Title: That Darned Scarf

Author: EagleBlaze

Status: Complete

Summary: Harry locked the broom shed and glanced towards the greenhouses. In the swirling snow, he thought he saw a female figure with familiar red hair on the roof of greenhouse one. Why would Ginny be on top of the Greenhouse?

Spoilers: Sorcerer's Stone though Order of the Phoenix

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. They belong to the wonderfully creative mind of JKR.

That Darned Scarf

"Now class, the day's homework assignment is-" Ginny Weasley tuned out Professor Sprout as she put the Singing Rose back into its pot. Greenhouse one was hot and stuffy as usual, but that was a blessing since it was December and the frigid wind kept coming through the cracks in the door.

In the distance, Ginny could see the Quidditch Pitch dusted with snow and a far too familiar figure riding on his Firebolt. She could somehow tell that it was Harry even from this distance. The Weasleys had rescued Harry from the Dursley's indifferent care three weeks after he had arrived there. Unsurprisingly, he arrived closed off and rather moody. While everyone at the Burrow had been tiptoeing around him, Ginny had lost her patience and gave him a rather good talking to after he had unknowingly made her mum cry.

"Psst, Ginny!" Snapping out of her daze, Ginny turned to her left to see a frowning Dana Heliras, her blue eyes glaring at her. "Stop day dreaming and help me put away this Singing Rose!" Dana huffed, impatiently moving her brown hair away from her face.

She heard the sounds of students picking up their school bags as she came back to the present. "Alright, alright," Ginny said as she placed her parchment and quill in her bag.

"Come on!" Dana said, tapping her foot in annoyance as Ginny zipped up her school bag. They were now the only ones left in the steaming Greenhouse. Professor Sprout had left the classroom after giving out the homework assignment.

"Why, so you can go and snog some boy senseless in the broom cupboard? Like you did to Orion Pickle?" Ginny said dryly, rolling her eyes as Dana started to blush.

She gasped, "I did not!"

"Oh, so it was some other girl kissing Orion down in the broom cupboard near the Entrance Hall?" Ginny teasingly replied, as she helped Dana put the struggling Singing Rose in its pot.

Orion Pickle was Dana's boyfriend. They had been having a snogfest in the broom cupboard located near the Entrance Hall when, to their embarrassment, Filch had caught them. He had been looking for a broom to sweep the Entrance Hall since Peeves had thought it amusing to drop dirt on some fourth years.

"Well, at least I have a boyfriend. I'm not just mooning over someone!" Dana huffed as they both gathered their things and put on their Gryffindor scarves.

At this comment, Ginny's cheeks began to burn bright red as a Weasley blush started to crawl up her face. "I — I - have no idea - what you mean - "Ginny stuttered as she struggled to put on her scarf, which in the gusting wind, was giving her a hard time.

Dana rolled her eyes. "Come on Ginny, you know exactly what I mean!"

"No - I don't." Ginny replied. Her eyes locked onto the Quidditch Pitch just in time to see Harry dive for the snitch. Dana's sapphire eyes followed hers, curiously. The sky was threatening with snow and the wind was picking up harder.

"Ginny, you still fancy him don't you?" Dana asked her softly.

Ginny sighed miserably. After she had shouted at Harry for making her mum cry, she had stormed up to her room angrily. She had been worried that she had made Harry retreat further inside himself and the little friendship that had begun over the summer would fall apart. However, as much to her surprise as to everyone else's, Harry had apologized to Mrs. Weasley and had begun to hang out with her. If only Harry and I would do the same, a voice in Ginny's head had whispered. Ginny had been afraid that once they had went back to school their friendship would fall apart, but instead Harry spent more time with her and was finally opening up. Something that Ginny knew, he didn't do very often. Once or twice, she thought they had actually come close to kissing, before Harry had seemed to withdraw.

The snow had started to fall again and the wind had picked considerably.

"Ginny?" Dana said, interrupting her train of thought.

"Dana, I think that I-."Ginny started, but was startled when a teasing gust of wind tugged the scarf she wore around her neck loose. Ginny struggled to grab it and succeeded for a moment, but a second gust of wind tore it out of her fingers and in the direction of the Greenhouses.

"Damn!" Ginny yelled as the cold wind nipped at her neck. She saw that the roof of the greenhouse had snagged her scarf.

"Ginny!" Dana yelped, shocked at her language.

Ginny wasn't paying Dana any attention. "I'm going up there to get it. Do you want to come?" She asked Dana.

"Ginny, you know that we aren't allowed on the roofs." Dana warned, the wind snatching her words away and blowing her hair into her eyes.

"Fine, then!" Ginny snapped. "If you're not coming, then at least do something useful and take my school bag up to my room, please."

Dana knew that once Ginny set her mind on something she wasn't going to give up easily. "If we lose points because of this, don't say that I didn't warn you!" Dana shouted at Ginny's retreating back.

It took Ginny about thirty minutes to return to the Greenhouse, instead of the usual five because of the swirling snow and wind. The wind was beating her down as she tried to climb up the prickly vine that snaked across the back of the Greenhouse wall. Reaching the halfway point up the vine, she could barely catch a glimpse of the familiar, red and gold colors of her scarf that seemed to be stuck on one of the roof's tiles, but was barely hanging on. This would have been easier without my robe on! She thought, as a heavy gust of wind and snow nearly blew her off the vine. She had been very careful up until now, as the vines had some nasty thorns, which because of the wind, were now embedded into her palms. That bloody, good-for-nothing, darn scarf had better be worth this! Ginny thought furiously as she clung to the vine with her left hand and tried to wipe the blood from her right hand.

Harry James Potter was just putting his Quidditch things away in the broom shed when the snow started to fall. His last class of the day had been Double Potions. Snape had been meaner to him than usual, if that was even possible he thought, as he pulled on his gloves and scarf.

This year had been better than expected. After the loss of Sirius, Harry had closed himself off and had not really opened up with anyone, until he had lost his temper with Mrs. Weasley when she had only wanted to help. Ginny, of all people, had stormed up to his bedroom and had given him a thorough talking to about his attitude. Reliving the argument in his head, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Harry James Potter you had better open this door, and go downstairs and apologize to my mum!"

"What for?" Harry had replied darkly through the door. He had barricaded himself in his and Ron's room at the Burrow.

"You are not the only person in this house who is grieving for Sirius at the moment, you prat! What you said down there was inexcusable. I will give you five minutes to go downstairs and apologize. If you don't, I will Bat Bogey Hex you into the next century, despite the Statute for Underage Wizardry! By Merlin's ghost and ashes I will!"

"Ginny, I…." Harry gulped nervously.

"Four minutes…"

Harry could hear her foot tapping impatiently on the creaky wooden floor of the landing.
Minutes had dragged by, while Harry hoped that she would leave.

"One minute…"

Dreading, what he might see, Harry had opened his door to see Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister, holding her wand and tapping her foot, her chocolate-brown eyes blazing and her fiery red hair cascading from her ponytail.

"You have fifty seconds left, Har-."Ginny stopped tapping and her eyes had widened as she saw him come out of his room. Harry had obviously caught her off guard since she suddenly grew quiet when she noticed him.

"Alright, alright, I'm going." Harry replied stiffly. As he walked down the stairs, he heard her run swiftly down to her room and slam the door.

After Harry had apologized to Mrs. Weasley, he had spent a lot of time with Ginny over the summer. She had told him she had never dated Dean Thomas, which was only to get Ron off her back. Ron and Hermione were studying at Hermione's house. Ginny told him, being fed up with their constant arguing; she had successfully shoved them into the hallway closet. Harry found to his amazement that he was comfortable around Ginny because she didn't nag about his feelings like Hermione did. Over the summer, they had become almost as inseparable as Ron and Hermione were.

Harry had opened up with Ginny and told her about the prophecy. She in turn, told him that she wouldn't tell anyone else unless he wanted her to. Also, when Harry had nightmares about Sirius or a vision from Lord Voldemort, Ginny would slip into the room, thankfully unnoticed by Ron, and would comb her fingers through his untidy hair until he fell back to sleep again. She really was something, he thought.

Returning to the present, Harry locked the broom shed and glanced towards the greenhouses. In the swirling snow, he thought he saw a female figure with familiar red hair on the roof of greenhouse one.

Why would Ginny be on top of the Greenhouse? Harry wondered, the snow was falling heavily and Harry could barely see a few feet in front of himself.

As Harry thought more about Ginny, he knew that he had developed a crush on her. He had almost kissed her twice, both times in the summer before he had told her about the prophecy. He knew that he shouldn't have a girlfriend since anyone that he was close to ended up getting killed. Nothing could change his mind about that; he wouldn't put Ginny in any more danger than possible. His relationship with Cho Chang didn't exactly end well, either. They had both gone their separate ways once returning to Hogwarts and fortunately, Harry didn't see her very much.

Making his way up the Greenhouse path, Harry saw Ginny had retrieved her scarf from the roof, and that she had begun to descend the vines that snaked across the outside wall. Drawn towards her, Harry saw Ginny climbing down them, her Gryffindor scarf in her right hand and her left hand holding on to the vine. The wind was blowing her fiery red hair all over the place and snow almost obliterated it. She was more than halfway down when the vine snapped. Harry raced forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.

Ginny felt someone catch her. She tilted her head back to see who it was. She gasped in surprised, to see the familiar emerald green eyes staring at her. "Harry! What are you doing out here?" Ginny yelped, embarrassed that he saved her life again.

"I should be asking you the same thing. What were you doing on top of the greenhouse?" Harry asked, his voice full of concern.

Standing up and brushing the snow and scraps of the vine off her robes, Ginny replied, "The wind carried that darned scarf of mine up to the top of the greenhouse and I had to get it." Feeling foolish, not meeting his eyes, she looked down at her grimy hands clutching her Gryffindor scarf.

"You're all wet, you must be freezing. Let's go inside the greenhouse where we can warm up before we head back to the castle." Harry suggested.

"Alright," Ginny said softly. As she realized that, her robes were a bit damp from the snow.

Harry held Ginny close to his side, as they struggled against the wind. A voice inside his mind telling him that he actually didn't mind being this close to her. Stop that, Harry chided with himself, Ron would kill him, if he ever found out that he had a crush on her. Besides, the all too familiar lines of the prophecy started to flash across his mind…Neither can live while the other survives ….unnoticed by Ginny, he couldn't help but shiver and his heart clutched tightly. He pushed those thoughts into the back of his mind when he opened up the door to greenhouse number one.

Walking close together with Harry's arm was around her waist so that they wouldn't become separated in the blizzard, they struggled forward. She saw that Harry had opened the greenhouse door and stepped inside.

In the shelter of the glass structure, out of the wind and snow, she shrugged off her robes to reveal her Muggle clothing underneath, a soft cotton green top and blue jeans.

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?" She dimly heard Harry ask. He was wearing overlarge blue jeans and a red cotton top that clung to his chest because it was damp. The desire to run over to him and kiss him was almost overwhelming Because of being told the prophecy, she knew he wasn't willing to put her in greater danger.

"No….I'm not." Ginny answered him nervously, licking her lips. Harry is just a friend, Harry is just a friend. She repeated to herself inside her head.

Harry did his best to try to keep himself from staring at Ginny whose clothing clung revealingly to her curves. Stop that! He picked up both of their robes and hung them on the rack near the classroom door, trying to ignore the fact that Ginny was staring at him.

We are totally alone! She couldn't help but think as she watched him hanging up their robes and turn on the lights.

The heat was starting to warm them. Towards the back of the greenhouse were a couple of wooden chairs and forgetting that she still had the scarf in her hands, she made her way past the potted plants, to sink gratefully down in one of them, sighing inwardly with relief. As long as I am not too close to him…, she thought miserably.

"Ginny." She jumped nervously. "You forgot about your scarf." Harry said. Leaning over her, he held out his hand for her scarf. Her gaze locking with his, Ginny felt those emerald green eyes of his drawing her in.

For what seemed an eternity, but was merely minutes, Ginny felt as if she was drowning in a world of green light and wasn't sure if she ever wanted to reach the bottom. Something unknown reached out to her. Ginny, realizing what it was returned the feelings with all of her might.

Shaking her head to clear it, she saw Harry's puzzled green eyes searching her own. Trembling slightly, Ginny heard him ask, "Ginny, what just happened?"

Brows knitted in confusion and still in shock, Ginny shook hear head, "I have no idea, Harry"

Harry's troubled emerald gaze still locked on her face. Ginny stood up to hand him the scarf, "Here you can put this on the rack," she whispered, not looking at him and staring at a Singing Rose that was a few feet away

As Harry turned to put away that darned scarf, Ginny heard a tapping noise and saw a barn owl sitting on the outside windowsill, barely holding on because of the gusty wind. Ginny rushed over and opened the latch quickly, letting the barn owl in. Taking the note from his talon, Ginny read Hermione's neat scrawl:

Harry,
Where in the blazes are you! You were supposed to meet us in the Library to study for your N.E.W.T.s.! If this owl finds you, please send a reply. Keep an eye out for Ginny, as well. We can't come and get you because of the blizzard, but when the storm is over, meet us in the Library.
From,
Hermione and Ron

Ginny started to laugh as she read what Hermione wrote.

"What are you laughing about?" Harry demanded. He returned to stand behind her, and look over her shoulder. Still giggling at Hermione's, letter, she handed it over. As his eyes scanned it, Harry started to chuckle as well.

"I guess I had better reply then. Do you know if Professor Sprout keeps any quills and ink in here?" He asked, looking around the greenhouse.

"Yes, she usually keeps some near her desk, over by the door." Ginny replied as she willed herself to calm down.

Harry walked over to the desk quickly and wrote a reply to Hermione. Handing it to the owl, he opened the window again so that the owl could fly back to the castle.

Ginny could not help but laugh, "Studying, for N.E.W.T.s. on a Friday night, Harry. What were you agreeing to?" She asked, as she pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail.

"You know Hermione; she insisted that we look over our notes from last year since our N.E.W.T.s. is only a year away!" Harry replied, rolling his eyes.

Ginny grinned, she knew exactly how persistent Hermione could be at times. Hermione had drawn up her studying schedule for her O.W.L.s., even though Ginny had protested that she didn't need it, it had helped a lot in the end.

Harry watched Ginny grin. He felt his stomach do a 180-degree flip as her chocolate brown eyes sparkled back at him. "Ginny, I just want to thank you for all of the help you gave to me over the summer." He replied, ruffling his untidy black hair, which had become a constant habit.

"No problem, Harry," Ginny replied softly. Her eyes locked with his, which made it impossible to tear his gaze away from hers.

Harry suddenly felt very hot in the greenhouse. He couldn't help but notice that the soft green cotton t-shirt that Ginny was wearing was clinging to her small frame. "Ginny-I just want to let you know that — that-" Bugger! He closed his eyes.

"Harry, what's the matter?" Ginny asked him as she leaned closer and placed one hand on his shoulder while her other hand cupped his chin. Harry could feel her breath on his skin…she was so close…."Ginny used to fancy Harry, but she gave up on him, months ago." He remembered Hermione's words from last year. "Nothing -Ginny-" Harry mumbled. Why do I have to like her now when it's clear that she's given up on me!
Harry's heart clenched painfully at the thought. He felt Ginny remove her hand and move away from him. He was disappointed since he liked the touch of her skin on his. "Ginny…" Harry paused, out of the corner of his eye he could see the blizzard was still going strong.

"Yes, Harry?" Ginny said. Gently wrapping her arms around his waist, as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

Harry turned within the circle of her arms, until he was facing her with her hands on his waist, and then he pulled her closer. As he did Harry said softly, "Ginny - I just want you to know that I-that I-" Harry stuttered, his face going red.

"Yes, Harry?" Ginny whispered patiently, as she raised her face to within an inch of his.

Harry noticed that she fit perfectly in his arms and said softly, "I know that I have been a complete prat for not noticing what was under my nose the entire time, but-." To hell with it! Harry leaned forward and placed his lips on to hers. It was a messy kiss at first since their teeth clinked together, and their noses bumped. However, after they pulled apart giggling, Ginny leaned in for more. The second time their lips met, Harry sighed, as her small hands came up to play with the hair at his neck. With her arms around his shoulders, her body was snuggled blisteringly against him. She gasped, as he crushed her closer. Thinking he had gone too far, Harry began to pull away, but Ginny had other ides. With a soft moan, she parted her lips, inviting him to deepen the kiss. He had never kissed anybody this way before, but the invitation was more than he could refuse. Tentatively, he touched her bottom lip with his tongue, her tongue answered and together they learned the taste and feel of each other's mouth.

After the blizzard died down, they put on their now dry robes and scarves. Harry had held her hand while they walked to the door and opened it. Once they were outside and the door closed, he placed his arm around her waist to help steady her as they trudged their way toward the castle. Suddenly he stopped, damn! He stiffened as he suddenly remembered the prophecy… Neither can live while the other survives…what did I just do? Harry thought wildly.

"Ginny," He fumbled for the words to say. "Why do you want to be with me?" Harry asked his palms sweating, profoundly.

"Pardon?" Ginny blinked. Staring into Harry's now panicked eyes, she was momentarily confused, until the words of the dreaded prophecy played across her mind… Neither can live while the other survives….

She firmly met his troubled emerald green eyes, "I've been through the Chamber and know what Tom's perfectly capable of Harry."

Taking hold of his clammy hand, she faintly heard him say, "Then that's the reason why I want you to stay away from me! You know what the prophecy contains, and what I have to do. If Voldemort knew that you where close to me…I would never forgive myself if…" Harry said wildly, his emerald eyes worried, as he and started to take his arms from her waist.

Knowing that Harry would withdraw into himself if she didn't convince him, Ginny roughly took his hand and hung onto it, "I've been with you from the start, Harry." Ginny growled, forcing her face nearer to his, her brown eyes glinting dangerously. "Yes, I've seen what Tom can do in the Chamber and I intend to see him pay. I am fully capable of taking care of myself, Harry! Or have you forgotten what you taught me last year in Dumbledore's Army?"

Slowly he began to relax, the panic withdrawing from his eyes. "I know that you can defend yourself, Ginny." He said softly, "But I just want you to stay safe."

Tugging him closer, Ginny said, "Harry, whether we're together or not, I'm still going to love you. Tom already knows that. Please don't pull away from me now; knowing you care for me makes me stronger."

Harry frowned as if coming to the same conclusion that she had. "Ginny, it's not that I regret anything that's happened." He smiled at her and whispered softly, "It was brilliant."

"Yes, it was," she agreed. Sensing that he was still worried about something, Ginny raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

His face going red, he blurted out. "How am I going to deal with your family? They've been great to me for all the years that I have stayed with them but — how am I going to face Ron? And come to think of it, the Twins!" He moaned.

Ginny laughed, gaily throwing back her head, the sun glinting off of her vibrant red hair. "Was that also what you're worried about?" She asked him softly.

Red-faced Harry nodded and Ginny moved closer to him, eyes sparkling in amusement. "I've waited for this for over five years, Harry. My brothers can sod off for all I care." Wrapping her arms around Harry's neck they kissed one last time. It was a kiss of understanding and commitment, more than need. As their lips met, Harry knew that she would always be there ready to support him. With her at his side, he could face anyone, even the Twins.

Ginny grinned and together they joined hands. Both were blushing furiously, as they passed the winged boars of the castle's entrance.

A/N: Much appreciation goes to emmyolu for giving me the idea in the first place. I would like to thank Mrs Lackey for her help with the bonding. Melindaleo's story 'the Power of Emotion' influenced much of this story. Finally, thank you, Professor Scroll for helping me with my first story. Please read and review!