A/N: All right, if you're reading this, it must mean that fanfiction dot net has stopped refusing to allow me to log on. Which would be great, really, as I find it annoying not to be able to log in. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 6:

The Weasley Temper

Once they had all entered the room to work on their next chapter, Ginny offered to write the author's note and disclaimer.

"A/N Thanks to all of our readers and reviewers, specifically the reviewers for last chapter, each of whom will now be addressed personally in an effort to demonstrate that I've got nothing better to do with my time.

Mimbulus: Yeah... we liked the last chapter too. And, about how happy you are about Ron and Hermione, I would just like to register that you only say that because you don't have to live with them. The two of them are becoming rather annoying to be around now...

koira: We're glad we're amusing. About the congratulations to Ron/Hermione... see above.

voicesinmyhead: Yeah, the angst stuff was more fun to write about than expected.

threatenedwriter: And we're still flattered that you think it's funny.

ashvaultrosegarden: You're request is absolutely the only reason why I'm the one writing this author's note. : )

rubberduckiesofdoom: Yeah, this fic is great to write, and doesn't require too much thought. We're glad you like it anyway though. : )

gigifanfic: Interesting question. We're glad you like it, and will definitely keep it going for a good long time.

Disclaimer: Actually, at the moment, I am J.K. Rowling, as I just had Hermione brew some polyjuice potion. Okay, fine. You caught me. That's not true. Hermione has refused to mess around with Polyjuice since that incident with the cat's hair. Oh well, guess it's like they always say: "It's all fun and games until someone gets turned into a hairy half-cat mutant."

"That last bit wasn't funny," complained Hermione. "That was a very traumatic experience, that was. Plus, how are Ron and I annoying?"

Ginny said nothing, in spite of the fact that even at that very moment, Ron and Hermione were holding hands even though doing so was completely unnecessary and only served to highlight the fact that they were going out. This annoyed Ginny, because she was never much of a fan of public displays of affection. Especially not when one of the participants was also her brother. And especially not when she was wondering just when the hell she was going to get another owl from Dean, who hadn't been responding to her letters. The reason that Dean had not been responding to her letters was that the author is a Ginny/Harry shipper and wants to start the groundwork to bring that about in a future chapter. Although the author does not want to ruin the surprise. So, just forget that he said anything about it.

"Right," said Harry, attempting to break the tension even though he too was somewhat annoyed with Hermione and Ron as well, especially as their recent coupling meant that he was the only one of the four of them who was not going out with anyone. "Anyway," he continued, "what're we going to do in this chapter then?"

"Well... one of the reviewers seems to think that summer should be over soon, and I happen to agree. We've spent 5 chapters on it so far. So, I think we should try to get ourselves on the Hogwarts express by chapter 8. Which means that this chapter will be a very busy one. The two major things that we need to accomplish during this chapter are the official beginning of Harry's relationship with Ginny and Harry's birthday party. Let's do the beginning of the relationship first. Ginny, do you want to write that since you're already at the computer?"

"Sure, what are the requirements?" asked Ginny.

"Well... in any fanfiction where Ginny and Harry end up going out, it seems to be necessary to have you stick your elbow in a butter-dish, because all the fanfiction authors seem to have thought that was hilarious when it happened in book two. And, apparently, none of them can think of anything more amusing than a butterdish for you to accidentally stick your elbow into. Although, if you can, feel free. Just make sure to stick your elbow somewhere to show how awkward you feel around Harry in this pre-romance phase. And then you're supposed to demonstrate the Weasley temper by yelling at Harry for shutting out everyone who's trying to help him. At this point, to lay some more foundation for Harry's attraction to you, you've got to explain that Harry realizes that you're actually rather sexy when you're angry. Then you've got to patiently explain to Harry that he should get on with it and enjoy life because everything that he had ever done was actually the Dark Lor'ds fault fault and so he has nothing to feel bad about. Then, you have to explain how at that moment, Harry realizes what an idiot he's been for not asking you out sooner, after which he asks you out. After that, of course, you kiss, although, according to fanfiction rules, you must use the word "snog" instead of kiss, because fanfiction writers like to show off their limited knowledge of British slang whenever possible."

"Right. Okay then, this should be interesting," said Ginny. She began to type.

"Because Ron and Hermione were dating, Harry and Ginny had more time to spend together. This was convenient, because it allowed Ginny and Harry to feel very awkward one morning when they were eating breakfast together. Or, at any rate, Ginny felt awkward. Harry felt depressed, because that's what he was best at. But that would soon change.

Anyway. Ginny, who always found her elbows to go totally out of control when she was around Harry, noticed one of her elbows making its way through the air toward the butter-dish. But she could absolutely not allow herself to relive that particular humiliation. So, she jerked her elbow away from the butter-dish forcefully. This had seemed like a good plan, until that same elbow hit Harry in the stomach. Really, she probably should have paid a little more attention to which direction she had been jerking her

elbow.

"What was that for?" asked Harry, who had momentarily forgotten that he was supposed to be depressed.

Ginny decided that apologizing for elbowing Harry in the stomach would make her seem stupid, and she didn't want that. So, she decided to try to pass it off like it had been intentional. "You deserved that for the way you've been shutting everybody out lately. We're your friends, and we're trying to help you. And if you don't let us, that elbowing in the stomach will be nothing compared to what I'll do to you."

"Erm. Well. If you put it that way... help all you want," said Harry uncertainly.

"Okay. What I'm going to tell you now will make you see the error of your ways and show you how stupid you've been for feeling so guilty over Sirius' death. And remember, if it doesn't, then I'm going to beet you up," said Ginny seriously.

"Erm..." Harry repeated. For some reason, Harry was rather turned awn by seeing this flaring of temper from Ginny. Then, he suddenly remembered that he shouldn't be turned on yet because Ginny had not yet comforted him, so he should be too busy being depressed to be turned on.

"Harry," began Ginny, "you should not feel guilty about Sirius' death, because Sirius' death was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's fault. So was Cedric's death, if you're still on about that. And so are the countless other deaths that will surely take place before He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is caught, just to preempt you feeling bad for any of those," added Ginny cheerfully.

"Thanks Ginny, that helped much more than would be realistically plausible and actually cured me of my angst. It rather makes sense that you would be the one to cheer me up, even though I'm much closer with Ron and Hermione, and... most of the other Gryffindor's in my year now that I think of it. It must be because of your Weasley temper, which you inherited from your mother even though she was not a Weasley until she married your father, who has no noticeable temper at all," said Harry.

At that moment, of course, Harry realized that he should ask Ginny to start going with him. He rather wondered why he had not done that before, considering that he had realized that he liked her all the way back in chapter 2. It must have been because he is charmingly okkward around girls in spite of the fact that he is famous, good-looking, and very skilled at Quidditch.

Harry said, "Hey, Ginny... Do you want to go out with me?"

Ginny, instead of answering, simply snogged him, partially because she couldn't think of anything effective to say and partially because she had been waiting for five years to snog him and thus wasn't going to delay the event any longer than necessary.

"I'll take that as a yes," grinned Harry. "Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry I killed Errol. I'll buy you guys a new owl."

"We're not angry that you killed Errol. It's not your fault, you know. Clearly, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named made you do it," comforted Ginny.

"What? No, he didn't. That was my fault. Not everything I do is Voldemort's fault," countered Harry.

"Don't be silly," said Ginny. "Of course it is. And don't say the name. But, of course, you can't help doing it. He's obviously making you do that, too.""

Ginny looked up from the screen. "That should do it, I think," she said. "With 3 spelling errors too!"

"Okay," said Hermione. "I might as well type the next bit. It's supposed to be about Harry's party. But before I type it, we've got to decide a couple of things about it."

"Like what?" asked Ron.

"Well... first of all, what the theme should be. The most popular option seems to be that it will be a pool-party, even though none of us actually owns a pool. The main reason for this, it seems, is so that the author can write about the main characters in their bathing-suits."

"Er... a pool-party works I guess..." said Harry.

"All right. Now. You said you don't want Cho to show up in this story, right? Because if she was going to show up at all, the best time to introduce her into the plot would be in this chapter, obviously in a bikini, to more easily turn Harry on," Hermione explained.

"But we just wrote that Harry and I are going out," said Ginny in a way that seemed to suggest that she was more jealous than was rational at the prospect of fanfiction-Harry seeing fanfiction-Cho in a bikini.

"That doesn't matter," said Hermione. "I saw one story where the birthday-party featured you, me, and Cho all in bikinis. I decided I didn't want to see where it was going, so I stopped reading, but I wouldn't have been surprised if the chapter ended with an orgy."

"Oooh, no. We're keeping Cho out of this. Our pairings are you and Ron and me and Ginny," said Harry definitively.

"Okay, it's probably better that way anyway, I was just making sure you knew your options," said Hermione. She then began to type.

"After a large amount of time was skipped flat out due to the authors' desire to get the main characters to Hogwarts in a reasonable amount of time, it was Harry's birthday. The Weasleys threw him a surprise party which involved bathing-suits and some body of water such as a pool or a layk. The actual nature of the bawdy of water is not important as long as its presence gives Harry the opportunity to see Ginny in a bikini, although the author is rather baphled by where Ginny would have gotten a bikeeni. Hermione was also wearing a bikini in spite of the fact that she doesn't even own one.

Both Harry and Ron were very happy about the clothing arrangements and were also reinforced in their belief that they had made good decisions in their choices of girlfriends. It is important to stress here that both Harry and Ron are just as shallow as Ginny and Hermione are attractive. And considering how sexy Hermione and Ginny are, they must be as shallow as puddles. Very shallow puddles."

"Okay," said Hermione, grinning, "I would just like to point out that I'm not being immodest. It is the general consensus of the fanfiction community that Ginny and I are smoking hot."

"But, none of the fanfiction authors have seen you, have they?" asked Ron stupidly.

Hermione, of course, took this as an insult. "Are you saying that they'd think differently if they had?" she asked. "Ron, I think we've got to have a talk in another room. Harry, Ginny, that'll be it for tonight, we'll write the O.W.L. results and the trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow night, so could you just put an ending author's note on here?"

"Sure," said Harry, as he sympathetically watched a very confused Ron following an angry looking Hermione out of the room.

"Wow. They've only been going out for two days and he's already in trouble," said Harry.

"Yeah," said Ginny. "Poor Ron. Doesn't even know what he's said wrong."

"For what it's worth, I'm sure that the fanfiction writers are right in their assessment that you would look great in a bikini," said Harry, grinning.

"Why thank you," said Ginny, smiling sweetly. "And I agree with them that you're more shallow than a puddle."

They laughed together, and then looked into each-other's eyes. For a moment, Harry forgot that Ginny was dating Dean. Then he kicked himself mentally and decided that forgetting that was a dumb thing to do and that it could only lead to embarrassing situations. But those situations would have to wait until next chapter because Harry had regained his composure, looked away from Ginny and begun to type the following author's note.

A/N: Right, well, that'll be it for this chapter, considering that the two love-birds are off having an argument which the other two authors feel strangely compelled to go eavesdrop on.

And then, Ginny and Harry left the room in hot pursuit of Ron and Hermione.

A/N from Gryffindor777: All right. Fanfiction dot net is finally letting me log in again (yay!), so here's the new chapter. The next chapter might be up tomorrow night, but I'm currently having a bit of trouble writing it. Anyway, thanks for reading!