A/N: As promised, it's Wed. Hope you guys like it and thanks for the reviews. This one's the longest yet.
"So what do you think?" Fred asked after he had showed Ginny Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes new sign.
"Too flashy?" George asked when Ginny hadn't said anything, looking afraid of the answer.
"Just...a little," Ginny lied through a nervous laugh.
That sign wasn't a little flashy. That sign was A LOT flashy. The letters were huge, about 3 feet big, and very stout. They flashed different colors while sparks flew out at certain points and, from the picture, it looked like every time somebody walked in, the door yelled out, "Welcome to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes! If there's one place where all the fun is, it's inside here - try our new fizz!" Ginny thought the rhyme was kind of cheesy, but didn't say anything. She knew her brothers worked hard and the sign really looked nice - if you had sunglasses on.
"So, you're saying it's only a little too flashy?" George asked with a look of disappointment.
"Well," she started, not wanting them to be upset. "It's - it's very...nice," she ended lamely, biting her lip.
"Gin, stop lying. Tell us the truth," Fred demanded.
There was a pause when Ginny looked at the both of them carefully and then she sighed.
"Oh, all right. It's very flashy and I hope you really change your door ringer thingy because, well, it's not very great."
"Brilliant!" George whooped with a big grin.
"That's what we were aiming for!" Fred said.
Ginny just stared at the both of them.
"Big!" George exclaimed.
"Bright!" Fred added in.
"Like nobody else!"
"Eye-catching!"
"Extravagant!"
Ginny laughed; happy she hadn't dampened their spirits.
"We didn't want the punch line to be codswallop, though," Fred said with a frown.
"Eh," George waved off. "It changes every time we get a new product. And besides," he went on. "By the time they take one look at the place and all its contents, that jingle will be lost in their little brains!"
"Very true," Ginny agreed, reassuring Fred.
"Yes, you have a point my partner, you have a point."
"'Course I do," George said, putting away the picture.
"Thanks for the opinion, Gin. Now if you don't mind, we're going to..." Fred faltered.
"Do some things!" George said, filling in the blank.
"Alright..." Ginny said with suspicion. "It wouldn't have to do with my birthday, would it?" she hinted, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
"Like we'd tell you," George laughed.
"What do you think we are? Morons!" Fred said just before they appirated.
"Yes," Ginny grumbled, standing up.
-POP-
Ginny screamed and jumped about ten feet while the two 'morons' just looked at her.
"We heard that," Fred stated, disapperating again.
"We hear everything," George said, disappirating as well.
Ginny placed her hand over her now rapid beating heart and let out a sigh. Those two were going to give her a heart attack before she reached the age of 30!
Just then, Ginny heard the door open and then close.
"Hello? Anybody home?" someone called from the living room.
"Yeah! Coming!" Ginny yelled back, wondering who it was. Nobody was supposed to be here until tonight.
Ginny walked through the door and saw Harry smiling.
"Happy Birthday!" he said, hugging her.
"Thank you," she said as she hugged him back. They parted (after an awfully longer hug than usual) and sat down on the couch, sinking into it.
"Where is everybody?" Harry asked, looking around.
"Well, dads working and mum's in Diagon Alley picking stuff up."
"Stuff meaning food for your party?" Harry asked with a knowing smile. Ginny nodded.
"Fred and George just left. They're up to something," she added.
"Aren't they always?" Harry replied with a laugh.
"That's a good way to look at it," she said as she stood up. Suddenly she thought of something and before she could think twice, she asked, "Hey, do you want to go for a walk? I want to show you something."
"Sure," Harry said as he stood up to accompany her.
They stepped outside and Ginny smelled in the air around them, a smile adorning her features. This was going to be a great day.
"So, where are we going?" Harry asked as he followed Ginny into the woods in the back of her yard.
"You'll see," she said looking back at him with a smile.
He didn't say anything more, just followed where she walked, only stopping once to untangle his robes from a very stubborn branch. They finally got to where Ginny was headed and when Harry looked around there was a blank look on his face.
"This is it?" he asked plainly.
"Yeah," she said as she took out her wand. "Unreveallo!" she stated strongly (A/N: sorry if the spell name is kinda cheesy / ). A spot on the ground where she had pointed to suddenly began to lift up, a box revealing itself as the dirt piled off of it as it was raised. Ginny walked over to the hovering box and took it in her hands, releasing it from the spell. Harry walked over next to her and stared at the box curiously.
"What is it?" he asked, cocking his head sideways so he could look at it from underneath, trying to figure out what it contained.
"It's a memory box," she said with a smile.
"A memory box?" he repeated, now looking at her. "What's it do?" he asked as he poked his wand at it. Ginny laughed.
"It doesn't do anything. It shows you stuff. You know, you put things in it and then look at it a long time later."
"A time capsule," Harry stated, now his head straight.
"No, it's a memory box," she corrected him.
"Muggles call it a time capsule," he said as they walked over to sit on a rock.
"Well it must be something different because this is a memory box and I assure you that it's a lot different than a Muggles time hapskull. This requires magic."
"Okay. If you say so," Harry laughed, mainly at her mispronunciation. "Tell me what this does."
"Okay," Ginny said, smiling. You could tell she was happy that Harry was interested. "Alahamora," she said as she tapped the lock with her wand. It snapped open. She opened it up, revealing an empty box.
"This is really...memorable," Harry said as he looked into it. She laughed.
"Nothing happened yet."
"Oh. I knew that," he said as he looked up at her.
"Sure you did. Now," she said, pausing for dramatic affect. "Watch and enjoy the show."
With a flick of her wrist, a hole opened up in the middle of the bottom of the box, revealing nothing but emptiness. She placed her wand by the edge of the hole and drew a vertical line with the tip of her wand. A picture slowly floated out of the hole. Ginny must have been only about two years old and her six brothers were all scrunched in the picture while she sat in front of them. Bill and Charlie were waving at the camera, Percy was fixing his robes and Fred and George were throwing candy at Ron, snickering as he looked up at the ceiling, clearly thinking they were falling from the sky. Ginny was picking the pieces of candy off of the floor and was aimlessly trying to shove them in her mouth, but every time they were just about to go in, they disappeared, her face screwed up in confusion. Harry let out a laugh, clearly amused.
"They charmed the candies so they disappeared about 10 seconds later after they were thrown," Ginny said as the picture floated silently into Harry's hands (directed by her wand). "They always had a talent for inventions and that sort."
Harry set the picture down in the box away from the hole as Ginny directed another object from it. This time it wasn't a picture, but a glass cup that was glued together, that drifted into Harry's hands.
"First time I did any sort of magical powers. I was about four or five. I was minding my own business in the living room when Fred and George pulled my pigtails out of my hair as they walked by me. I angrily put them back in when they disappeared after screaming at them, but they kept doing it to me; coming in and out, clearly enjoying my annoyance at them. They made me so mad and the next thing I knew, the glass cup on the table shattered. Mum came rushing in and I told her I didn't do it. I told her what happened and she told me I had done it; with magic. I was so excited so I glued it back together and put it in here."
Harry set the glass cup back in the box next to the picture and the next object flew out. It was a picture of her and Ron outside of the Burrow. Ginny was crying and Ron was hugging her.
"That was just before we left to bring Ron to Kings Cross. I was so upset that Ron was going to Hogwarts and I would have to stay all by myself. We used to do everything together before we left," she sighed, remembering how long ago that seemed as Harry placed it back in the box. The next thing was her accepting letter intoHogwarts.
"You can imagine why I kept that. Yours was pretty special too I assume. Probably more than mine."
"Yeah," he said as he put her letter in the box. "I still have it. It's in the scrapbook Hagrid gave me in my first year. You know, the one with my parents," Harry said sadly. Ginny nodded, knowing there were no words to comfort his loss of a childhood and loving parents.
The next thing to come out was a picture of her and Michael Corner, a rose attached to it. They were sitting by the lake and suddenly Michael reached over and kissed her on the cheek. Ginny laughed and turned to kiss him, this time on the lips. It was just a quick peck and then she jumped up, looking like she was going to leave, but when Michael got up to follow her, she shoved him into the lake. Fourth year Ginny stood there laughing hysterically.
"Colin Creevey took that for us. I had planned the whole 'push Michael into the lake' thing," she smiled.
"What about the whole 'let's kiss Michael' thing," Harry teased. Ginny blushed.
"That wasn't planned," she said as she took it from him, staring at the picture.
"Why'd you keep that? I thought Michael was a complete git."
"He was, but Michael Corner was my first boyfriend," she said as she placed it carefully on top of the other pictures. "It might sound stupid to you, but, I don't know. I guess it's a girl thing or something. It meant something to me; it still does."
"What's with the rose?" he asked as he looked over at her.
"He gave it to me on our first trip to Hogsmaede."
Harry snorted. "How corny."
"I thought it was sweet!" she said laughing as she reached over to punch him in the arm.
"Ouch! Do you like causing physical harm to people or something?" he said rubbing his arm.
"Or something," she said, smiling smugly.
The next few things were pictures of friends and family, little knick-knacks that she told a story along with and finally the last things came out together. There were three pictures. The first was a picture of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville and herself in Ginny's fifth year, Harry's sixth. It was on the train ride back home.
"Hey, I remember that!" Harry said as he took the picture in his hands, staring into it. They were all smiling and laughing. Ron's face was beet red along with Hermione's. "Ron had finally kissed Hermione!"
Ginny laughed, remembering as the next picture began floating towards Harry. Ginny just realized what the picture was of and tried to snatch it before it got to him, but it was too late. He saw her lunging for it and grabbed it first, smirking.
"Let's see what the Birthday Girl doesn't want me to see," he taunted as he looked down at it.
The picture was of Harry, Hermione and Ron in their seventh year, only Harry's head down to his belly button was missing.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, staring at it strangely. "Why aren't I there? Were you mad at me or something?" he asked, finally looking up at her.
"No, I wasn't mad at you," she said quietly, avoiding his eyes.
"Then what happened?" he pushed.
Ginny looked like she'd rather be anywhere but there. She thought fast in her head of ways to escape this horrifyingly embarrassing moment, but saw none that could help her out much. Reluctantly, she looked up at Harry.
"I suppose I can't really get out of this," she sighed. "Oh alright, just take it," she said quickly, thrusting the last picture towards Harry, now turning a brilliant shade of red and looking away again.
The picture was the missing Harry, only he had a heart around his head and on the bottom of it was scribbled:
Mrs. Ginerva Potter
Harry just stared at it. Ginny's face got hot as she almost melted with embarrassment. Suddenly laughter erupted from Harry's mouth and (if possible) her face turned even redder.
"I - can't - believe," Harry said in between laughs. "I - can't - believe - you - did - this!"
"You don't have to rub it in!" she snapped angrily, snatching the picture from him.
"When - When - did you - do that?" he managed to get out, still laughing hysterically.
"Sixth year. I sneaked it out of Ron's drawer," she mumbled as she flicked her wand and watched the objects fly into the black hole.
"You - stole a - picture - of me - from Ron's - drawer?" He began to laugh harder.
"Yes!" she shot out angrily as she closed the box, locking it and sending it flying into the ground again. "That's what I said, didn't I?"
The dirt on the ground found its way back on top of the box and neatly packed itself in as Ginny sprang up from the rock and began walking fast back to the Burrow as Harry followed her, still hysterical.
"You named it - Mrs. - Mrs.-"
"Mrs. Ginerva Potter! Yeah, I know!" she said, interrupting him.
Harry managed to calm down and looked at her.
"Why are you so mad?" he said with a smile.
"It's a little embarrassing Harry! And you laughing for an hour about it doesn't help!"
"Well you know what I think?" he asked as she shoved a branch away from her, a little harder than necessary.
"What?" she ground out.
Harry stopped dead in his tracks, looking up into the sky. It was beautifully clear out and there wasn't a cloud in sight. He looked over at Ginny, who had stopped after she noticed Harry had and sent her a smile.
"What are you doing?" she asked, annoyed at him.
"Just looking," he replied. She made an impatient sound with her tongue.
"Well could you 'just look' while we walk?" she asked moodily.
"Not really," he said. "I can't look at you when you're moving all over the place."
Ginny's mouth froze shut and she couldn't move. She just stared at Harry with wide eyes.
"And about that picture," he said as he walked up close to her. "I thought that picture was sweet," he whispered in her ear. Then, just like that, he glided by, not waiting for her to come out of her thoughts. Ginny just kept standing there as Harry kept moving on.
No matter what he did, whether it was flirting or saying things like he just did, Harry Potter was hinting a lot at liking Ginny and no matter how much evidence she had, there was always that doubt in the back of her mind that told her that Harry was just playing around...
"You coming?" Harry shouted from far up ahead.
Ginny snapped back into reality as she pushed the doubt aside. She was sick of thinking that nothing would ever happen between her and Harry. Why couldn't anything happen? Why was fate always getting in the way? Maybe she would get in the way for fate.
In the moment between doubt and confidence, Ginny finally allowed herself to realize that she had feelings towards Harry. Strong feelings. And this time she was going to do something about it. She would be damned if she let him get away from her this time.
With a smile on her face, Ginny rushed to catch up with Harry.
A/N: So..what did you think? R&R! I'm not sure when the next chapter's going to be up, hopefully not too long.
Like I said, I'm working on a Songfic and I almost have the first half done, so it should be out soon, but who knows? Maybe not..
