Summary: She thought she was over him; but one adventure-filled school year later, old feelings started to resurface...
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Pottter characters; they are all product of JK Rowling's imagination.
PhoenixRae's Note: Chapter 3 is currently being typed. I don't know how soon I'll upload that chapter. The ball starts to get rolling in that chapter.
II. Why Are You Avoiding Me?
HARRY ARRIVED at the Burrow two and a half weeks into the summer holidays. He was close to pulling his hairs out at the Dursleys from boredom. He was itching for some news from the wizarding world, but none came. The letters he received from Ron and Hermione were vague and far between. The last letter he received was from Hermione; she sent it to him a week into the holidays. She had been invited to stay at the Burrow for the remainder of the summer while her parents took a trip to Australia and New Zealand. Harry wished he was at the Burrow right now stuffing himself with good, home cooked meals prepared by Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley.
He was beginning to lose hope of ever leaving the Dursley to go stay with anyone of his wizard friends. Heck, he'd even stay at Sirius' old family home even if it pained him to be around there after what happened a month ago just to get out of this place. He couldn't get over what went down in the basement of the Ministry of Magic and how, in his naïve, careless ways he lost another person that meant a lot to him.
Harry was brought out of his self-imposed misery (he had been berating himself since that night at the Ministry) when he heard Hedwig's ardent hooting. The snowy white owl swooped in to his widely open bedroom window bearing a rolled-up piece of parchment tied to her leg. Harry perked up when he saw the parchment and reached out his arm for Hedwig to land on.
"What have you got here, Hedwig?" Harry petted his owl and walked the animal to where he set her cage up on his desk all the while unrolling the piece of parchment tied around her leg. He opened the owl's cage door and told his bird to go in and have a drink and nibble on her favourite treat while he read the letter.
Dearest Harry,
How's your summer so far? I'm at the Burrow already. I've been here a week already. So much stuff to tell you, Ron & I can't wait to talk to you in person. We would've gone and called you up, but we were under strict orders by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley not to wander around by ourselves so we're pretty much stuck here at the Burrow. Fred and George…well, you'll know soon enough. Just wait for a call or something. You'll be out of there in no time, I can promise you that. Ron & I are discussing ways to bail you out of there, but so far our plans of a 'rescue' were foiled by Mrs. Weasley. Even Fred and George are pitching in ways to get you to join us right away. We really miss you, Harry. See you soon.
Much Love,
Hermione (and Ron kept on bugging me to write his name on here too)
Harry read the letter for a second time, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face as he read the last parts of Hermione's letter. At last he was finally leaving this place. He knew he'd wait a while for his 'rescue team' to arrive; it wasn't easy smuggling him around without alerting others of his whereabouts so everyone had to be careful. He wished the Weasley's old Ford Anglia was still available; that flying car could sure come in handy right now.
CRACK! CRACK!
Harry jumped at the pair of loud cracking sound that came from his bedroom. He was left home alone by the Dursleys who were invited to attend a summer festival of some sort (Aunt Petunia didn't give him much detail, except to warn him that they'd be out for the rest of the afternoon and most of the night) and was whiling away some time in the living room watching something on the telly when he heard the sound.
His hand quickly flew to his wand, which he kept tucked behind him (he knew Mad-Eye would throttle him if he found out he was still keeping his wand stashed away there), and slowly crept out to the hallway leading to the stairs. He heard voices, a pair of male voices, arguing upstairs in his room. They sounded oddly familiar to him and yet he couldn't figure out whose voice they belonged to. He climbed the stairs carefully, making sure the steps wouldn't creak and alert the intruders of his presence.
As he reached the top landing, Harry stopped just outside his door and listened once again to the voices.
"Are you sure a special license to use the Muggles' fireplace has been approved by the Ministry?" asked the first voice who sounded like Fred Weasley's, but Harry wasn't entirely sure; Fred and his twin, George, not only looked so much alike, they sounded very much alike too!
"I talked to Tonks. She said she had to go through numerous channels, but after she gave them some wild excuse on why we must get Harry out of this place, they soon relented," answered the second voice.
"But they gave us a time limit?" the first voice sounded incredulous.
"I know," agreed the second voice. "That was the catch. So we have to make sure Harry's all packed and ready to go in forty-five minutes."
"Great. We already wasted five out of those forty-five minutes."
"That's why we have to hustle up. You go make sure Harry's things are packed and ready to be shipped while I go search for our guest of honour."
"What about the Muggles?"
"They're out. According to Dung, they received an invitation to attend a valid Muggle party this time."
"Alright. You go fetch Harry while I get his stuff ready."
"You go do that and I—aaah!"
Harry jumped back the same time one of the Weasley twins jumped back as well. Harry didn't expect George—or Fred, he wasn't sure which one was this since his heart was still palpitating from shock—to open the door.
"Sweet mother of Merlin, Harry! Wha'cha doin' there?" demanded George who was rubbing his chest where his heart was and calmed his nerves.
"I-I heard noises so I came up here to investigate," Harry explained and looked over the redhead's shoulder at the other twin who was busy packing his stuff up. "What are you two doing here?"
"We're here to take you to the Burrow, mate," answered Fred holding a pair of clean black socks. "Are these," he gestured around Harry's small bedroom, "all your stuff, Harry? We're not missing anything else?"
All his prized possessions were locked with him in his dingy bedroom the Dursleys begrudgingly gave him four years ago.
"Yeah. And my Firebolt's in the cabinet," he pointed at the large and old brown two-door cabinet by the door.
"Alright. I'll get these packed up and Apparate it with me to the Burrow," Fred announced and started to move around the room.
"Right," nodded George before turning to look back at Harry. "Now you, my friend, will be traveling by Floo to our house," he informed the almost sixteen year old.
"How? Uncle Vernon covered the fireplace up with bricks after what happened the last time."
"He what!" Fred and George said at the same time. Apparently they weren't expecting a huge glitch to their plan.
"You heard me. After what happened when you last picked me up here two years ago, Uncle Vernon was furious and when he finally got the house fixed up, he specifically told the contractor to cover up the fireplace," he explained. "The contractor thought my uncle was mad for wanting to do that, but he did anyway."
"Your uncle's mental," snorted George who looked very crestfallen. "We'll need to find another way to get Harry out of here."
"Can't we do what we did last year when Mad-Eye and them rescued me from here?" Harry suggested.
"Too risky, Harry," Fred said, locking up Harry's trunk and turned to grab Hedwig's empty cage. Harry let the owl out earlier that day to exercise; she hadn't been back since this afternoon.
"What do we do then?" Harry looked at one twin after the other.
"We can always uncover the fireplace, can we not?" George turned to Harry, an eyebrow arched in query.
"I-I suppose. The fireplace is still there, it's just covered up with bricks," he shrugged.
"Excellent. I'll just make the bricks disappear then and we're good to go." George turned to Fred and said, "Hurry up with those and Apparate out of here. Harry and I will go downstairs and take the bricks covering the fireplace off. Give Mom and them the head's up that Harry's on his way."
"Aye, aye, captain," Fred stood in mock attention and gave George a phony salute.
Harry followed George downstairs and into the living room where the bricked fireplace was. George looked like he was deep in thought as he looked at the covered way then took his wand out from the inside of his robes, gave it a flick and swish, muttered something and the bricks blasted open. Harry jumped back in shock and watched in horror as pieces of bricks flew across the Dursley's spic-and-span living room, creating a big mess that Harry knew would drive his aunt and uncle up the wall. But at that very moment he didn't give a damn about what they'd do. He was just happy he was finally getting out of there and rejoin his friends.
"They'll sure be pissed about this," Harry muttered as he pushed some bricks with his foot out of the way.
"It's their own fault that they patched this thing up. Didn't they know a fireplace is a very vital part of anyone's household?" George sounded all know-it-all it was ridiculous.
"Not when they know witches and wizards use it as a means to get from one place to another," answered Harry and stepped inside the fireplace. He looked around the cramped portal then extended his hand out, "I s'pose you brought some floo powder with you, didn't you?"
"Of course I did!" George gave him a toothy grin and dumped a small sack full of floo powder into his open hand. "You know what to do now," George stepped back and watched.
Harry took a couple of deep breaths, his eyes fixed on George before yelling out "the Burrow!" and dumped his handful of floo powder.
He was engulfed by greenish flames, his last vision was of George Apparating out of the Dursley's living room, leaving the mess they created behind.
WHERE ARE they? Shouldn't they be here by now?" Hermione was pacing back and forth in front of Ron and Ginny who were seated on the couch in the Burrow's living room. She kept on glancing at her wristwatch every two seconds in anticipation.
"Will you relax, Hermione? You're making me dizzy with your pacing," snapped an irritated Ron.
"How can I relax? The Ministry only gave them forty-five minutes opening to use the Floo Network from the Dursleys to here. Forty minutes has come and gone, but still no sign of Harry!"
"Maybe they're running behind in packing," shrugged Ron. "You know how messy Harry can be, especially if he's at his relatives' place. No house-elf to pick up after himself and all."
At the mention of house-elf Hermione stopped her pacing and fixed Ron with a glare that would've skewered him alive if it had been a real spear coming out of her eyes. She was still uptight about the whole house-elf slavery thing and doesn't want to hear a pip about it; she was still working on trying to free all of Hogwarts' house-elves.
Ginny watched on the sidelines as Ron and Hermione were at it again. Honestly they argued like an old married couple--and they haven't even admitted their feelings for each other yet! She was only dragged to wait here in the living room for Harry's arrival by Hermione who was practically jumping for joy at the prospect of seeing Harry again after worrying about him so much (honestly Ginny began to wonder whom Hermione liked more: Harry or Ron) since the beginning of summer. She would've been alright sitting in her room whiling away the time until Harry's arrival, but she didn't want to raise Hermione's suspicion on why she doesn't want to join in on the welcome wagon so she went.
Now she wished she hadn't. She has had enough of listening to her brother and the love of his life (but he was too damn thick to admit it!) argue about petty things. Excusing herself from them, she got up from her seat and walked around Hermione, passing by the fireplace, and was headed back upstairs to wait in her room. She was making sure she wasn't within reach of Hermione's flailing arm (she was jabbing at the direction of the fireplace at Ron) when out of the blue her breath was suddenly knocked out of her.
Ginny fell with a resounding THUD! on the Weasley's living room floor. On top of her was a soot-covered something coughing a lung or two out.
Hermione and Ron stopped their bickering and turned to check out what the commotion was about. Ginny was pinned to the floor by a lanky looking boy with sooty dark hair that stood out in all directions and wore oversized clothing.
"Ginny!" exclaimed a frantic Hermione.
"Harry!" called out Ron and was out of his seat in a flash. He crossed the small space between them and helped his best mate off his kid sister. "What the hell?" He demanded after he helped him up.
Hermione rushed to Ginny's aid and helped her get off the floor as well. Some soot was transferred over to her and Hermione helped Ginny dust them off.
"What's the big idea tackling Ginny like that, Harry?" scolded Hermione, her previous worry of Harry's delayed arrival gone in a flash.
"Sorry," apologized Harry, coughing out the last of the soot he inhaled when he excited the Floo Network. "It was going out of control and I needed to exit it right away. I would've called out a warning, but I needed to jump out of the loop before I missed my stop," he explained.
"And you decided to use me to cushion your fall, is that it?" Ginny snapped, glaring a hole right through the Boy Who Lived's skull.
"I'm sorry," Harry gave her an honest-to-goodness apologetic look. "I was just in a right mood to finally get away from Privet Drive that I couldn't wait to get off at my stop."
"If my back, sides or any part of my person turns black and blue, you will have some major explaining to do," Ginny snapped and with her head held high, stormed out of the leaving room, leaving the Golden Trio staring after her with their mouths hanging open.
HE HAD BEEN at the Burrow for three weeks and still Ginny wouldn't cut him a bit of slack. What happened to the camaraderie they formed the year before? Was that all just a dream to him? He thought he finally gained another close ally in Ginny Weasley, but since his arrival at his best friend's house, he barely saw the feisty female Weasley offspring.
"Are you sure she's not mad at me?" Harry asked Hermione for the umpteenth time when they--him, Ron and Hermione--were in the backyard doing some yard work.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Harry? Ginny's not mad at you. She didn't even turn any shade of purple after you tackled her when you arrived."
"If so, how come she's spent more time locked up in her room as opposed to hanging out with us? What is so damn fascinating in her room anyway?"
Ron stopped and regarded his friend carefully after throwing a garden Gnome as far away as he possibly could. "Why are you being bothered by it anyway? You used to never give a damn on whether Ginny pays attention to you or not."
"I never gave a damn before 'coz back then she at least said 'hi' or showed her face around the Burrow," Harry pointed out.
"Ginny's just going through some stuff," shrugged Hermione and pulled out a wriggling Gnome from where it buried itself as deep as it could go into the ground.
"Like?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time.
"Just stuff. She doesn't say much to me, you know? And Merlin knows I tried to get through to her and help her out of this funk that's clouding her usually sunny disposition, but she's being thick in the head and wouldn't want to accept my friendly offer."
"Does it have anything to do with her boyfriend, you think?" asked Harry.
"Boyfriend?" echoed Ron, "Last time I heard she and that Corner guy broke up because he was a sore loser after Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw in Quidditch."
"Didn't she show interest in Dean during our train ride home?" mused Harry, seeking Hermione out to get a confirmation.
"I remember her saying that on the train ride home," she nodded.
"But she hadn't been in touch with Dean since we all parted ways at Kings Cross!"
Hermione and Harry both cocked an eyebrow at Ron's naivetie.
"They could've stayed in touch in more ways than one, Ron," said Hermione exasperatedly. "Honestly, you're so damn clueless at times it's unbelievable how you manage to get on with life."
"Hey, I resent that!" answered Ron indignantly. "I am not always clueless, you know? I am quite the perceptive person." He puffed out his chest and looked down his at Hermione.
"Whatever," she rolled her eyes at him and waved her two friends off. "I'm going inside for something to drink. I've had it de-Gnoming the garden. There's just too many of them to get rid of!"
"You don't think I'm perceptive then?" Ron sounded offended that Hermione didn't give his claim two figs of her time. He followed her back to the Burrow, leaving Harry standing in the middle of the backyard following his two bickering best friends with his eyes.
Once Ron and Hermione were inside Harry shook his head at them and rolled his eyes skyward. Something on the second floor window of the Weasley's home caught his attention. A slight movement from Ginny's bedroom window and upon closer inspection, Harry caught a glimpse of Ginny looking down at them from her bedroom. He partially raised his arm up to wave at her, but Ginny disappeared in a flash.
"What is wrong with you, Ginny Weasley?" Harry hissed to himself.
TBC