A Special Sort

By Audny

A/N: So, I've decided to dive back into the world of fanfiction. I'm planning on making this story long. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything that goes along with it. That belongs to the magical J.K. Rowling.

Part 1: Summer at the Burrow

Ginny sat in the living room of the Burrow staring pensively out the window. In moments of solitude such as this one she would often dwell on the events at the Ministry at the end of last school year. Thinking about it still made her heart race and her chest tighten. Even back in the safety of the Burrow she was prone to occasional intense bouts of emotional turmoil.

Just yesterday she had been walking around the meadow nearby and had seen a large black stray dog. The sight of the dog alone had brought to mind Sirius, and Ginny had had to sit down right where she was on the beaten dirt path to attempt to prevent the tears welling up in her eyes from spilling out onto the dry ground.

Remembering that incident from her seat on the worn couch made Ginny's heart clench painfully. Nearly six weeks later, Ginny had finally stopped crying outright every time she thought about the horrible events of that night. The pain of Sirius' death had abated somewhat over the summer to a constant dull ache in her rib cage. This was bearable. It was not the sharp, hot pain that had come with every beat of her heart the first few days after. Or the feeling that someone was squeezing her heart in a vise that came whenever she thought of that night for the next several weeks. Talking with her family and the letters she had exchanged with Luna, Neville, Colin, Hermione and even Dumbledore over the summer had all helped her in coming to terms with the terrible incidents of that night. She had finally recovered enough that she would only rarely be moved to a fit of crying.

Ginny glanced up as her mother bustled into the room, straightening the picture frames on the mantel. Harry was coming to spend the last two weeks of summer at the Burrow and her mum had been cleaning all morning in order to make the house presentable for their guest.

At the thought of Harry, Ginny's chest tightened once more. She took a deep, steadying breath. Her mum glanced up at the sound of Ginny's shaky breath and gave her a concerned smile. Ginny did her best to muster up a brave smile for her mother before turning back to the window.

Her whole family had been rather wary of Ginny since the events at the Ministry. They seemed to think she was prone to explode into a crying fit from only the slightest provocation. While this had been true at the beginning of the summer, Ginny was now better in control of her emotions, even if they did still occasionally get away from her. The mention of Harry still had a huge lump rising in her throat though.

The thought of Harry always made Ginny want to scream or cry or do something. She was heartbroken when Sirius had died, as she had become rather close to the roughish man over the last summer spent at Grimould Place. She could only imagine how much Harry must be hurting over the loss of the only parental figure he had ever had.

Harry Potter was still a rather tricky subject for Ginny. Over the summer she had been trying to work out her own feelings toward him. She had thought she was over the ridiculous crush she had on him over her first three years of school. However, during the last year when she had actually gotten to know Harry, she had found that maybe the crush wasn't quite gone, but rather had evolved. Ginny no longer thought of Harry as some god-like figure meant to be worshiped. Over the past year, she had learned that he was just as human as anyone else. But as she was learning to know Harry as a person, she found that her feelings were not quite gone. He was so noble and self-effacing it was hard not to admire him.

Ginny had been thinking about this all summer and had finally worked out that she did still have some of those feelings from her first few years of Hogwarts that she thought she had gotten rid of. The fact that she wanted to cry out in anguish at the thought of how he felt about Sirius's death proved this theory. However, she had also decided that she only wanted to be his friend at this point. Only when she had accomplished that task would she reevaluate the more romantic side of her feelings for Harry.

Ginny thought to herself that perhaps she was growing up if she could put aside her feelings for a boy and decide to only be friends. The real test of this, however, was due to arrive later that afternoon.

OOOOOO

Later that day the remaining Weasleys were gathered in the kitchen waiting for Harry's arrival. That included Ginny, her mum and the twins. Ginny's dad and Ron had gone by floo powder to Harry's neighbor Mrs. Figg's house to fetch Harry. After the fiasco during the summer before Ginny's third year when her dad had tried to use floo powder to get directly into the Dursley's house and had ended up blowing a hole in the wall where the fireplace used to be, they all thought it would cause fewer problems to do it this way.

Her dad and Ron had left nearly twenty minutes ago and Ginny was practically quivering with anticipation . . . and nerves. She told herself repeatedly that it was no big deal that Harry was coming to visit. She wanted nothing more than to be friends with him after all. But she still found herself wondering if she could pull it off. After pining after Harry for nearly four years, Ginny had finally gotten over that and during the last year decided that Harry would be much more suitable as a friend than anything else. She had cut back drastically the number of fantasies she had about him professing his undying love to her in numerous heroic and romantic ways. She hadn't had one for months, as it were. She thought she was doing quite nicely in her attempts to set aside any romantic feelings for him. However over the summer, she had realized that her feelings were not as pure as she had thought them.

Ginny's reverie was broken as her brother came tumbling out of the fire place with Harry's trunk and landed sprawled on the floor.

"Oh, Ron dear," their mum said, sweeping over to help Ron to his feet and performing a quick cleaning charm on Ron's soot spotted clothing.

"I'm fine, Mum!" Ron was trying to get out from their mothers grasp as she attempted to wipe a smudge of soot from his nose. Ginny hid a smile behind her hand at Ron's struggle.

Her attention was soon diverted from her brother as a second figure, this one dark haired and not quite so tall, shot out of the fire place.

"Harry, dear! It's so good to see you again." Ginny's mum had abandoned Ron and helped Harry to his feet before embracing him warmly. The twins also rushed forward to shake hands with Harry as their father stepped a bit more gracefully out of the fire place.

Quite suddenly, a smiling Harry was in front of Ginny.

"Hey, Gin," he said. He gave her a quick embrace that left Ginny feeling a bit unstable and asked, "How's your summer been?"

Harry's smile was quite intoxicating and it took her a moment to realize he had asked her a question. So much for putting aside my feelings for Harry, Ginny thought ruefully as she shook herself mentally.

"Oh, it's been as well as can be expected, given the circumstances." She smiled slightly and congratulated herself on not going pink. A moment later though, she realized that she should not have said that, as Harry's face froze. Ginny silently cursed herself for her stupidity. Of course, Harry didn't want any kind of reminder about that night at the Ministry and here she was alluding to it with her careless comment. She was not doing well on her goal to be friends with Harry.

To Ginny's immense relief, Harry's face relaxed quickly and he gave her a slight smile before turning to see Ron gesturing to help him with the trunk. Harry and Ron soon disappeared from view. The twins followed shortly thereafter with their dad and Ginny was left in the kitchen with her mum, who had already begun pulling out pots to prepare dinner.

Her mum glanced back and smiled. "Would you like to help me with dinner, dear?"

"Sure, mum." Ginny took a knife out of the drawer and began chopping vegetables for a stew. As she was doing this, she resolved to not mention anything that could lead to thinking of the events at the end of last school year. She knew that would only serve to make Harry unhappy and that was the last thing she wanted. She only hoped that she had not put Harry in a brooding mood by her earlier comment.

As it turned out, Ginny had nothing to worry about. Harry seemed overjoyed to be away from his horrible aunt and uncle for the rest of the summer. He even came and took a seat next to Ginny at dinner.

They had eaten outside that night, as the weather was quite warm. It turned out to be a rather loud affair, as any Weasley meal tended to be. After dinner, their dad had taken a bite of a cream pastry sitting on the table for dessert. He abruptly took on the shape of a giant yellow canary.

"Uh, oh," muttered George. "Reckon we forgot to tell dad no to eat those."

"Lovely meal, Mum," Fred said quickly, rising from the table with George. "It's a bit late though. I think we'll just turn in for the night."

"Oh, no you don't, boys!" Molly Weasley was chasing her twin sons around the yard waving her wand and screaming. "YOU GET BACK HERE, FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! I'LL MAKE YOU SORRY YOU EVER–" The rest of it was cut off as Molly chased the twins around the other side of the house.

Ginny, Harry and Ron glanced once at each other and promptly erupted into a fit of laughing. The Arthur-Canary began calmly pecking at crumbs on the tablecloth while waiting for the effects of the twins' Canary Cream to wear off.

By the time their laughing had subsided to small chuckles every now and then, Arthur had returned to his normal state with a faint pop and hurried off after his wife, who was now hurling hexes as the twins, with a murmured, "I'd best see if I can calm her down a bit."

Ginny, Ron and Harry spend the rest of the evening in idle chatter around the table until there was little light left in the sky. Ginny felt a warm, satisfied glow building in her chest as she sat their with her brother and the boy she hoped she could call friend.

The pauses between sentences became longer as the shadows lengthened and abruptly Ron let out a loud yawn.

"Well, I'm off to bed." He stifled another yawn. "You coming, Harry?"

"You go ahead. I'll be along in a bit."

Ron nodded over another yawn and left the pair in the dusk.

After he left, Harry and Ginny sat in silence for bit. The silence dragged on for a few more minutes and Ginny began to wonder if Harry even remembered she was there. She was about to get up and leave him to his thoughts when he spoke.

"I wanted to ask you something, Ginny?"

Ginny's heart began beating rapidly. Maybe he wanted to talk about Sirius. Ginny knew Ron wasn't the type to talk to about that kind of stuff.

"What is it, Harry?" she asked with as much calm as she could muster.

"Well, it's nothing important really," he said quickly. "I was just wondering if you were still planning to play on the house team this year."

Ginny didn't let herself feel disappointment at not being the one Harry would confide in. Of course he didn't want to talk about his godfather with Ginny. They barely knew each other. Instead, she looked thoughtfully out at the lawn as she considered the question. She hadn't really thought about it. She had assumed that Harry would reclaim his position as seeker and she would go back to being an anonymous Gryffindor.

Harry must have taken her silence for a 'no' because he hurried to say, "You should really consider it. I'll hopefully be able to play again, since that awful Umbrige woman is gone, but you could train as a reserve seeker if you want, but then you wouldn't have much playing time. You could also try out to be a chaser. You've got the perfect build for it and what with Angelina and Alicia leaving we need to find strong chasers."

Ginny was a bit shocked to hear him say that she had the perfect build for a chaser, that he would even know what sort of build she had. But she supposed as a Quidditch player he kept an eye out for that type of thing. She couldn't take it as flattery. That wasn't what Harry had meant.

Noticing his inquiring look, she smiled briefly at him. "Well, I hadn't really considered it," she said honestly. "Now that you bring it up though, I might try out."

He smiled suddenly. "Good. It be a waste not to have someone with your talent on the team." He stood up and stretched. Ginny couldn't help but admire how defined his chest looked when his shirt was stretched over it. "Well, I think I'll turn in. See you in the morning."

"Night," Ginny answered and watched him make his way back to the house. Ginny stayed where she was for a bit thinking about that last exchange. It was the probably the longest conversation they had ever had alone together. Although it wasn't by any standards long, it was still nice to think that they had potential for more private conversations. And Harry had said she had talent at Quidditch! The thought of that almost made her giddy, but she reigned in her emotions. He had only said it as a fellow Quidditch player and friend. She would not think of him as anything but a friend. That was all she wanted. It was.

OOOOOO

The next few days passed with leisurely monotony. Ginny had suggested practicing Quidditch the next day and Harry, Ron and the twins jumped at the idea. From then on they had made it a habit to play Quidditch every afternoon and then they sat around talking in the evenings. Although the subjects of conversation had stayed light, Ginny felt like she was becoming a closer friend to Harry. Ron and Harry did still disappear together from time to time, but they included Ginny more and more often in their activities as the week went on.

After nearly a week, Ron got an owl from Hermione saying that her parents would let her come to the Burrow for the last week of summer. He had invited her earlier but she was away on holiday with her parents.

Ginny was slightly worried that, when Hermione arrived and the threesome was back together, they would begin excluding her more often. When Hermione arrived the next day, she found that fear unnecessary. Ginny had always gotten on well with Hermione and found that she was included even more often with Hermione present than before.

This acceptance was demonstrated one day when the threesome had decided to go to Diagon Alley for a bit of shopping. Ginny was sitting in the kitchen flipping through the Daily Prophet trying not to pay attention to the bustle going on around her. Her brother and his two friends had been planning this since the night before. They had never expressly invited Ginny though and she assumed they wanted to go without her.

"Harry!" Ron called. "Hurry up! We haven't got all bloody day!"

Ginny glanced up at the sound of Hermione tutting at Ron's rude call. She quickly looked back down at her paper though, as Harry walked in. She would not appear disappointed not to be invited.

As they gathered around the fireplace Ron looked up. "You ready, Gin?"

Ginny had to use every ounce of control she possessed not to jump up and run over to the fireplace. Instead, she folded the paper as slowly as she could and walked calmly over to them.

"Sure am," she said.

After that, Ginny felt like she really was one of the group and she stopped worrying so much about whether or not she was welcome.

With her summer going so well, Ginny was rather sdisappointed to hear her mother remind them to begin packing their belongings at dinner on the evening before their last day of summer. (Although Ginny was to be a prefect, about which she was rather excited).

"Remember to have everything packed early tomorrow. We're having guests over for dinner," Molly had said over the kitchen table that evening.

"Who's coming over, Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked.

"We thought it would be nice to put together a bit of an end of summer celebration for you kids." She smiled kindly at him. "We've invited a few friends. Remus, Tonks, and a few others from the Order."

"Oh," said Harry. "It will be nice to see Professor Lupin again. And the others."

"Yes, of course, dear." Molly said, smiling encouragingly.

Ginny glanced worriedly at Harry. The Order of the Phoenix had not been mentioned since Harry's arrival. Everyone seemed to realize that he didn't want to talk about it or the loss it, and he, had suffered. It appeared that Harry hadn't made this connection though. He was talking excitedly with Ron and Hermione about seeing his old friends again. Ginny heard Ron mutter that he hoped Snape hadn't been invited.

The next day could only be described as organized mayhem. Molly was running about dropping off clean laundry and dusting the house at the same time. The upper floors of the house were hectic, what with Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry all gathering their things and packing them into trunks. Molly had insisted they have everything packed that morning because they would have no time between the dinner that night and leaving early the next morning to finish packing.

There was a loud crash and a scream from the direction of Ron's room and Ginny and Hermione went to investigate. It took Ginny a minute to realize what had happened and when she did she burst out laughing.

"Oh Ron, what happened?" Hermione managed to sound concerned between giggles.

The room was strewn with clothing and Harry and Ron were laying in a tangle on the floor. Pigwigdeon was fluttering about excitedly while Harry's Hedwig looked on disapprovingly. It appeared that Pig had, in his excitement over packing, knocked his cage off its stand and onto Harry's trunk which in turn was knocked off it's seat on his bed and emptied onto the floor.

Ginny and Hermione hurried forward to help the boys up, still giggling a bit. Once they had righted themselves and shoved most of Harry's belongings back into his trunk they decided to stop for a break and headed down to the kitchen.

"Oh their you are, dears." Molly looked up from the huge pot she was stirring. "I've made sandwiches for lunch." She gestured vaguely at the plates of sandwiches on the table.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said. Molly smiled and bustled out of the kitchen.

The four teenagers sat down at the table and began to eat.

"Who do you s'pose our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be?" Ron asked around a bite of food.

"Dunno," Harry said, "but whoever it is, it's got to be better than the last one."

"Perhaps they'll get someone from the Order for the position," Hermione suggested. "It would make sense."

"Maybe Lupin will be able to come back," Ginny said wistfully. "He's the best we've had so far."

"Yeah," said Harry. "But someone would surely have told us if he was taking the position."

Ginny nodded at that and the four lapsed into thoughtful silence.

OOOOOO

It was much later that evening when Ginny was lying in the dark in her room that she allowed herself to fully consider the events of the night.

It had started out wonderfully. Lupin and Tonks had arrived first. It was so good to see them again. Tonks had appeared with bright fuchsia hair that she preceded to change every half hour or so. Mad-Eye Moody had also come, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Dinner was a joyous event with much talk and all around a good mood. The twins didn't even do anything that made Molly begin yelling at them. Well, nothing she found out about.

It was all absolutely lovely until late that evening after everyone had left. Ginny was sitting outside on the porch with the Harry, Ron and Hermione when someone brought up the Order. Ginny wasn't sure how the subject first came about, but as soon as it was, she could feel her good spirits draining.

"What do you s'pose they're up to now?" Ron had asked.

Hermione had answered in a reasonable voice. "I'd imagine their doing their best to prevent Voldemort from gaining supporters."

"He's already got more than he should have," Harry had said then, his voice stony. After a pause he said in barely more than a whisper, "There should have been some way to prevent him dying."

They had all looked at him quickly to see him stare brooding out into the night. It was the first time he had mentioned Sirius around Ginny since his death and her heart nearly burst to hear it. She had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself and she saw Ron and Hermione looking nervously at him.

Abruptly he stood.

"I think I'll turn in then." With that he went inside and hurried up to his room. Ron and Hermione shared a nervous look before Hermione suggested they all do that, given that they would be rising early the next morning. Ginny had watched as they went inside, but hadn't followed.

Ginny knew how much it helped to talk things through with friends and family, and she had wanted to talk to Harry about that night at the Ministry since he first came to the Burrow, but she had held back, knowing he wouldn't want to talk about it. Now he had brought it up himself and it nearly broke Ginny's heart to hear the pain in his voice.

After everyone else had gone to bed, she had sat on the porch as hot tears slid down her cheeks. It wasn't the kind of choking sob she had had right after the events at the ministry, but rather the silent crying of someone who didn't have the energy left for big sobs.

And so she had sat outside, staring out at the night for nearly an hour before wiping her eyes and walking slowly up to the room she was sharing with Hermione. Ginny lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling for a long time before finally falling asleep.

Little did she know that another set of eyes, these ones a deep emerald green, were also staring up at the ceiling for much of the night.

OOOOOO

TBC