"How did you know?"

I found myself saying the words, but the voice was not my own – it came from far away, from somewhere deep inside me that I never even knew existed.

Her eyes were sparkling and bright but as I stared into them I found that I could not read them. My heart had leapt up into my mouth and then settled somewhere in the throat region, and it seemed that it was doing the talking now.

The words hung in the air for a moment, and then suddenly she smiled, the radiance spreading across her face as she glowed with an internal beauty that I cannot even begin to describe. The merest chuckle escaping from her lips, and her eyes, which had seemed so alive to me already now danced and shone with a new fire, a passion that I had never seen before.

It was like a veil had fallen from in front of me and I could finally see her properly, and I wondered why I had ever been afraid of this moment. Her mirth made her seem even more beautiful to me in the fading light, for somehow I know she was not laughing at me, she was laughing for me.

"How did I know? Oh Harry, how couldn't I have known?"

Then she laughed properly, and the sound was music to my ears. I felt all the tension melt away, gone were the uncertainties that had plagued my mind, gone was the fear and the doubt, and I laughed too. I laughed at my own stupidity, I laughed at the absurdity of the situation, and most of all I laughed with relief, relief that everything was now out in the open and she did not seem to hate me, in fact she was happy about it.

We laughed as the rain continued to pound on the windows, and even though I still had no idea what was coming, I felt happier then than I had in a long while. My burden that I had borne constantly was lifted, and whatever happened now I was glad that she finally knew.

"Oh Harry..." she said, shaking her head a little in a gesture I knew all too well. It meant that as usual I had missed something completely obvious that clearly any fool should have known, and she would now have to explain it to me.

She smiled again. "Must I do everything around here...?"

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Ron slept soundly that night for the first time in a long while, but now it was Harry who was lying awake. As if his problem with Ginny wasn't enough now Ron had thrust this revelation upon him. He had gone over it in his mind but he could honestly say that he had had no idea that anything could possibly be going on between his two best friends, let alone for so long.

As he turned the thoughts over and over in his mind eventually he found himself becoming drowsier, and he remembered nothing more until he was woken by the morning sun streaming through the gap in the curtains on his four-poster bed the next morning.

He rubbed his eyes sleepily and then grabbed his glasses from the bedside table, putting them on and looking around the room. It was empty. Worried that he had overslept he dressed hurriedly and grabbed his wand, hurrying down the stairs and through the common room.

"Harry!" a voice called just as he was reaching the portrait hole. It was Ginny. She got up from one of the armchairs by the fireplace and looked at him.

"Okay, you caught me..." Harry said, holding out his arms.

Ginny scowled at him. "Well I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to hiding and lying in wait in the common room just to talk to you Harry," she responded. "But we still do need to talk."

"Yeah, I suppose we do," Harry said nervously, and sat down in an armchair opposite her.

For a while they said nothing, they just looked at each other.

"So," Harry said cautiously, "you err... still... you still... like me then." He looked around nervously, hoping he hadn't completely misread her intentions.

She softened a little. "Yes Harry I do, I always have. Even back when you hardly even knew I existed."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that..." Harry said, deciding that apologising was the best strategy. "But Hermione said you weren't interested," he said, remembering suddenly. "She said you'd accepted it was never going to happen and that's why you were going out with other people."

Ginny sighed. "Harry, have you ever considered that maybe she said that because it was in her own best interests, or because she thought it was what you needed to hear?"

Harry frowned a little as he tried to decode this. He wasn't entirely sure but it seemed that she was suggesting that there was something between him and Hermione.

"People don't always say what they're really feeling Harry."

"Yeah, I'm starting to find that out," Harry said, thinking of Cho.

"The truth is Harry I never really liked Michael, I suppose I was just trying to get your attention or to make you jealous. When that didn't seem to be working I thought that using someone closer to you might do it, so I settled on Dean, but it still seemed to have no effect, except for giving Ron a few tantrums. You were always hung up on Cho, but even after she dumped you, you still didn't seem to notice me. I felt that I had to just come right out and ask you, because you just didn't seem to be getting the message, so here we are..." She looked at him expectantly.

"Ginny, I'm sorry, I just never thought of you that way..." Harry said, sure that it was the wrong thing to say but unable to think of something better.

This seemed to anger her. "What did I have to do Harry? I was there for you, I joined the DA, I even went with you to the Department of Mysteries, I fought alongside you Harry. What did I have to do to get you to notice me?" She glared at him.

Harry was starting to feel uncomfortable. He thought this whole thing with Ginny was happening altogether too fast and too unexpectedly. "I noticed you..." he said feebly.

"Oh please Harry! I was never anything to you, I was just Ron's shy little sister and that's all you ever let me be. There was always you, Ron and Hermione and I was always on the outside, it didn't matter what I did or how much I grew up, you never took me seriously."

"I'm sorry..." Harry said, realizing that everything she was saying was true. He knew how wrapped up he had been in his own things, and important though they had been he had never once let Ginny in, not even when it was obvious that she could help. "Look Ginny, it's-"

"-Never going to happen? I'm realizing that now Harry, believe me. And when I think of all the time I've wasted on you. You may be a hero Harry, but there's more to life than that. Look I'm not going to hold it against you, I'm ready to move on even though it hurts me to let go. I appreciate what you've been through and how difficult things are for you, and maybe there's just no room for me in that. I just want to know one thing, is the reason you never showed an interest in me because of Hermione?"

Harry's mind was swirling, but the bottom line seemed to be that Ginny was over him now. He still wasn't sure what he thought, but he didn't think he felt anything more for her than friendship and gratitude. When she mentioned Hermione however, he felt angry.

"Hermione! You're just like Cho, you're all the same! Why does everyone think that something's going on between me and Hermione?" Harry glared at her angrily, he was sick and tired of this.

"Oh Harry, if you can't even see that then I feel sorry for you." Ginny said, and there was pity in her voice. She stood up and turned to leave.

"How can I like Hermione if Ron's the one who kissed her?" Harry asked desperately, forgetting that he had promised Ron he wouldn't tell anyone.

Ginny turned to look at him and raised her eyebrows. "Really? Well that does explain a lot." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then... "Goodbye Harry," she said as she walked to the portrait hole and stepped outside, leaving Harry sitting in the common room alone.

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