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Chapter 38

"Why do I have to scrub dishes?" Ron demanded, grumpily. "It's my birthday!"

"It's not your birthday. It's Harry's. You don't share the same birthday," Hermione responded with the tone of habit of always having to correct Ron even when he's not entirely serious. The two were standing in front of the sinks in the kitchen which where stacked high with plates, platters, and silverware.

"Well, yeah, but we did share the same History of Magic textbook last year!" Ron said, putting on an old pair of pink rubber gloves with a signature logo in the inside that signified that they were exclusively from the Gilderoy Lockhart Collection.

"That's because you traded it to Neville Longbottom for a bunch of Buy One Get One Free coupons at the Three Broomsticks," Harry chimed in as he entered the kitchen preceding Ginny and followed by the twins.

"Oy, Harry! Remember when I got you that free butterbeer?" said Ron defensively as he picked up scrub brush in one of the sinks.

"That's because you realized how stupid it was to trade in your book for coupons so you tried to bribe Harry into letting you borrow his," Hermione said with her typical demeanor.

"Yeah, and he fell for it," said Ron with a smirk and Harry rolled his eyes. "Hey, did you just call me stupid?"

"No, Ron, I didn't say that! I just think that you might come up with stupid ideas sometimes!" Hermione exclaimed and seemed as though she was longing to say much more.

"Fair enough," Ron merely responded. Hermione opened her mouth, but then pursed her lips since she couldn't come up with an argument. "You're just mad because you didn't get a free butterbeer."

Hermione opened her mouth again quickly as if she had been deprived of speaking for years. "As a matter of fact, I'm not. I got one cavity last year, and my parents weren't too happy about that."

"Oh, you're not fun anymore--wait you never were," Ron joked and Hermione scoffed and took a whole stack of dirty dishes from her sink and put them in the sink Ron was in charge of for comeback.

Ginny laughed. "Of course Hermione is a lot of fun!" she said, and Ron gave her a brief glance and ignored her comment. The other thing that could have broken her spirit even more would have been if Snape walked in and judged her for not helping.

Harry brought back the old subject. "At least Neville got a new textbook," he said positively. "And I got a free butterbeer!"

"I still have some coupons left. Maybe I can treat you to a gillywater!" Ron said as he gave back Hermione's sink a lot of dirty dishes and Hermione rolled her eyes.

Mrs. Weasley was busying herself in the living room, dusting, but she came in the kitchen and yelled at Ron for not drying off the plates and glasses after he rinsed them.

"But I put them on the drying rack!" Ron said and he looked at Hermione who looked smug since she washed, rinsed, and dried all the dishes in her sink.

"I'm rather tired. I think I'm going to rest for a little bit before tonight festivities," she said and grinned at Ron as Mrs. Weasley gave her a nod of approval. "Thanks for letting me borrow your apron," she said as she took it off and left.

The twins seemed to have mysteriously disappeared when no one noticed so Harry offered to dry Ron's dishes.

"I'll help him. I haven't done anything yet," said Ginny.

"Alright then, but the china--" said Mrs. Weasley and the door bell rang and she left to answer it, "--be careful!"

"Yeah," Ron said to Harry and then he glanced at Ginny and then back at Harry, "be careful." He left and ascended the staircase to his room.

Ginny frowned as she picked up a towel and a plate. "Will he ever realize that I'm not Percy?"

"I think everything will be fine by tonight," said Harry vaguely.

"What makes you think that? Are you planning something?" Ginny asked with interest. How could Harry know how to change Ron's feelings toward her? And another question was when will Harry be okay with letting people know about his and Ginny's relationship?

"You'll see," he answered even more vaguely. The excitement about that day was getting tired, and Ginny felt as thought it was a problem that Harry didn't want people to know about them. Maybe he was ashamed of liking her. There was the event with Snape earlier, but maybe that was just to startle him. Maybe Harry was planning on letting everyone know about their relationship later that night, but how did that fit in with whatever he was going to do to convince Ron to trust Ginny again?

Ginny decided to change the subject since she didn't know what else to say. "I know I say this every year, but I wish we could use magic! These dishes would've been done a long time ago!"

"Or else get a couple of legal house elves," Harry said and meant that Ron still had Winky without his parents knowing, "but I like this. I mean, I don't like doing it alone. It's just that today has been the best day this summer so doing a couple chores isn't going to bring me down--and not because it's my birthday."

Ginny looked up at him and was about to pick up a bottle of soap to put away. She didn't say anything, but a warm feeling came upon her on the inside.

"I think I talked to you today more than I ever did before," he continued. "And I kissed you, but just the touch of your hand would have made it a perfect day." Harry paused and cleared his throat.

Ginny was overcome with emotion again, but she didn't feel the need to cry. She wanted to kiss him again, but not while cleaning up. She grabbed the soap bottle and squeezed it quite hard as it was aimed at Harry's head. "Harry, I--OH!" she exclaimed as the stream of soap hit his forehead, and she let go of the bottle.

Harry was startled. "What the--!"

"Harry, I didn't mean to!" she exclaimed and stifled her laughter.

Harry burst out laughing. "Thanks! I ran out of shampoo!" Ginny let her laughter out as well as Harry slicked his hair back and he reminded her of someone.

"You look like Draco Malfoy!" she pointed out with tears in her eyes from the laughter.

"Oh, really?" he responded and put on the frilly pink apron that Hermione was wearing previously. "Hello, I'm Malfoy!" Harry imitated the drawl, "And I'm a pretty little girl!"

Ginny wiped her eyes and then she gasped. "Um, Harry?" she said and motioned him to turn around. They were both caught by not just Mrs. Weasley, but by the people who were with her. Draco Malfoy was standing right next to her.

"We have another guest," said Mrs. Weasley with a dull expression, but she tried to fake a smile. Harry took the apron off right away and Ginny felt as if she was going to faint.

Snape roamed in and opened a cookie jar and then noticed who was present and said, "Oh, hello." Apparently, Malfoy heard what Harry said because he looked like he wanted to pounce on him.