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Chapter Two

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Two days passed since the incident in the common room. Dean has since apologized to her for his accusation for her alleged 'cheating' but she couldn't help but notice that he still didn't apologize for his ever-constant claims that Harry liked watching her. He no longer brought it up but Ginny knew that it was only a matter of time based on how often she caught him glaring over at that specific spot in the common room by the fire…

Now, she sat once again in the Astronomy Tower, with her arms hugging her knees and her back against one of the columns as she stared out at the Black Lake. She normally came here for a serene, quiet moment to empty her mind, to focus on her breathing. But lately, it's been a place where all she could do was think bustling and confusing thoughts.

Her relationship with Dean was not going in the direction that she hoped. In fact, it was going the exact opposite direction. In the beginning it was easy. He was kind and drew her pictures. They would talk Quidditch and he would try to explain the rules of muggle football to her. But now, it was a constant struggle not to fall into an argument with him. He even went further on treating her as though she were made of only glass! He outright demanded to carry her books to her classroom the other day, and he won't stop helping her through that damned portrait hole! The thought caused her blood to boil. Their relationship was no longer easy or fun. It has become a chore. His unwarranted jealousy against Harry was ruining their relationship more than if Harry actually did fancy her and then announced it to the entire castle.

She blushed at the picture this errant thought painted. It was a ridiculous, silly child's daydream. Harry? Fancy her? She couldn't help the snort that escaped her. Dean was seriously off his rocker.

"Something funny?" A familiar voice spoke behind her.

Ginny jumped, her hand clutched at her heart as she whirled her head back to look at him. If the voice wasn't enough indicator, the black messy hair and the bespectacled green eyes were recognizable to her immediately. "Harry! Merlin. You scared me."

He grinned wide at her, those green eyes of his dancing, completely unapologetic. Her heart was now beating fast for reasons other than him sneaking up on her… His smile always lit up his face and made him look all the more handsome. It was a pity that it rarely showed itself these days… not since Sirius' death. But she still basked in the sight of it now.

"It's not often that I get to do that. You're usually fearless, Gin." His tone was light, with an edge of mocking glee as his eyes sparkled with mirth. Oh. He was going to pay for that. She would find a way to trip him up sooner or later to get him back for catching her unnerved. "Mind if I sit?"

His head indicated to the open space next to her and she nodded automatically, though she was still confused by his presence. They never spent time alone together. Her brother was usually around or Hermione… or her entire family, for that matter. With six older brothers, she barely had time for herself growing up. Hence the need to sneak out to the broom shed at night in order for her to practice flying. He stepped forward and lowered himself on the floor next to her, crossing his legs as he did so. Their thighs bumped against each other. Ginny flushed before she shook her head and turned it to look at him. "What brings you up here?"

Harry bit his bottom lip as he seemed to hesitate to answer. Ginny found it rather odd. To her, it was a simple question that required a simple answer, right? Harry inhaled deeply. "I was looking for you, actually," He confided, much to her surprise. "You've seemed out of sorts lately and I wanted to make sure that you're okay."

The deep concern in his voice and displayed in his gaze caused her eyes to burn with the prickling of tears. Her throat tightened measurably and she tried to swallow against it. Why did he have to be so good? It would be so much easier for her all these years if the famous Harry Potter ended up being a total prat. But no… he just had to be one of the best people that she knew. She blinked rapidly to fight against the sensation that was threatening to well in her eyes. She'd been warned in the past how Harry reacted to a girl's tears… Cho Chang was a testament to that.

"Well… to be honest, I haven't really felt like myself lately." She turned her head downward and started to pick at a stray thread on her muggle jeans.

"That's unfortunate. I happen to like it when you're yourself." He bumped his shoulder against hers and the action, on top of his comment, caused her to smile wanly at him.

"Thanks. Nice to know that someone hasn't been upset with me lately."

His brows furrowed. "Who else is upset with you?"

"Well…" Why did she suddenly feel so silly? "I guess that was a bit over-dramatic. But Ron has barely spoken to me since my comment on him not kissing anyone, then he went off with Lavender and Hermione found out that my comment was responsible for that-"

"I doubt that Hermione is upset-"

"And my dorm mate - Mayetta - accused me of stealing her favourite bra." She blurted, deliberately trying to make him uncomfortable. She had to get him back for sneaking up behind and scaring her somehow, and Harry Potter was very rarely fearful of anything. Not since facing Voldemort and surviving on multiple occasions. So… sneaking up on him was out of the question.

Harry's eyes widened and he shifted his weight before his eyes turned to amusement. "Well, did you?"

"No. Her bra wouldn't fit me."

Harry flushed scarlet at that as his eyes pointedly looked away from her to the ground, unable to look at her any further it seemed. Merlin, was she really that repulsive to him?

She sighed and looked down again. "And then I'm sure you know that Dean and I have been fighting lately," Then she stopped herself and let out a short, unamused chortle of a laugh. "Wait. Of course you've noticed. It's all that we've been doing for weeks now. I'm sure that the whole school knows."

Harry winced to himself. "You're not wrong on that…"

He let out a breath that released in a staccato. "I'm sorry, Ginny."

She flashed him a surprised glance. "Why? It's not your fault."

He bit his lip again, worrying it between his teeth, but said nothing. They sat in silence for a moment.

"So, er, why have you been fighting?" Why did he sound so nervous? Was he afraid that he was pushing the boundaries on her privacy? And perhaps he was… because the last thing that Ginny wanted to do was to tell Harry that Dean suspected that he fancied her. He was bound to wonder where Dean got such a barmy idea in his head and he would likely conclude that all signs pointed to Ginny. After all, she was the one that had a crush on the boy in question for over five years.

"Eh… You know. Just stupid relationship stuff. That, and he just constantly treats me like a china doll."

At this, Harry raised a heavy, sardonic brow as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"What?" She asked, struck by the peculiar look on his face, all while trying not to think about how attractive the expression made him look.

Harry shook his head to himself as he let loose a huff of a laugh - short and unamused. "It's nothing… just that - if Dean really knew you, then he would know that you are one of the strongest most independent witches that he's had to have ever known. I can't imagine where he gets off treating you like glass… not when it's so clear that you can fight for yourself. And that's not to mention how compared to everything else you've faced, you would think that he would know that you can handle the weight of a heavy door or some books."

All that she could do was turn to stare at him with wide eyes. Ginny was so used to fighting for her place in this world… being the youngest sister to a family of six older brothers guaranteed that she was constantly undermined and not appreciated for her skills. She could do so much, but her family - as much as she loved them - always tried to hold her back.

Her dad had always told her stories of the famous Harry Potter when she was young - in those stories, he always established a theme… where Harry Potter would always set out to save the young, ginger witch from peril. It took her a long time to catch on to it, how Harry Potter would always rescue someone who looked like her rather than the two of them setting out on an adventure together.

Her mum had always allowed her older brothers to start riding a broom at the age of six. Ginny had remembered being so excited for her sixth birthday to arrive, just so that she could hop onto a broom to ride for the very first time. But when her sixth birthday came, and Ginny had asked her mum if it was time for her to find the broom from the shed, her mum nearly had a heart attack just from the thought and outright banned her from flying…

If Ginny hadn't snuck out to the broom shed at night to teach herself how to fly, she was sure that she would've never gotten good enough to play Quidditch for the Gryffindor team. Which would have been a damn shame, because it was one of the things that brought her joy these days… especially with how trying her relationship with Dean currently was.

And then there was Bill… sweet Bill. He means well, but being the oldest, he got it in his head that he had to look out for his one and only sister. Whenever she had arguments with others in the house, he would always try to shut down the argument by taking her side. At first glance, one would think that this should make her grateful. But as time went on and the older she gotten, she came to realize that Bill only took her side to try and shut down to argument entirely… because he thought that she was too delicate in order to handle it on her own. When this suspicion came, she had decided to test it out… by starting an argument with Ron that she knew that she was completely in the wrong on.

And Bill… he still scolded Ron on her behalf. It had been a disheartening discovery.

Charlie was another matter entirely. Being the second oldest, he tended to look down on her as nothing but his annoying, baby sister. She knew that he didn't do it intentionally, but that was just how he saw her. They never really had the chance to get to know eachother very well compared to her and her other brothers. She was so young when he was away at Hogwarts, and then he left for Romania as soon as he had graduated. But when he had been home during the summers or for holidays, he had always acted annoyed whenever she had come into his room, asking him to play with her. Once he had compared her to an annoying insect that buzzed in his ear. And Ginny had a sneaking suspiciousion that his opinion of her hasn't changed just because she has gotten older, given that they never saw each other anymore.

Percy always liked to lecture her on all that he thought that she did wrong - which to him, seemed to be everything. But, to be fair, he tended to do that to Fred, George, and Ron as well. But even though he didn't seem to discriminate by their genders, he most definitely targeted them by their younger age… which meant that Percy Weasley would always look down on her.

Fred and George seemed to be the most lenient with her compare to the rest of her family. They had tried to advocate on her behalf for her to ride a broom on her sixth birthday, but they had been unsuccessful. But, to make up for it, the twins tended to include their in their pranks and schemes - their primary target seemed to be Percy majority of the time, with Ron being a distant second. For so long, she had thought that the twins were the only ones that would see her on equal footing. That she was more than just the youngest or the only girl in the family… that she had hopes and dreams that she wanted to accomplish.

But that had changed when she had started dating Michael Corner…

She remembered when Fred and George had found out about her first boyfriend. They had confronted her outside of the library about it, by outright demanding that she was too young for a boyfriend and that she should break it off before they felt that they had to intervene in the matter.

They were such bloody hypocrites, the lot of them.

She knew for a fact that Fred had went and gotten his first girlfriend when he had been only twelve. And George had been rumoured to snog the occasional witch in empty broom closets starting back when he was thirteen.

She was certain that if it had been Ron who had managed to get in a relationship back in his third year, the twins would have congratulated him. But since she was a girl, she was deemed too young.

And then there was Ron… When they were younger, before they both went off to Hogwarts and were homeschooled by their mum, they had been really close. They had played so much together back then inbetween the lessons and the chores.

But then… Ron had gone off to Hogwarts without her. Got himself other friends. And then, all of a sudden, he was embarrassed by her. She had overheard him on multiple occasions telling Harry and Hermione how annoying she was and that he wished that she would just leave them alone.

She had written a long diary entry to Tom that night… poured her heart out to the pages with her ink and quill. And the next day? It had been the day that she had killed the roosters, and the possession had gotten stronger.

But here was Harry - the person she could arguably say that she looked up to and admired the most - saying that he thought that she was a strong and independent witch.

To her horror, tears sprung to her eyes. She could feel that the pale skin on her face was getting red and blotchy as she hiccuped with shaky breaths. She reached up to wipe hastily at her eyes as she turned away from Harry's wide and bewildered gaze.

"What's wrong?" He asked immediately, reaching out to grasp one of her wrists as she tried to hide her tears. "Was it something I said? If yes, then I'm sorry, I-"

Ginny was shaking her head, trying to use her hair as a veil to cover her face from his imploring gaze. "No… I'm sorry. You didn't saying anything wrong. The exact opposite, actually."

Merlin, she was so embarrassed. Especially since she knew how uncomfortable Harry got around girl's tears. And who could blame him? What right did she have to cry in front of him when he has endured so much in his short life? If anyone had the right to cry, it was Harry. But he continued to be strong and resilient despite everything.

"The exact opposite?" Harry echoed her words back to her as he continued to softly tug at her wrist. His other hand came up to tuck her hair behind her ear, trying to get her to look at him, "Care to elaborate on what that means? I really have no clue what-"

"It's nothing, really," Ginny stressed as she forced herself to breathe evenly, trying to get a handle on her emotions. She really just wanted to move past this topic of conversation. Maybe even try and find a quick escape away from him so that she could go under her bed covers and die of mortification.

"Are you sure? I-"

"What the fuck is this?" A new voice thundered from behind them. Ginny and Harry shiveled their necks back… to see Dean Thomas in the open doorway of the astronomy tower.

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A/N: Oh the angst! Gotta love it. Please tell me your thoughts in a comment/review.

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