Chapter 2

Stupid, stupid! Harry shouted in his head as he watched Ginny return to her seat next to Ron and noticed she seemed eager to get back to their photos.
She practically threw that glass of pumpkin juice in your face, you git! Harry scolded himself, thinking he might as well have deserved it, the way he allowed his eyes to linger on her lips and body like that for so long. She must have been pretty bothered by his odd behavior, how she quickly turned away like that. He knew he was quite disturbed with his out of ordinary self.
Or worse, what if she had an idea what was going on in his head, and was just simply appalled?
Just then, Harry stopped and wondered. Wait, what exactly is going on in my head? Am I starting to have feelings for Ginny? He took a moment to look over at her who still had her head down staring intently at a photo in the album. Her legs were crossed and both hands were curled at the edge of the seat, causing her shoulders to shrug a bit. She was now laughing sweetly to something Neville had said, though Harry couldn't quite catch what is was, and a strand of her long silky hair fell to the side of her face. He watched as she slowly raised her right hand and tucked the misbehaving piece behind her ear. Harry couldn't help but wonder why such a simple gesture made his stomach tie in knots.

Sigh. This is Ron's little sister you're talking about, Harry reminded himself, as if this was to settle the matter somehow.
Correction: she was Bill, Charlie, Percy (well Percy, Harry thought, he can take), Fred, George and Ron's little sister. Harry suddenly had a frightening picture of all six brothers towering over him cracking their knuckles as Bill muttered something about "taking advantage" of his innocent baby sister…His shoulders shuddered at the thought and sighed again, this time louder.
He was confused.
Was the Ginny sitting across from him now merely an illusion from his fantasy earlier? Or was it possible that the dream had been a rude awakening to reveal to him the wonderful girl who has been right under his nose this whole time? (And that wasn't just figuratively speaking. Harry was roughly 5'10" now, Ginny about 5'5")
Great! Harry's grumpy voice pounded inside his head. I may have fallen in love and I wasn't even conscious when it happened!

After contemplating for what seemed like hours, Harry decided to go over to Ginny and talk to her before it got any more awkward between them. He had carefully planned in his head how he would come about approaching her.
He was going to sit down next to her, politely thank her for the pumpkin juice, apologize for his unusual behavior (he would say that he had a bad dream, though Harry would know it was quite the contrary) and ask her to share with him all about her trip to Egypt. He would listen with keen interest as she told her stories (he was pretty sure he read somewhere in Witch Weekly once that girls were fond of guys that listened), though he had heard most of it before when she was telling Hermione, Neville and Luna.
He would say to her how it wasn't bad staying at the Leaky Cauldron with Hermione, but he would rather have remained at the Burrow and practiced Quidditch some more with her and Ron. Then he would praise her on how much she had improved her game over the last year.
He smiled. For a reason he couldn't quite grasp, he had a strong urge to shower her with compliments. He took a deep breath and slowly stood up.
As he did this, he saw too late that Ginny had gotten up at the same exact time. His brilliant plan (well, at least Harry felt it was pretty brilliant) to make things less awkward between them had backfired for now Harry and Ginny were standing in the middle of their confined compartment face to face, inches away from one another, looking dead into each others' eyes.

"Hi." It was Ginny who found her voice first. She continued to look up and gaze into his piercing emerald eyes. She could almost feel the warmth of his body tingling her skin and wondered what it would be like to be held in his arms.
Harry cleared his throat and managed to let out in a fairly monotone voice "Hey Ginny...er…I was just about to come sit with you." He impressed himself for stuttering only once. He tried to smile casually, but instead a silly boyish grin helplessly spread across his face.
It was nerve-wracking standing so close to her, with the fresh scent of her shampoo (it smelled like freesia) filling the air under his nose and he was sure everyone in that compartment could hear his heart beating like mad.
"Oh…well all right then" Ginny replied, then added quickly with a smile "what a coincidence, I was about to join you too." As she spun around to sit back down in her seat, she was startled to see two pairs of eyes staring at them.
They belonged to Ron and Hermione.

Apparently they had finished with the photo album and were comparing their Famous Wizard Cards, when Ginny and Harry's abrupt movement caught their attention.
Neville and Luna were engaged in a game of Exploding Snap and hadn't noticed. Hermione looked practically giddy, beaming at the two with her hands clasped together in front of her chest.
(Ginny had confided to her over the summer at the Burrow that her feelings toward Harry was still strong, and that dating other boys over the years had made her realize just how much she wasn't over him. Hermione returned the favor by letting Ginny in on her secret crush on Ron, to which Ginny rolled her eyes and cried "Oh Hermione! I've known that for ages!")
Ginny glared at Hermione, her wide eyes silently screaming at her to stop being so obvious. Hermione, who saw this stopped bouncing in her seat and gave her an apologetic look.
Harry, however, hadn't noticed (Both girls let out a sigh of relief at this) for he was staring back at Ron who seemed rather puzzled.
"What were you two doing just now, having a staring contest or something?" he asked quite seriously.
"Er…" Harry's mind went blank at this and Hermione, as if on cue, came to his rescue. "Oh Ron, you silly pooh! (Ron did a double take at this and silently mouthed the words "A silly what?" to Harry. Harry, slightly astonished himself, just shook his head and shrugged.)
"Stop talking rubbish! Now come on!" She jumped up from her seat. "As Head Boy and Girl this year, we need to go patrol the corridors. Maybe Malfoy and his idiot friends will be up to something and we can give them detentions!" she said excitedly, as an attempt to give Ron a reason to look forward to being Head Boy for a whole year.
He had complained earlier in the summer about the extra responsibilities and the fact that he and Harry wouldn't be able to go about "rebelling against the school" for their final year (and as in "school" he meant Professor Snape, of course.)
He evidently hadn't thought of the advantages he would have against Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle.
"All right! Let's get going then!" Ron happily agreed, forgetting to get a response to the mystery behind Harry and Ginny's staring contest. The two headed out of the compartment leaving Harry and Ginny with Neville and Luna, who briefly raised their heads from their game and muttered bye. Harry plopped down in the seat that was previously occupied by Ron but Ginny continued to stand and watch the back of her friend's bushy brown-haired head.
Before she slid the door shut, Hermione turned back, winked at Ginny and then she was gone.