A/N: Awwight! I changed the name of the story to The Auralillian Summer. I know it's kind of weird, but I like it ;)

Disclaimer: None of the terms or characters that appear in any literature authored by J.K. Rowling belongs to me. They rightfully belong to J.K. Rowling. Any other allusions mentioned on this page do not belong to me either.

Chapter 29

Ginny wrote about everything that happened during the past few days in her diary. She was lying still on her bed afterwards, not really thinking about anything, as if she was waiting to fall asleep. It was too early to go to bed, but she had nothing else to do. Hermione was not in the room as she was probably spending time with Ron and Harry, trying to patch more things up.

"I really want to see Harry," Ginny said to herself. Now, I know I shouldn't give up on him, she thought. I won't do that again. She really couldn't stand it that he was still so upset with her. "I have to talk to him," she spoke again. It wouldn't have been a wise idea to knock on Ron's door. It would have been too overwhelming with Ron there as well. She needed to be alone with Harry. "I'll just stay in the kitchen and hope for the best."

She left her room and descended down the numerous steps and halted in the middle of the last staircase to see Hermione, Harry, and Ron sitting at the kitchen table. They were polishing silverware. Harry's and Ron's backs were facing her, but Hermione was sitting opposite of them and would have been able to catch sight of Ginny.

"Why do we have to do this at the last minute?" Ron said aloud, polishing a spoon with a shimmering rag.

"Because your Mum said that many people are coming over tomorrow night and she forgot until now that the silverware hasn't been polished in ages," Hermione answered nonchalantly.

"And why do we have to do this all by hand?" asked Harry in a quiet and low voice.

"Because sometimes it's better to do things the Muggle way, plus we're underage wizards," Hermione answered again in the same relaxed tone. "At least we have magic in the towels."

It seemed as if they had nothing to discuss so they kept asking questions they already knew the answers to. Just then, Hermione caught Ginny's eye.

"Oh, Ron, I need to show you something! Today I saw something in the fireplace," she said urgently and stood up from her seat.

"Not now, I'm giving these forks my all," he said back.

"No, it might go away!" she said with her voice slightly raised.

"What about Harr--" Ron started to say, but Hermione pulled him out of his seat, and lead him to the next room.

"Harry won't understand, plus he's a better polisher than you are," she said, and Ginny noticed how their voices began to fade away.

She got what she wanted--to be alone with Harry. It was the perfect opportunity, except that she turned to walk back up the stairs because she felt very awkward to walk in when Harry had suddenly been left alone. I'll just talk to him tomorrow, she thought. It's his birthday. He'll feel better on his birthday--oh, no! It's his birthday!

After taking a few steps up, she ran into Mrs. Weasley. "Oh, Ginny! I'm glad you're awake," she said aloud. "I need you to go back downstairs to sprout the fruit."

"Oh, Mum! Sprout the fruit? Why me?" she whined. Sprouting the fruit was Ginny's most hated chore, but it did give her an excuse to be in the same room with Harry. Her whining about doing the task was just routine for her.

The Weasleys grew their own produce naturally, but there were special wizarding fruit seeds that could be planted in dirt and be grown in a matter of seconds. The fruit would turn out perfectly and taste better than anything naturally grown. So they would sprout the fruit every once in awhile for special occasions. The task wasn't hard work, but it was boring.

"Ginny, your brothers always make a mess, and I have to pot some flowers, so please do this just one more time," Mrs. Weasley said firmly. "The tray of dirt and things are on the counter."

Ginny sighed. "Alright," she said and headed back down to the kitchen. She eyed Harry as he seemed overly focused on the ladle he was polishing. She picked up a long white tray full of dirt and a spray bottle, and sat on the other side of the table. She wasn't sitting across from him, but she was close enough to have a normal conversation with him.

"You missed a spot," she said as she was putting on a pair of large goggles.

"I know what I'm doing," he answered in a firm tone, still staring at the current job he was giving to a knife. "I've polished silver before."

Ginny gave a small scoff and glared at Harry, but she didn't say anything back. "Now, how do I do this again?" she said aloud which wasn't directed towards him. "Oh, right, the spray can," she said and picked it up.

"You sure talk to yourself a lot," Harry spoke. "People will think you're mad."

"Maybe I am," Ginny retorted, and started spraying areas of the dirt. Harry didn't answer as he began to work on the serving trays. Some bananas and oranges started to sprout, but they were still small and ripe. "No apples yet? But they're usually the first," she continued to talk out loud in spite of Harry, and then sprayed some more liquid on the tray. "Oh, here come the grapes!"

"Are you doing this to irritate me?" Harry demanded. He did seem annoyed, but it didn't matter to Ginny since he was rude to her in the first place.

"No, Mum asked me to do it," she simply answered. "I can't just disobey Mum. The rules, you know!"

"I'm sure she didn't order you to distract Harry from doing his job," he said in third person, and finally looked at her. The look in his eyes weren't the same as she was used to as he looked at her very sternly. It saddened her, but she acted to him as if she was care-free.

"I thought that we settled on the fact that I'm mad," she said, and continued to spray the tray. "Finally the apples!" she exclaimed.

"I see that the fruit is growing, but you're not," Harry sneered, and Ginny glared at him again.

"Oops, I missed," she said after she pointed her spray can at the table-top and a small blue spot appeared on it. "See, you're making me lose my focus, Harold."

Harry looked up again, "My name's not Harold, it's--Ahhh!"

"Oops, I missed again!" she exclaimed after she shot Harry in the eye.

Harry put his hand over his left eye. "Why did you do that?!" he demanded.

"Oh, Harold, it only stings for a second," she said coolly, and got back to spraying the fruit on the tray. "I see that the bananas are fully--hey!" she said as Harry ran his polishing rag down her arm which left a glimmering silver streak. "Well, that wasn't nice."

"Neither is spraying me in the eye with that stuff!" he said as he pointed to the bottle of fruit-sprouting fluid.

"That was an accident, Harold," she said, and observed her arm.

"No it wasn't!" he argued.

"Okay, maybe I meant to do it, but this thing on my arm won't come off for days," she answered and Harry looked at his reflection in a spoon.

"What about this?" he asked and put a finger to the area around his eye.

"That's going to take a week at the least," she said with a smirk.

Harry groaned, "Ginny," as he was finishing the last serving tray.

"What? It'll draw attention away from that scar of yours, right?" she said with another smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes and changed the subject with a slur. "You look really stupid with those goggles on."

"You're one to talk, four eyes," she replied almost immediately and Harry blinked twice. "That's right! Four eyes! And you shouldn't keep telling me to grow up either after that last remark."

"You know something, Ginny, you're right," he said and walked over to her side of the table. "If I wasn't grown up, I wouldn't do this!" he exclaimed and wiped his rag on the side of her face which left a silver mark.

She screamed, "Harry!" and got up from her seat to pick up a silver tray, and saw in her reflection that the mark wasn't very big. She groaned anyway and sprayed another blue spot on Harry's chin.

"Ow! It BURNS!" he yelled as he grabbed his chin just before Ron and Hermione walked back into the kitchen.

"Ron!" exclaimed Hermione, "I swear those wooden logs did look like they were glowing green!"

"They were not, and that one log did not look like the new Keeper for the Chudley Cannons!" he replied, and saw Harry run his towel down Ginny's hair, and she shrieked. "And what are you two doing?"

"My hair! Now, I have a silver streak in my hair!" she exclaimed.

"It suits you well," Harry said as Ginny kicked him in the ankle. "Argh!"

"Harry, did Ginny beat you up?" Ron demanded.

"No, she didn't beat me up!" Harry shouted as he grabbed his ankle.

"Harry, you got a black eye!" Hermione asserted. "You need some ice." Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley came into the room.

"What's all this noise?" she questioned. "Harry, what happened to your face? Do you want me to get you some cold meat for those bruises?"

"Ginny gave him a black eye. She beat him up!" Ron accused.

"Ginny didn't beat me up!" Harry insisted. Mrs. Weasley turned to Ginny.

"Is this true?" she asked sternly.

"Not exactly," she merely responded. "But he was trying to polish me! See!" She motioned to her arm. "He's mad!"

"I'm not mad! She is!" said Harry as he pointed to Ginny. "And she didn't beat me up. She sprayed me with that fruit stuff!"

"Oh, Gin, that was very juvenile," Hermione stated with a disenchanted look.

"Ginny! I asked you to spray the fruit! I didn't ask you to fool around!" she snapped at her.

"But Harry--" Ginny started.

"Don't blame your own faults on Harry!" she yelled. "And regarding the fruit, I'll finish what you started. Just go to bed, now!"

Ginny was speechless, but left the kitchen anyway. She was very angry with Mrs. Weasley punishing her, and Harry was left practically innocent.

She entered her room and slammed the door shut. After a few minutes, she took a deep breath and realized that she didn't have the talk with Harry that she meant to have. "He still hates me. Ron still hates me. Mum is angry, and Hermione is disappointed," she said to herself. Now, I know how Harry must have felt practically every year at Hogwarts. "Why does everything always lead up to Harry?!"

Even though she wanted to make amends with him, she was aggravated. He was being rude to her so it was very hard for her to have a decent talk with him. "He just gets me so fired up sometimes."

The rain was still pouring when Hermione came in the room. "Hey, Ginny," she greeted feebly.

"Hey, what?" Ginny said haughtily. She rolled off her bed. "Do you still think I'm juvenile?"

"I thought you were going to talk to him, not turn his skin blue," she answered.

"You know that I wasn't ready to talk to him yet, but then Mum made me sprout the fruit," she said, "and Harry was there, and he was being rude, so I wanted to be rude back. And now I have a silver streak in my hair."

"It'll all wash out," Hermione said. "But anyway, how many chances will you get to be alone with Harry?"

"I don't know. I can't change what's happened," Ginny responded with a downcast tone, "unless . . . do you still have that Timeturner?"

"No, and I think it's best for you to learn from your mistakes," Hermione answered firmly. The Timeturner was out of the question even if Hermione did still own one. Ginny didn't want to change the past anyway, unless it was for a life or death situation or if she was taking many classes.

Ginny yawned. "I'm about to pass out. I'll deal with whats-his-face tomorrow," she declared. The thunder was noisy but the two girls managed to get rest.