This is my favourite chapter so far, it was good fun to write. Thanks a lot for all the reviews I've got so far. I love getting reviews, they fill my inbox. A couple of people have commented on the length of the chapters, I think this may be the longest one yet. I'm a bit bad at writing long chapters because I like ending them at dramatic places, so it often ends up with only 1 or 2 pages. Here it is, anyway:

Chapter Four - Fight

The next day, letters from Hogwarts and book lists arrived all around, and Harry discovered that he had been made Quidditch Captain. Even this could not drag his mind away from Ginny for very long, and he could not stop himself from glancing at her from the corner of his eye whenever possible.

After this, another midnight meeting followed, and they sat against a tree at the bottom of the Weasley's garden, quietly talking about all that had happened, about thoughts and fears and feelings that Harry would not even share with Ron and Hermione. They talked about their friends also, and the impending romance which both Ron and Hermione obviously wanted, but they wished they'd hurry up and get on with. They sat like this until dawn, when they reluctantly returned to their beds, tired but happy. And when Harry awoke late the next morning, for the first time since Sirius' death, he felt like they were winning the battle.

The next morning, so late for breakfast it was almost lunchtime, Harry and Ginny finally appeared downstairs.

"There you are!" Ron exclaimed, still in his pajamas himself, "I thought we would never get around to doing anything today!"

"When do we do anything as it is?" Ginny rolled her eyes, and as Ron, under the orders of his mother, disappeared up the stairs to get dressed, she squeezed Harry's hand quickly.

Mrs Weasley was holding two steaming plates of pancakes, she looked at them a little oddly for a moment. Harry and Ginny gave her their best 'innocent' faces, but Molly was a little smarter than that. She beamed at them as she put the plates down in front of them, as if she had just let herself in on the secret.

An hour later, Hermione was lying on her bed reading as Ron entered the room, she sat up suddenly.

"Don't you knock, Ron?"

"No. You coming down to play quidditch?"

Hermione pulled a face to indicate that she didn't want to, which was hardly surprising as Hermione on a broomstick was something even Harry managed to laugh at.

"Come on…." he pleaded, wanting to tell her that when she was on a broomstick, rather than her usual know-it-all persona, she looked unsure of herself, as though she might fail, he thought she looked more beautiful than he'd ever seen her then.

"Without…the teams…" he stumbled over the words he wanted to say and somehow in the midst of that, "We'll miss you." managed to slip out. He blushed, trying to find some way to redeem himself from admitting that he'd miss her.

Hermione raised her eyebrows but decided to help him, "You mean you'd miss having someone to laugh at."

Ron squared his shoulders and raised his chin, to re-assert himself, "Yeah." he said, "That's what I meant." He turned to look out of the window.

Harry and Ginny were standing on the grass, brooms in hand, waiting for him and Hermione. They were talking, laughing, and then Harry looked around them, as if to check that they were alone. Then Harry and Ginny kissed.

Upstairs, Hermione said, "Ron…" but she was unable to continue her sentence, as Ron turned from the window, now a deep, angry shade of red and ran out of the room, yelling a threat he didn't manage to finish.

As Ginny entered the house to find where her brother and friend had got to, Ron stormed out of it. She wrongly assumed that he and Hermione had fought, and ran upstairs to see if her friend was ok. When she got there, Hermione looked as though she were in a state of shock.

"What happened?" Ginny said, breathless.

Hermione shook her head, "I have no idea." Then they heard a shout from the garden below, and they went to the window to find out what exactly had just happened.

Ron pinned Harry against the broom shed, Harry too surprised to fight back.

"Aren't you supposed to be my mate?"

"What?"

Ron pushed his friend harder against the shed, Harry had now pretty much figured out what was going on, but the look on Ron's face told him it was a better idea to stay where he was for now.

"My little sister. Don't ever touch her."

Fred and George appeared in the garden from nowhere, apparently having just apparated. They looked puzzled.

"Oh dear." Fred said, "We did come to see Miss Grainger and our favourite Potter."

"And we're not referring to our little brother, who has,"

"Apparently,"

"Gone potty."

"Is it really a good idea to murder young Lightning Face, Ronald?" they asked, now looking quite calm and faintly amused.

"Him." Ron said, not taking his eyes from Harry, breathing heavily, "Him and Ginny. Here. In the garden. Kissed."

Fred and George raised their eyebrows simultaneously, and looked at each other.

"Ah."

"Well in that case."

"Carry on."

And they wandered into the house.

Harry glanced up at the window where Ginny and Hermione stood, watching. Hermione looked concerned, but Ginny as though she were waiting to see what he would do next.

Harry pushed Ron off him, the redhead falling to the ground and looking more furious than before. He took a swing at Harry and soon they rolled on the grass, kicking and hitting each other as hard as they possibly could. And then, just as Ginny was about to perform a body bind on them both, they seemed to recall something of their friendship, and stopped.

They stood a few feet away from each other, breathing heavily. Harry had lost his glasses and had a black eye, while Ron's nose was bleeding. Ron looked as if he were about to yell another death threat, when Harry said, in a low, furious whisper:

"Look around you Ron. Look outside your stupid, thick skull for once, and look around you. Look at everything you've got."

"What?" Ron shouted, "I know you've got money, Potter. You don't need to rub it in."

"No." this was a yell but afterwards he reduced his voice once again to a whisper, "No. You don't know, I would give every single galleon in Gringotts for what you have here. You've got a family, brothers and a sister and parents who love you. A real home and a childhood you actually want to remember."

Ron was silent.

"What do I have, Ron? My parents are dead. Sirius is dead." he spat out the final word as though he wished it had never entered his mouth at all, "And my best mate wants to ruin the last thing that's making me happy. Thanks Ron, thanks a lot"
Harry turned and tread quickly to the end of the garden, Ron stormed into the house. And as he passed Ginny on the stairs, as she ran to Harry, he was still unwilling to admit he was wrong, although he now knew it.

Harry sat against the tree where he had waited for Ginny the previous night, his head in his hands. When Ginny came to him she hugged him, laying his head on her lap and stroking his hair. They sat like this for hours, not talking, they didn't need to.

Hermione spent the day alone, occasionally helping Mrs Weasley in the kitchen, with all the uncomfortable silences of people who do not want to admit that something is wrong. At one point, Ron entered the kitchen, Mrs Weasley was unsure whose side to take and so busied herself peeling potatos. Hermione glared at him as forcefully as she could. He attempted to ignore her, and when he went back up the stairs to his bedroom, she followed him.

"You're a stupid git, you know that Ron Weasley?" She stood in his bedroom, and at first he pretended not to hear her, but couldn't help himself and turned to look at her, still angry from his fight with Harry earlier.

"And you're a damn know-it-all who sticks her stupid big nose where it doesn't belong." he replied, unable to keep the immature insults out of his answer.

"Doesn't it sometimes strike you that maybe if you weren't such an arrogant, self-centred…" she struggled for a word to finish the sentence, "God, Ron. Did you see what you did to him? All because of your stupid, petty, over-protective…" Once again she found herself unable to finish the sentence.

Ron just looked at her, his lip curled, "Well maybe if you weren't such a swot who hates the thought that anyone might be better than her at anything then maybe you'd have more friends, and wouldn't have to hang around with me. The stupid, petty, over-protective…"

Hermione gritted her teeth, "You're so immature Ron. Lazy, and arrogant, and jealous, over-protective for no real reason, and you have to give Harry more worries, don't you? At a time when he needs his friends. Because you hate it that so many terrible things have happened to him, because it means he's the centre of attention rather than you. That's what you'd like, isn't it?"

"That isn't true, Hermione, and you know it. You just won't admit that someone other than you might be right for once. Get out of my room Hermione, and don't bother coming back."

Tears filled Hermione's eyes as something which she took to be a revelation hit her, "I hate you Ron." she hissed, and ran from the room before the tears could fill her eyes.