Bring Back The Sun

08. Reluctant Hesitations

The mystery's gone

So bring back the sun

We'll bury this hate

And build it with love

-"Bring Back The Sun"

After it was established that Hermione and Neville were dating, the following morning after breakfast, due to the proclamation that Hermione did, in fact, snog Neville and not Trevor, things went on smoothly between the group of teens.

That was, of course, until Harry made his move on Ginny without proper blessings from Ron, or so Ron thought at least.

"I'm going to knock all of your teeth out, Potter," Ron growled, putting his fists up in proper fight mode. "Or several, maybe. Okay, at least one."

Harry, repressing laughter so much that his stomach ached, made his voice come out more calmly than he felt. Ron may not be a very good fighter, but he was definitely taller than Harry, and had an advantage, though Harry didn't know what that was. "Ron, there's no need for violence."

"KILL HIM!" Ginny hollered from the couch where she sat with Hermione.

Harry gave her a look, "You WANT your brother to beat me up, do you?"

"Yes!" Ginny answered defensively, "You violated me!"

"YOU WHAT?!" Ron screamed so loudly that Hermione covered her ears and cast a quick glance at Luna, who was watching attentively from the fireplace. She had a look of utter adoration on her face.

Harry suddenly became quite scared, "I didn't!" He looked back at Ron, "I swear I didn't!"

"HIT HIM!" Ginny shrieked, jumping up from the couch. "Defend my honor, Ronald Weasley!"

Ron's fists flopped to his sides as he started blankly at his sister, "What are you going ON about?"

Ginny was an inch away from Ron now, her nose would have been touching his had she been taller. As it was, her nose was almost touching the middle of his sweater. "I want you to beat him to a pulp!"

"Why?" Ron looked down at the top of her head curiously.

"Because he tried to make a move on me!"

"What did he do?" Ron asked reasonably. Before, he had been ready to just beat Harry up no matter what, but then the sensible side of his brain had kicked in and he'd wondered why he was about to beat up his best friend without real cause, or proof that anything had occurred.

"He----he----" Ginny was blushing furiously now, though more from anger than embarrassment as she wasn't easily embarrassed these days. The steam was slowly coming out of her as she fumbled for words. "He----HE SNOGGED ME!"

Hermione gasped dramatically and flopped back against the couch, a hand over her mouth; Luna took a seat excitedly on the floor to watch the action closely.

Ron sat down in a chair by the fire and surveyed Ginny with oddly uncharacteristic thoughtfulness, "You used to write in your diary about that, why don't you want him to now?"

"RONALD WEASLEY!" Ginny hollered, seeing Harry's huge grin out of the corner of her eye. "You READ my DIARY!?"

"I had to make sure it wasn't another evil inanimate object, didn't I?"

"NO!"

"Well, anyway," Ron waved a hand dismissively. "I'd like to know why this bothers you so much. You used to fancy the pants off him. You used to sigh every time someone said his name, you used to run from the room whenever he entered, you used to blush whenever he spoke to you----"

"That's quite enough," Ginny stated strongly, looking clearly agitated. "I'll have you know that---"

"You didn't want me to snog you?" Harry asked suddenly, stepping in between she and her brother. Ron had to crane his neck around to get a good look at them now, which he did and received death glares from Hermione; he ignored them as usual, however, and continued to gawk.

"Of course I didn't," Ginny retorted, brushing her hair impatiently away from her face.

"Why?"

"Because I LIKED it, all right? Now will you please shut the bloody hell up!"

Harry pulled back from her, looking shocked. "You liked it? But why are you causing such a fuss, then? Why can't we just go off and snog our brains out until dinner?"

Ron snorted and everyone gave him a look that he primly ignored, paying close attention to his cuticles and pretending not to listen any further to the conversation at hand.

"I used to fancy you. A lot," Ginny sighed heavily and shook her head. "When I got over that, it was wonderful. It was as if I were free to grow up and fancy whomever I liked without dragging you around all over the place with me. I didn't---don't---want to go back to being the girl who fancies Harry Potter. I like being known as Ginny Weasley, thank you very much, and I'm not going to have you ruin it just because you suddenly decide you'd like to snog me."

"I didn't suddenly decide," Harry replied, his voice angry and chipped. "I didn't just wake up and say 'Hey, maybe I should snog Ginny today!' I fancy you! I wanted to show you! I wanted to tell you! There were no ulterior motives. I promise. Just that I maybe wanted to ask you out."

He was breathing heavily by the time he'd finished, because he ended up shouting halfway through the monologue. Hermione, Luna and Ron were surveying him impassively, but Ginny was staring at him as if she'd never seen him before.

"You've never made any sense to me, Harry Potter," she stated evenly. "And you still don't. I don't know what you'd want with me."

"Well, let's see, shall we?" His voice was laden down with immense sarcasm as he ticked off reasons on his fingers. "You're brave, you're smart, you're lovely, you're intelligent, you're beautiful, you're fun…" He sighed, "I have more, but it'll just take up the entire night standing here listing things when I could be doing much more fun things."

"Like what?" She asked coyly.


"Like convincing you that I'm not a bad guy." He cast a scared glance at Ron, who was smiling and then he turned back to Ginny. "Some of which may involve my lips."

Ginny laughed loudly, "Bad guy? Harry Potter? Those two phrases do not go together. At all." She became more serious, "I didn't say you were a bad guy…I just didn't want to get hurt. I'll always see you as a schoolgirl crush, and I'm not keen on exploring that further seeing as how it only ends up in tears. As far as I can tell, anyway."

"Well, you're wrong," he said sternly. "But I won't push you if you don't want anything to do with me other than our friendship, which I hope I haven't ruined."

"You haven't," she said, stepping closer to him. "And I'd like the rest of that list, please."

"You don't always get what you want, Ginny."

"Nor do you."

Harry shrugged, "All I want is you. But if I can't have that, then I'll just go off on my merry way and pretend I'm not crushed."

Ginny grinned up at him, and before anyone even knew what was happening, Harry was lowering his mouth to hers and wrapping his arms around her waist.

After several seconds, Ron got grossed out and pushed them apart, "That's enough public displays of affection. If you'd like to continue with your charade, you may do that…but not upstairs in a closed room…go outside in the garden." Ginny and Harry smiled at him, took each others hands, and walked towards the door; Ron shouted after them, "BUT NOT THE BUSHES!"