Chapter 2- It's a date

It was late one Wednesday night and Harry sat on his couch, a firewhiskey in one hand and a copy of Quidditch Monthly in the other. Harry hadn't really been given the opportunity to talk to or see Ginny since the incident at The Burrow. When he got back to the group, there were too many people to really have a private moment, and any chance he got for one of those seemed to be dodged by Ginny as if she were avoiding the plague. Harry hadn't meant the things he said the way they had come out. The truth was Harry knew what he wanted. Mostly, at least, Harry knew Ginny was the one he wanted to end up with, but for some reason Harry couldn't bring himself to make it official.

It was partly because Harry had lost so many people already. Even Dumbledore died a year after Voldermort's defeat. Another reason was that everything was compared to the times of Voldermort. Even years later Voldermort had a descent amount of control over Harry's life. The problem was, Harry didn't see how he was letting it control him.

A week after being at The Burrow, Harry wrote to Ginny, but Hedwig hadn't returned, leaving Harry completely alone. Harry was starting to wonder as it had been four days.

Ginny walked through the front door of her flat Thursday evening, three grocery bags hanging off each arm. "Cathryn," Ginny called out while kicking the door shut behind her.

"What," a girl with short blonde hair said, coming out of the kitchen, wand in one hand, a cookbook in the other. "Hey, do you know how to get the wisk to move around instead of just back and forth?"

"Yes but could you help me put these away first?" Ginny asked.

"Sure, sure," Cathryn said, setting the book on an end table and grabbing a few of the bags. Leading the way through the kitchen and into the dinning room to place the bags on the table, Cathryn had a large smile on her face as she watched her batter mix, even if the utensil wasn't moving just right.

"Thanks," Ginny said taking a breath before starting to put away some of the food. "So you started some adventures in the culinary arts while I was gone," Ginny commented with a reciprocated smile.

"I had to do something for a week and a half," Cathryn said.

"It's not my fault Lance wanted to send me on assignment," Ginny said, then looked thoughtfully, holding cans of vegetables in each hand. "Com to think of it, it's not my fault the regular columnist was away on maternity leave," Ginny added in a bit of a whine. "I feel so old," Ginny said, letting out a few forced and utterly pathetic sobs, sitting at the dining room table.

"Don't you dare, Ginny," Cathryn said, putting a box of cookies down to go to her roommate's aide. "I'm a year older than you, and twenty-three is not old."

"But," Ginny sighed, giving her a moment to pause and think of how to explain this." Don't you ever feel like, like all you've ever wanted is a dinner with variety that will satisfy you and give you energy, but all you end up with is a dry baked potato?"

Cathryn looked at Ginny a bit confused. She wasn't dumb by any means, but the metaphorical sometimes slipped past her brainy mind. "I can try making mashed potatoes instead," Cathryn offered, wondering how Ginny knew what was in the oven… maybe there was more to the cooking thing than she realized.

"No, no," Ginny said, stopping Cathryn from getting up to explore another new horizon in the kitchen. "I mean, I'm twenty-two years old and the closest thing I have to a relationship is an ex-boyfriend who expects me to do things with him as if we were still dating." Ginny sighed thinking of that night. Ginny had to admist she was grateful Felicia and Julia weren't there to butt in right now. There was no doubt the only success they would have would be at making Ginny feel worse about the situation.

"Come on, Gin," Cathryn said, adjusting her dark brown square glasses. "Don't be so hard on yourself. You still have Harry."

Ginny rolled her eyes and stood to put the milk away. "He hasn't even written to me," Ginny said dejected. "I think I just need to face the fact that it won't happen."

"OH!" Cathryn exclaimed standing up. "You've got a bunch of owls in our room! And one of the owls stayed… a pretty white one. Sweet thing really," Cathryn said, trailing off as she went to check on the potatoes.

"Great," Ginny muttered to herself, walking towards the room she shared with Cathryn. Cathryn had been right, on the desk were a pile of owls, most likely from Lance more than anyone, and Hedwig had made a perch for herself on the edge of Ginny's day bed. "Hey there," Ginny said, walking over to the bird and stroking Headwig's feathers. Just because Ginny was upset with Harry, didn't mean she was about to take it out on Harry. In fact, over time Ginny had managed to bring herself in a dead tie with Harry over the first place position of Hedwig's affections.

Hedwig hooted and moved towards the letters as if urging Ginny to open them quickly. First, Ginny sorted through the letters, placing personal ones in a separate pile from the ones from work, or papers from the ministry that she probably had to fill out for some stupid reason or another. Witch registration was really a pain, in Ginny's opinion. Seeing as four of the letters were from her mother (this was no surprise to Ginny as Molly was endlessly writing letters to keep in contact with her children), one from Hermione, and one from Harry. "Suppose I should open this first," Ginny said out loud, getting a hoot of agreement from Hedwig.

Opening it carefully, Ginny braced herself for whatever it's content held.

Dear Ginny,

I had been hoping to talk to you in person, but it doesn't seem like that will happen. I apologize for what I said the other night, and I want to make it clear that I didn't mean it that way. You mean a lot to me and I don't want to lose you in any way. Please… I want to talk to you.

Harry

Ginny took a breath and pulled out a piece of paper and a few treats for Hedwig. Giving Hedwig one of the treats Ginny put her quill to paper.

Dear Harry,

I don't know when we can talk. I've tried to talk to you before now and it feels like I'm talking to a wall. I hope you'll understand if I try sorting a few things out in my mind before rushing over.

Love,

Ginny

Ginny seriously considered rewriting this and excluding the word 'love' in the closing, but decided against it. No matter what Harry had done to her so far, Ginny knew she still loved him. Folding it in thirds, Ginny gave Hedwig two more treats and the letter before opening the letter for her to leave with whenever she was ready. Hedwig flew out the window and Ginny went back through sorting mail. She read her mother's letters and wrote one long response, hoping it would satisfy Mrs. Weasley for the time being. Ginny was determined to go home for a family dinner that weekend. Most of the owls from work were memos Ginny had already been filled in on, so she merely placed those in the trash until she came to one letter.

Ginny,

Here are some tickets I got to the Halloween ball for Quidditch international. They sent them to me, and I figured you deserved it.

Lance

Ginny smiled as she took out two tickets. She didn't know if she felt up to going to this with Harry, and who else would she take? Fred or George? There were actually two problems with that; the twins wouldn't be split on a day like Halloween, and either one she'd take probably wouldn't take it seriously, seeing as this would be a rather fancy event.

Just as she was getting out a paper to decline the offer, Cathryn came into the room. "Dinner's ready. Anything interesting," Cathryn inquired, flour all over her face and down the bright pink apron she was wearing.

"Just some tickets to a party that I won't be going to," Ginny said, continuing her pity fest.

"A party? Why not?" Cathryn asked.

"Because I don't want to go alone and I don't want to find a date," Ginny told her.

"Take me!" Cathryn said enthusiastically.

"What? I don't know," Ginny said, taking a second thought on the idea.

"ME ME! Come on, Ginny, we could have fun. Besides, we could always be the mysterious girls that came alone," Cathryn said.

"You've been reading too many trashy romance novels," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. Taking a deep breath, Ginny turned back to Cathryn. "Alright then; Cathryn Trenter, will you be my date to the upcoming Halloween Quidditch International ball?"

"With pleasure," Cathryn answered with a silly smile on. "Now, let's go eat dinner before it gets cold."

Harry took the floo network straight to The Burrow after getting Ginny's response. He wondered what had taken so long and why Hedwig had seemed to gain some weight in her time away. Knowing he'd have to ask someone else for those answers, Harry decided to just see what Ron thought in the mean time. When Ginny and Harry had first started dating, Ron took problems between the two hard. He was torn between beating up Harry for making his baby sister upset and consoling his best friend.

After a while, Ron was able to do both, in a sense. It was actually quite impressive. Harry hated it when Ron was away, though, because he'd have to seek him out for a solution. The Chudley Cannons had ended their season, but Ron had taken to staying at home for his mum's cooking and ended up getting stuck with wedding plans. When Harry arrived this night, Ron had snuck into the kitchen as Hermione and Molly went over seating.

"Harry!" Ron said. "You've come to save me!"

Before Harry could respond, Ron was making his excuses to his mother and fiancé, then dragging Harry out into the garden. "What was that about?" Harry asked.

"It all started with cake, Harry… with CAKE!" Ron said. "They just suck you in by your taste buds, and then your bloody stuck talking about where Uncle Alphie should be sitting because he doesn't get along with Cousin Winifred. I can't take it, Harry, I just can't take it."

"Calm down, Ron, it's a wedding, not the end of the world," Harry said, the irony sinking in.

"Easy for you to say," Ron scoffed. "I'm telling you… elope with Ginny, it'll so much easier."

"About Ginny," Harry said, scratching the back of his head.

"What? Is she okay?" Ron asked, unsure of what Harry meant.

"Yes… at least I think so. I think I may have messed some things up," Harry said.

"What this time?" Ron asked, wondering why he couldn't get away from dull conversations and get back to cake sampling.

"I don't know," Harry said, honestly confused, and not wanting to tell Ron about the night of his nephew's birthday party. "I told her I wanted a break, but now I'm not sure that's what I really expected."

"What wasn't what you expected?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry said.

"How do you expect me to understand if you don't?" Ron asked. "I don't know isn't an answer, so decide what you want, but I don't know if Ginny's going to wait forever," Ron said truthfully. It had been his fear when Harry had told him of the decision to break up with Ginny for a bit that Ginny would move on, as she had with others, and that Harry would regret that for the rest of his life. "I think you just need to decide what you want and tell Ginny," Ron said.

"You're right," Harry said, "but how do I tell what I want? How did you know Hermione was the right one?"

"Other than the fact that everyone kept telling us?" Ron asked. "Well…every time I wasn't around Hermione and she popped up in my thoughts something inside of me hurt. It was like I hadn't eaten in days. Then when I saw her… it was like the Opening Feast at Hogwarts," Ron explained, relating everything to food.

Harry listened, trying to pinpoint that with Ginny. Something kept clouding his mind to be able to do so, probably the idea that he couldn't protect her the way he wanted to, or perhaps just that he'd be responsible for everything if he screwed something up if he did feel that way. "I see," Harry merely replied, not knowing what else to say.

"You'll know when you know," Ron said, already knowing Ginny and Harry were perfect for each other. For one thing, no one else could put Harry in his place quite the way Ginny managed to.

"Yeah," Harry said, standing taller and walking towards the open field area near the picnic table. "Do you want to play around a bit?"

"As long as we don't start talking about the reception, I'm game," Ron said, ready to grab some brooms.

A/N: There's the end of chapter 2! I think I'll be writing the next chapter now, because it's all in my head! Amazing, isn't it??? Okay… please Review. I know it might seem like a hassle, but I'd do it for you… really I would.

Thank you:

Dadswell: I love that pairing too, but I've lately found myself in a kick of wanting to read DG… crazy huh? I like the whole forbidden love idea, of course… I'm such a romantic. Anyway… thank you for being my only reviewer for chapter one…

Shouts WHERE ARE YOU JAMIEBELL???