I could, you don't know if I couldn't do it permanently. You know perfectly well who could have taught me something like Silencio Omnino." Harry caught his breath, Ginny was making a reference to Tom Riddle. He could hardly believe it, but it worked. Malfoy closed his thin-lipped gob and stared at her, a frightened look on his face. He recovered though and his signature sneer returned.

"I would watch out if I were the two of you, your comeuppance is due soon." With that, he turned and walked away.

"Ginny," Harry said breathlessly when Malfoy was out of earshot, not caring about what he had said. "Why did you mention … you know who?"

"Tom?" she said in an oddly cheery voice, "because he taught me some frightening things and that curse I mentioned is real. I reckon that Malfoy knows it."

"But Ginny …"

"Harry, I know what you are thinking. I've just learned that this is the best way to deal with Tom. Being open about him is the perfect antidote against the secrets and the lies of the time Ton Riddle ruled my life." Harry took a good look at Ginny. Was he talking to the same person he had saved from the Chamber of Secrets? Granted, she was no longer the pale, eleven year old. She had grown up a lot; he could sense a strong personality behind her still innocent-looking appearance.  How was it that his best friend's little sister had become so beautiful without him noticing? A wave of longing washed through him. He was falling for Ginny Weasley.

~~~~

Ginny glanced at Harry. He was starting to look at her in a strange way. It bothered her. Does my attitude about Tom upset him? She wondered. The attitude was something she had worked hard to acquire, to counteract the nightmares she had been having. After a long time she had been able to be honest to herself about Tom. Yes, she had been lured by him and yes, she had stolen the diary back from Harry because she had been more afraid that Harry would discover her secrets than that Tom would gain control over her again.

"I should go back to Ron and Hermione," Harry said suddenly and jerked away like he had been staring at something he shouldn't.

"Oh, did you leave them together alone?" said Ginny, feeling curious.

"Yeah, Ron was asleep and Hermione was reading some great big book," he answered, running his hand through his untidy mop of hair.

"Bet he's awake now," Ginny added with snigger, "you must have noticed, y'know, that he fancies her." Harry rolled his eyes and smiled.

"And she fancies him. I wish I knew what to say to relieve that tension between them."

"Tell me about it, I've encouraged her to tell him, but she refuses."

"I don't dare to say anything to Ron, but we boys don't talk so much about these things," he grinned, "we aren't all Seamus Finnigan."

"Showing off his lovebites, is he?"

"How did you know?" he asked, though he seemed to know the answer.

"The person who inflicted them, has been boasting."

"Oh, I thought so. Hey, I think it's best that I check on your brother and Hermione. See you later," he said and smiled to her in a very nice way before walking away. She watched him make his way through the crowd which had gathered along the train corridor. Harry had always been beautiful in her mind, but since she had started to spend more time with him, she was noticing all these details about him. The thick, long, black lashes fringing his bright, green eyes. The slender arches of his eyebrows. How his jaw line was becoming more masculine and something she had never wanted to think about before, how kissable his lips looked. Not that she had been kissed, but she thought a lot about it. Harry was the only boy she could imagining kissing.

She was walking towards the compartment where her friends were sitting when she ran into her twin brothers, who were carrying a card box.

"Isn't it the superspy?" asked George. "Still not found out who's pining for me?"

"I'm working on it but who ever it is, she's covering her tracks very well."

"She?" said Fred amused, "certain it's a she? It could be a he."

"Shut up, Fred," said George testily, "I honestly don't want to picture some bloke stuffing a letter in a stack of my clean underwear. I'm sick of getting letters every time my clothes come from laundry."

"Then it's a house-elf …" Fred began but shut up when George kicked him in the shin.

"I can tell you who it can't be," said Ginny, "I've ruled out all Ravenclaws except Padma Patil."

"It can't be her," said George, "she's too young."

"Fifteen, two years younger than you. I don't think that's too young. Anyway, I've ruled out all the Hufflepuff girls," Ginny couldn't help but notice that it seemed to disappoint George that the Hufflepuffs were out of the running. "Then there are still the Gryffindors we have discussed."

"What about the Slytherins?" asked Fred deviously.

"I thought I was to make sure it wasn't anyone else before I would check out the Slytherins?" Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"Certainly," George was quick to say, "what about the Gryffindors? Anything changed there?"

"No," said Ginny, "but what's in that box?" The twins grinned.

"Well, we have to transport people to the party somehow. These are Portkeys, tuned to transport people to the Burrow at eight o'clock, New Year's Eve." Fred picked up an old shoe.

"That's clever," said Ginny, "but have you tuned them so people can return?" George suddenly looked down and Fred just shrugged and said, "we'll deal with that in due time."

"That's so typical of you," she said and walked away from her brothers. It hadn't been completely true what she had said to her brother, that she wasn't bothering with the Slytherins. She had heard a lot of things when she had been hiding at the various girls' bathrooms around Hogwarts. Pansy Parkinson weeping her eyes out about Malfoy. Some seventh-year girls giggling over the fact that Snape was really handsome had made her gag, and she had been glad that Harry hadn't been with her then. He would have fainted. Actually it was more fun when Harry was with her, especially when girls started to talk about things like hair-removing charms and tanning potions. He always became embarrassed but always managed to have a good laugh about it afterwards.

She had asked him what boys talked about when they were having what she referred as 'boy talks.' She, of course, knew already, after all she had six older brothers. Harry had laughed and told her that blokes were more into teasing each other than moaning about their lack of chest hair.

The train was now going through woodland and there was a village not far away from the tracks. Ginny started to think about the Burrow, she looked forward to showing Harry her home at Christmas time. Just the thought about it wrapped itself around her like a warm blanket. Memories of laughter, songs and snow fights filled her mind. Then there was the party. There was this knot in the pit of her stomach, she wanted to believe it was due to excitement but deep down she had to admit it was due to anxiety. What had Malfoy meant with that they would be getting their comeuppance? Was it just his usual nastiness or was there something to the threat? She shouldn't be letting that bother her. The party was destined to be fun, there was going to be music and dancing. She sighed, would she and Harry hang out together at the party and maybe dance? Well, a girl can dream, she reckoned.