Grey clouds drifted across the sky as Harry sat at his window watching them float by. His mind seemed to drift with grey clouds ever since his last school term. He had received phone calls from all of his friends over the summer along with a couple of owls from Dumbledore and Lupin who were grieving as much as Harry was. In the beginning of summer all he did was lie around in his room eating very little and sleeping even less. A comb had not touched his hair for weeks and his friends were getting more worried by the minute for he rarely answered their owls, or phone calls. The Dursley's were on vacation at his Uncle Vernon's sister's house. Occasionally Harry nibbled on a piece of bread or bagel that happened to be in his room only to stay alive, though that was the opposite of what he wanted to do. There was a small voice inside of his head urging him to get out of his slump and get back to his life. He could not seem to get his mind off of what had happened at the end of last year. His friends told him that it was not his fault that his godfather had been murdered. Voldermort was the one responsible he had started the whole mess in the first place. Simply thinking of Voldermort made Harry's blood run cold.
Almost dozing, Harry was awoken by a cool splash of water on his sweat covered face. The clouds had changed from a dull grey to a midnight black. Rain was showering the earth and Harry stuck his head out the window and looked up into the sky. Pushing off of the window he slid back into the arm chair that he had been sitting in. The room was dull with minimal pictures on the wall. The end table by his bed contained a picture of his mother and father. They were twirling in the park wind whipping at their coats. He had always loved the smell of rain so he left the window open so that the smell would drift into his room. His stomach growled in anger of the little food that he had eaten. The rain had splashed a much needed reality check onto Harry. Slowly rising, his legs sore from the infinitesimal use they had received, he trudged down the stairs to the kitchen where he was almost completely shocked to find the Dursleys all enjoying a humungous breakfast with all of the trimmings. Rubbing his eyes Harry joined them. At this moment in time their opinion mattered not to him and all he cared about was food. He grabbed a plate off of the counter and piled it high with bacon, eggs, sausage, and he grabbed a cup of coffee. Sitting down at the table, where they all sat staring wide eyed at him, he shoved all the food humanly possible into his mouth in one bite.
Aunt Petunia had an expression of disgust on her face along with anger on Uncle Vernon's. Dudley had not bothered to turn around from the television where he was watching wrestling. Between bites Harry asked, "When did you arrive home?" He truly did not care when they arrived home, but felt that he should know.
Eyes still wide with shock uncle Vernon told Harry, "It is none of your bloody business when we arrived back seeing that it is our house." Harry gave a small glance at Uncle Vernon before he continued eating his breakfast. It must have been the idea of Harry not caring what he said that got to uncle Vernon for he told Harry between his teeth, "we arrived home late yesterday. What have you been doing while we were gone?" Uncle Vernon almost choked on his words for they roughly sounded caring.
"If you must know," Harry was now getting irritated with all this talking since his contact with people had been minimal for the past two weeks. "I was experimenting with magic." Of course he had not been, but to see the look on his uncle's face when he said the m word made Harry almost bust out with laughter. Let me rephrase that he did bust out with laughter. It felt great for him to laugh. It was worth it to see his uncle's face turn redder then a tomato. Screaming his uncle rose from the chair that he was propped in and pointed upstairs screaming at Harry to go to his room. "Fine," Harry told his uncle with defiance. Grabbing some more bacon and eggs he went back up to his room balancing his coffee on the edge of his plate.
Once he was finished with his coffee and the rest of his breakfast he gave the leftovers to Hedwig. Greedily she gobbled up the rest of the toast that he had not touched. Picking up the phone he dialed Ron's number that he had written down by the phone. Mr. Weasley answered as he always did screaming into the receiver to hold on a minute as he went to fetch Ron. Once Ron was on the phone speaking softer then his father Harry began, "I am terribly sorry that I have not called sooner mate, but I …."
"Stop right there you do not have to explain to me I understand, or I don't…you know what I mean. What did you call for." Harry paused for a second and asked Ron a delicate question.
"Do you really believe that it was not my fault about Sirius?" there was silence on the other line before Ron spoke.
"Of course I believe that it was not your fault." Harry released a breath that he was not aware he had been holding. They talked for a couple more minutes before Harry asked to come and stay at the burrow. "Perfect!" Ron said enthusiastically. "We would be thrilled to have you come. You can stay in my room again." They said goodbye after they set the date that Ron would come to pick up Harry.
A week passed and every day was filled with anticipation for Harry. They had set the date for August 20th so that he would at least have a couple of weeks to spend with the Weasley's. They would pick him up by floo powder which had been approved by Dumbledore. The Dursley's stayed out of the room in order to avoid Dudley's tongue expanding.
Ron and Harry were so happy to see each other that Harry was soon completely out of his slump and jabbering on merrily with Ron. Hermione was to join them the next day along with Ginny who had been spending time with Hermione at her house. Harry was slightly nervous to see both of the girls for they were probably worried about him and he was not in the mood to be fussed over. There was a feeling deep in Harry's gut that he was going to be even more nervous to see Ginny. He could not figure out why for he had never thought of her in more then a friend way.
The girls arrived around mid-afternoon the next day. They both embraced Harry and greeted him enthusiastically not in the least how he expected it. "How has your summer been Harry?" Hermione was the first to speak. Harry shrugged and was genuinely confused. She should have known how his summer had been, and he was about to tell her when Ginny came over and patted him on the shoulder staring straight into his eyes a sincere look of concern in her eyes.
Hermione stared a moment longer eyeing Harry up and down letting out a slight sigh. "You are terribly thin Harry. Did you notice that Mrs. Weasley?" Hermione asked. Mrs. Weasley nodded and they both laughed and walked off into the other room.
"Don't let them fool you Hermione came over here once during the summer and could not stop balling." He paused a moment as if he was debating whether to tell Harry the next bit of information. "Ginny did not come out of Hermione's house the whole summer until she heard that you were coming. She even asked mum if she could buy a new dress. It is quiet odd." he added with a wink at the end. Harry, now completely puzzled, followed Ron into the kitchen where the whole family was gathered.
Harry glanced over at Ginny who was staring back at Harry. Acknowledging her with a nod he looked about the room. Excusing him self a moment later to use the restroom. He walked over to Ginny and asked her to show him where the restroom was, though he was fully aware, she led him up the stairs. About half way up he stopped her and pulled her near him. She did not resist, but when they parted she had tears in her eyes as did Harry.
They stared into each others eyes before parting each going the opposite direction. His heart seemed to ache less, but there was still a void that would never be filled. When he headed back down the stairs he found Ginny among the others laughing and enjoying the time that they had together. The room was filled with noise throughout the evening. Harry sat on the side trying to be as hearty as the rest, but to no avail. He went to bed about an hour before the others. He changed into his pajamas and was crawling into his bed with weary legs when someone knocked on his door. Getting up he jogged across the room and opened the door to see Ginny standing there her eyes watering. Motioning for her to come into the room he pulled out a chair and closed the door behind her. She looked up and a second later was looking back down. Ginny kept opening and closing her mouth but no words came out. Finally she got the words out though they were words that he had never expected. "Harry all summer I could not bear to see you in fear that I would start crying and never stop, but now that I see you all I can do is simply stare. The words are there, but I cannot get them to come out and when I do they come out all wrong, so do not take this the wrong way, but I am sorry that Sirius is gone." Pausing she looked as though she was going to feint. Harry glided over and wrapped her in his arms tears now forcefully streaming down his face.
"I am too, Ginny. I am too." They sat there for no one knows how long. They were not aware that Ron had walked in once and they were not aware that they everyone were listening at the door. Sniffling back the rest of his tears he pulled apart from Ginny and looked into her red eyes. He managed to let out a laugh that caused the whole room to brighten. She left a few minutes later leaving him lying on his bed with his deep thoughts. Ron entered a few minutes later with a huge grin on his face.
"Harry…" looking down he could tell that it was too late to tell Harry anything, for he was asleep. Even if it was that he was glad about him and Ginny.
