UNFORGIVABLE LOVE
Chapter 1: Beginnings
A/N: Hi! Welcome to my story. I'm really excited because this is my very first chapter of my very first fanfic!!! Please read this and review. I hope you enjoy it! Oh, yeah, and a special thanks to my best friends, Kathleen and Chelsea! Without them this story wouldn't be possible!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, of course. A bunch of this is JK's (some people get all the luck), and only the storyline belongs to me, and my original characters, so please don't sue me! (It's not like you'd get much anyway...)
Seventeen-year-old Harry Potter stomped on the lid of his trunk until it closed with a soft 'click'. "Alright, Ron," the 7th year said, "I'm ready. You?"
"I will be," Ron grunted, trying to catch his small, noisy white owl, Pig, as it zoomed around its owner's room, "as soon as I get this idiot bird in its cage!" After the ninth failed attempt, Ron turned to Harry, frustrated, "Could I have a little help, here?!"
Pig took another lap of the room, zooming right by Harry as he did so. The fit Quidditch player reflexively shot his arm into the air, grasping the struggling little bird in his hands and gently placing him in his cage. "Thanks, mate," Ron breathed, slapping Harry on the back.
"No problem," Harry replied, glancing at his watch. "C'mon, we need to get outta here."
"Yeah. Sure. Let's go." The two boys lifted their trunks off the ground and carried them down the stairs and set them down beside the breakfast table. A platter of eggs floated across the kitchen from the general direction of Mrs. Weasley, joining the hash browns, bacon, and sausage links already spread out across the table, and landed in front of Harry. Fred and George were seated across from Harry, having already loaded their plates, and each were currently shoving forkfuls of food into his mouth.
"'Arry, 'ou don have 'o wait 'or 'eryone else. Just eat!" George said, spraying eggs across the kitchen table.
"GROSS!" Ron exclaimed, wiping bits of egg off of himself while George and Fred laughed. Harry shrugged and loaded up his own plate.
"Hurry up and eat, boys," said Mr. Weasley from behind the Daily Prophet, "We need to leave to the train station soon." Harry and Ron ate even more ravenously then before, each shoveling food into his mouth at an amazing speed.
"Oh, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said tearfully, "I wish you wouldn't just rush them all out the door like that. We won't get to see them again for nearly four months. We already said good-bye to Ginny two weeks ago when she went to see her friend." She dabbed at her eyes with her hanky as she gave each boy a hug on the way out the door.
"G'bye, Mum!" chorused Fred and George, sauntering out the door after Harry and Ron. Fred popped his head back in the door. "Oh, don't expect us back until late. We have some, er, people to see to after work."
Mr. Weasley, who was last, kissed his wife on the cheek on his way out, saying, "Be back at about seven, tonight, dear. Someone thought it'd be funny to bewitch handbags that bite and pass them around to Muggles..." The man was already lost in thought, and remained so until the taxi's arrival at the station. "See you in a couple of months," said Mr. Weasley, "Don't forget to write, and do try not to get into too much trouble."
Harry waved good-bye to Mr. Weasley and headed towards Platform 9 and 3/4, laden with his belongings. Ron sprinted about 30 yards, drawing funny looks from Muggles who were only to shocked to see a 6'5" seventeen-year-old red-head running as fast as he could toward a brick wall, pushing not only a trunk but also a broomstick and chaotic tennis-ball sized owl on a cart in front of him. Harry rolled his eyes, but followed his friend, disappearing into the brick wall and finding himself on the familiar platform where the crimson Hogwarts Express awaited them.
Grinning, Harry and Ron stepped aboard the train and headed for their usual compartment. As soon as they stepped inside, two girls instantly rushed over to them. "Harry!" gushed a slender brunette excitedly, wrapping the muscular Quidditch player in a quick embrace. "How you doing, handsome?" she whispered in slightly deeper, more seductive voice.
It was true. Harry had long since out grown his scrawniness, and now was one of the best-looking guys at Hogwarts. His green eyes shone brightly, his knees were no longer knobbly. Harry had grown into himself, and his constant practice of Quidditch, a quite demanding sport, had left muscular him looking quite fit.
He grinned, knowing Lavender's question had been purely rhetorical. "So, how was Paris?" he asked her, taking a seat. Lavender sat down next to him and began recounting her holiday in France.
Parvati and Ron had wasted no time on polite conversation, and were snogging heavily on the other side of compartment. Hermione slid open the compartment door. "RONALD WEASLEY!" she exclaimed. "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE INSTRUCTING THE NEW PREFECTS!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
Through the open door Harry caught sight of Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister. 'Merlin, she looks good.' He thought to himself, eyeing the petite red head as she laughed and joked with her friends. A blond boy put his arm around her, and for a moment Harry felt like socking the guy. Ginny shrugged off the boy's arm, though, and, smiling, made a brief eye contact with Harry before the compartment door started to slide shut.
"Hey, Gin, what was that all about?" asked Renee, Ginny's best friend.
"What was what all about?"
"Harry, he looked at you all dreamily, and you gave him this yearning look. You said you were way over him."
"I am," Ginny said, shrugging her shoulders. She grinned and then added, "Besides, he's my brother's best friend!"
"Sure. Whatever." Renee wasn't about to believe her friend. She knew Ginny fancied Harry very much, and had since she first saw him seven years before, at King's Cross when Harry boarded the express for the first time.
A tall, blond boy on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team wrapped his arm around Ginny's shoulder, pulling her close to him. "Kevin!" Ginny exclaimed, clearly exasperated with the boy seated next to her, and shrugging his arm off of her shoulders. "Stop it! I already told you, I'm really not into this."
"Fine. Be like that." He replied, hiding how much he was offended. Ginny's friends pretended not to know what was going on, changing the subject abruptly.
"So, anybody else taking Arithmancy again this year?" Asked Kayla Ranson, another close friend of Ginny's. Ginny smiled her thanks at the diversion.
"I've got no choice," Renee answered, "I can't just start a new subject. But NEWT level Arithmancy..." The dark haired girl trailed off, shuddering at the thought of the difficult subject.
"Get out of here, Kevin," Kayla told the only boy in the room, who hadn't yet caught a clue. "We need to change into our robes. We're getting pretty close."
Kevin shrugged and left the compartment, looking a bit hurt. "See you guys later," he said, looking back.
"Thanks be to Merlin!" Ginny breathed, as soon as Kevin was out of earshot. "A bit of peace! I wish he would just leave me alone!"
"Why?" Kayla asked playfully. "So you could continue daydreaming about a certain seventh year? You know the one that I'm talking about... Green eyes, messy hair a lightening scar. Can't miss him..."
"No!" said Ginny. Her face betrayed her. She couldn't keep the smile at the thought of Harry off of her face, and she turned a fiery red as she denied her feelings.
"Yeah, sure," Renee said sarcastically. "Why would you like Harry, right? I mean, he's the Quidditch Captain, muscular, tall, not to mention-"
"Totally taken by Lavender!" Ginny interjected, probably a bit too loudly.
"Only temporarily..." said Kayla mischievously.
"Kaye, don't you dare. I don't want anymore contact with Harry than I already do."
"Sure you do! I can tell from the look on your face!" Renee said, causing Ginny to turn even redder than she already was, if that was even possible.
"So maybe I do? What does it matter?" Ginny said quickly, for once telling the truth about how she felt. "He's going to be gone next year, most likely engaged to Lavender or something..." Ginny trailed off. She didn't need to say anything else. Her two best friends went from teasing to sympathetic.
"Don't worry about it, Gin. If he doesn't see that you're great, he's not worth it anyway. Besides, would you really want to date The Boy Who Lived?"
"Yes! And don't call him that. He hates it."
"You, Ginny," Kaye told her friend, "have an obsessive infatuation with Harry Potter."
"Sad, but true," Renee agreed, then whispered to Kayla while Ginny was changing into her robes, "But, Kaye, we need to do something. You have to admit, they are perfect for each other."
"I know," Kayla said, "But first we need to talk to Hermione. She'll know what we need to do, she knows both Harry and Ginny really well. We could make things even worse if we just charge into the next compartment and announce to Harry Ginny's undying love or something."
Renee laughed. "Oh, I know. I wouldn't."
Harry climbed up the stairs to the boy's dormitories from the common room for the first time that year. His trunk, as was customary, was waiting for him at the foot of his bed, and Hedwig was no doubt quite happy roosting in the Hogwarts owlery. The wiry Seeker quickly changed into his pajamas and sunk into his four-poster bed, not even bothering to draw the curtains.
Normally sleep came swiftly on the first night at Hogwarts, but tonight sleep didn't come. Harry found himself thinking about Ginny Weasley, and what the smile on the train meant. Why had he been so happy to see her? Why did her appearance suddenly strike him so? He was dating Lavender, widely considered to be the most sought after and gorgeous girl in the 7th year! Why was he so worried about Ginny, his best friend's little sister, so much? His thoughts drifted from Ginny, briefly to Lavender, and then back to Ginny before he finally fell asleep.
A/N: I know this chapter is short and starts out kind of slow, but I promise the next chapter will be better and more stuff will happen. Like I said before, this is my first chapter of my first fanfic, so it would mean a lot to me if you would review it and continue reading. Trust me, it'll be pretty good. I already have most of it planned out, so I'll be able to update fairly often.