Harry lay in the cot that had been set up for him in Ron's room. Overhead, he heard the sounds that were resident in the Burrow. He could hear the ghoul banging on the pipes in the attic, and he could even hear a few half- hearted bangs coming from the twin's room.
Harry couldn't sleep, and he had already been trying for almost three hours. He tried to blame his insomnia on Ron's snores, but deep down, he knew that wasn't the reason. He had dealt with Ron's snores for four years while sharing the same dormitory with him. His mind quickly turned to the fact that he wasn't able to fall asleep because he was worried that he would awake from one of his customary nightmares, but he knew that wasn't it either...
Ginny. Her sudden outburst towards Hermione had surprised them all that morning, even her herself. She had blushed that famous Weasley blush (which, now that Harry thought back to it, didn't look half as bad on her as on the masculine Weasley's,) and then she had straightened her back and has silently stood behind her words with a defiant sharp nod in Hermione's direction. Harry didn't know how to react to all these...sudden changes in Ginny's character. Yes, she had become a lot more than just Ron's little sister the previous year, especially after...that night...but now he was questioning whether or not his feeling were just brotherly, or maybe even something more...
His thoughts turned back to the day that had just passed. It had been a pleasant evening, filled with laughter and birthday cake in the backyard. Harry had sat between Ron and Mr. Weasley, with Hermione on Ron's other side, Ginny across from Harry, the twins on either side of her, and finally Mrs. Weasley next to Mr. Weasley. Others had flooed in for a few minutes, to wish him a happy birthday and to speak to the Weasley's about Order business. He hadn't been able to hear anything, not say that they hadn't tried, but Mrs. Weasley had made sure to keep all the kids away at that point with a threat of de-gnoming the garden for the rest of the summer if she caught any of them listening in, even Harry. They had resigned themselves to having someone stationed out by the door to the kitchen, so that if anyone came by maybe they could try and cajole some information out of them.
Harry was most interested to try and get into contact with Dumbledore, because he felt that he was really the only one that finally understood that they just couldn't keep Harry out of the loop anymore. Whether or not the Order wanted to admit it, it would come down to Harry...it would all come down to him...
That's it! I can't sleep...lying here isn't going to do anything but frustrate me. Maybe I should go into the garden and get some fresh air...
Ginny was worried about Harry. While he had been a lot less withdrawn that night than most had expected from him, Ginny noticed that his laughs were forced and that the smiles didn't quite reach his eyes. He had been silent for most of the night, speaking only when spoken to, and even then with short answers.
Ginny decided that it was time to get to sleep, but instantly felt that sleep wouldn't be coming anytime soon as she laid back on her pillows, as she still didn't feel anymore relaxed then when she had gotten into bed hours ago. She looked over at Hermione, who has quickly fallen asleep in the bed across from Ginny right after the girls had come into the room. A blush came to Ginny's face as the scene she had caused earlier that day came to mind again. Ginny still didn't understand where that outburst had come from, but she had seen the way that Harry's eyes had instantly darkened as Hermione had begun her questioning, the way his shoulders had instinctively hunched over as he retreated back into his shell, and all Ginny had wanted to do was protect him...
She had apologized to Hermione right after the two girls had come upstairs, and Hermione had waived away any apologies without a second thought. She had in fact, instantly agreed that she was pushing Harry into talking about what had happened, even though after all these years she understood that he just needed time to accept what had happened in his own way. Ginny had seen that look in Hermione's eyes, and she was sure that it was reflected in her own. Worry and concern for Harry was something that they had all been dealing with in their own way that summer. They all wanted to do something, especially for herself, Hermione, and Ron, since they weren't officially in the Order and knew that keeping up Harry's spirits were the best way to help the cause right now. As much as Harry didn't want to believe it, they all cared for him deeply, and he was now a member of all their families. While it may be up to Harry to end what torture He-who-must-not-be-Named was bringing to the Wizarding World, they were all going to do whatever they could to help.
As Ginny realized that sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon for her that night, she decided to try and go downstairs to get some warm milk, and maybe after that go sit out in the garden and look up for a shooting star. Maybe she could make a wish, and just make life a little bit easier for all of them... Harry was sitting on the bench in the garden, and as the house was on a bit of a hill, he could easily see the field that the Weasley's used to play quidditch. In fact, if he wasn't wrong, Ron had mentioned something about going down there tomorrow to start working on planning some new strategies. Thinking over this suggestion, Harry had come to a realization. Even though he loved quidditch, it just didn't seem as...important...as it had been at a point. Now it just seemed like something that was just a game. He knew it had always been just a game, but in some way it had made him feel closer to his dad.
Thinking of his dad made him think of his mum, and then Sirius...Sirus. His name alone still made Harry's heart feel as if someone was squeezing it until it would burst. He hated thinking about Sirus, because no matter what everyone said...Dumbledore, Lupin, Ron, Hermione....he knew that it was his fault...
Harry jumped as he heard a gasp behind him. Reaching for his wand, he spun around, hand out with his wand ready, and saw... Ginny?
She stood there, with a look of shock and embarrassment on her face, a cup of spilt milk at her feet, her hair in two pigtails, all wrapped up in her bathrobe. Had Harry looked closer, he would have seen that only a very short shirt was what Ginny had underneath, but he was too busy looking up at her face. Even though she had no makeup on, and her hair in childlike pigtails, she looked absolutely stunning in the moonlight, with porcelain skin and fiery red hair. Her bathrobe hugged her curves in all the right places, and she looked like...a women, not a girl.
'What's he doing out here?!' was the first thought that ran through Ginny's head, and the second was why Harry was staring at her with such an odd expression on his face. Yet even through those thoughts, the one that captured her attention the most was her thoughts on the look in his eyes. He looked haggard and distraught, far worse than he had looked earlier in the day.
"Oh Harry! What's wrong?" Ginny asked, with a note of extreme worry in her voice, yet she fully knew not to expect a true answer from Harry. He always kept his feelings and worries bottled up inside, because he felt that by actually voicing them out loud, he was allowing someone else to worry about him. "Nothing." There it was, the flat tone that was always there when Harry lied about himself, because he didn't want others to worry over him. "Obviously it's something more than nothing Harry, or else you wouldn't be sitting out here in the middle of the night, you'd be asleep." "I said it was nothing.....and why are you awake in the middle of the night?!" Ginny knew that if she wanted to talk to Harry tonight, she would need to be the one who stayed calm, so she just took a deep breath, pushed the annoyance down, and responded with a quiet "couldn't sleep." "Oh."
The two sat in silence for a few moments, both lost in their own thoughts but still very obvious to the fact that they weren't by themselves. After a few minutes in a slightly uncomfortable silence, Harry turned to look at Ginny with a slightly unsure yet questioning look on his face. He quickly looked away as Ginny looked up at him, obviously not meaning for her to have seen him. "What is it Harry?" Ginny asked sincerely, in her soft voice, obviously not meaning to push Harry any farther than he wanted to talk that night. "Gin...do you think I could ever forget?" Ginny instantly knew what he was talking about. She paused briefly, unsure as to how to answer his question, but somehow, deep down, she felt as if she knew exactly what it was that Harry needed to hear at that moment. "I don't think that you're ever going to be able to forget him Harry, and I don't think that you would ever really want to. I don't think you're going to be able to forget that night either...but the pain Harry, that pain that's a knife in your heart every time that you think of him... I think you'll be able to forget that one day. It's not going to be any day soon, and most likely, it won't be a day that will come for a long time, but one day, you'll think of him, and there will be no pain. There will be sadness, and I think that you'll always know that you wish things had happened differently...but," she took a deep breath as she turned back to Harry, hoping that her next words wouldn't upset him to the point where he would get up and leave, "but I think you'll be able to accept that you couldn't change the way things happened, and that it wasn't your fault."
Harry just turned back away from her, and let out a long sigh. He jumped slightly when he felt Ginny shift over to him, and gently begin to rub his back in soothing circles, gently running her other hand down his arm...down and up, down and up, down and up...until he began to feel his eyelids gently droop.
"Gin...maybe we should head back to bed before your mum discovers one of us missing from our beds." Slowly, the two stood up from the bench, and began to make their way back to the kitchen door. Harry's arm had somehow managed to find its way to Ginny's shoulders, while her hand still rested on his forearm, yet it was nothing more than a friendly gesture. They found their way to the entrance to Ginny's room, and both stood for a moment. Ginny began to pull away slowly, as Harry tensed... "Gin...Thank you."... and with that, he leaned over, meaning to just give her a brotherly kiss on the forehead, but as Harry leaned forward, Ginny turned to look up at him, and somehow, almost as if someone had stood there directing them with a wand, their lips came together and met. At that moment, both of them felt the surge that hit them. It was as if someone had illustrated the two in a picture book, and both could almost feel the sparks running between the non-existent space between the two.
In an instant, the two pulled back and stared at each other. Ginny quickly looked down, mumbled a goodnight, and promptly closed the door in Harry's face.
A/N: All right, all right, i'll try to avoid the evil cliffhangers, but you have to all admit that you can picture the look on Harry's face as he stands in front of a door that had just been shut in his face after his first kiss with Ginny!!!
Please review all......that way at least i would know that i should continue the story!