Ginny's P.O.V.
Ginny woke the next day, her eyes sticky. Glancing quickly at her bedside clock, she saw that it was just past six in the morning. She groaned and rolled over, shutting her eyes against the dim morning light.
Ginny was a natural early-riser but she also wasn't crazy. She knew it would have only made sense to sleep in this morning rather than get six hours of sleep… but obviously her body clock had other plans.
Still she tried, fruitlessly… to get back to sleep.
When it became clear that she wasn't going to be able to manage that, Ginny slowly rose out of her bed and walked to her wardrobe, sighing the whole way and thinking longingly of a mug of coffee…
Quietly, Ginny stepped her way downstairs to the kitchen.
There, she set about making her coffee, wondering vaguely if she might like to have a little extra sugar this morning if only because she could…
'Ginny?'
Ginny jumped and turned to stare at…
'Harry?' she frowned at him.
He was standing in the entrance to the kitchen, looking urgent… but still rather apprehensive.
'What are you doing up so early?' she asked of him.
He said nothing.
Then slowly… Harry walked towards her.
One, two, three, four steps and he was right in front of her, still with that hesitant yet frantic look in his eyes as if he needed to go somewhere or do something but he wasn't sure if he was allowed to or if he should…
'Harry?' she asked again, a little quieter this time.
She saw Harry swallow.
Then…
He stepped once onto her and pulled his lips to hers, capturing her in a sudden and shockingly warm embrace.
Ginny's gasp of surprise was muffled as Harry only kissed her harder to quell the initial shock.
Slowly, Ginny's surprise slipped away, along with any other coherent thought or sense of what's wrong and right…
There was something different in this kiss. The fire burned hotter and wilder in Ginny and she was filled with longing. A longing to kiss Harry harder, to bring him as close as humanly possible to her and she felt, rather than heard, Harry's moan.
After a few seconds of pure heaven, they broke apart.
Harry looked kind of stunned and more than a little confused.
Ginny just stared at him.
'Care to explain?' she said, startled at the shake in her voice.
Harry frowned.
'I… I'm sorry,' he stammered. 'But… last night…' He hesitated. 'That was an experiment of sorts. Just then…'
'An experiment? Testing what?'
'Whether or not last night was one off or…' He trailed off and frowned at Ginny in what looked like a confused curiosity.
'And was it?' she asked, frowning back.
Slowly… he blinked.
And then shook his head.
'No,' he replied quietly. 'In honesty… no.'
Slowly Ginny nodded.
'Me neither,' she murmured.
Then the pair just stared at each other, Ginny not really knowing where things were going to go from there.
It was clear that Harry had felt the same intense pleasure at their kiss, both of them…
But there was something nagging at the back of Ginny's mind that she just couldn't put her finger on.
'But…' Ginny frowned. 'You have… there's… you know… Cho.'
Harry blinked.
Then he winced.
'Yeah… I know,' he said, looking upset at himself all of a sudden.
'So… now what?' Ginny asked.
She thought it rather unfair of Harry to just kiss her like that twice no less… then agree that his girlfriend was still a problem.
'I… I don't know, Ginny, I…' Harry sighed. 'I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have done that.'
Slowly… Ginny felt her heart sink and she sighed.
Of course.
'No, you probably shouldn't have,' she agreed bitterly.
Harry winced.
'Look, Gin' –
'No, it's fine. I get it. You were just curious… no harm done, I guess,' she shrugged. And before Harry could get another word in, she reached onto the counter and grabbed her mug. 'I'm heading upstairs now, I might see if Hermione's awake.'
'Ginny…' Harry frowned.
But Ginny only shook her head.
'It's okay Harry… See you around,' she said before ducking quickly around Harry and heading back up the stairs with her coffee and deflated spirits.
Stupid, stupid, stupid…
Yes. It was rather stupid of Ginny to think that Harry was being anything but a teenage boy…
He liked the kiss last night so he wanted to see if he'd like it again…
But it meant nothing.
Obviously.
Ginny half hated herself for being hopeful and half hated Harry for instilling that hope in her.
She reached the room that Hermione was sleeping in (Percy's old room, vacant since he'd moved to London to be closer to work), before knocking and entering.
'Hermione…' Ginny walked in and not very surprisingly, Hermione was already dressed and sitting in bed, parchment, ink and books scattered around her. Ginny couldn't supress her smile. 'Are you honestly doing homework, Hermione?'
'Oh hi, Ginny,' Hermione said absently, scribbling down a few words. 'Well not technically, this is my essay for Potions, but I've already done. I just thought, whilst I had the spare time, I might as well touch it up a bit, you know? Just check for spelling or grammar or…'
Hermione trailed off and Ginny laughed, coming to sit on her bed.
'So…' Ginny said, adding a lot of weight to the word and watching for Hermione's reaction.
She didn't want to outright say that something was up… but she wasn't above giving Hermione major hints.
Sure enough… her friend was quick to catch on.
Hermione looked up, startled.
'Oh no… what is it?' she asked.
Ginny looked at Hermione a second. Then she shrugged and looked down at her coffee, taking a sip.
'Not much. I got up too early this morning… made myself a cup of coffee… oh and Harry kissed me again.'
Silence fell.
Ginny looked up to see Hermione starting at her in shock.
'He… what?' said Hermione, excitement slowly beginning to dawn on her features…
'Don't get too happy,' Ginny scowled. 'He was only "experimenting"… it meant nothing. But yeah. He kissed me again. Just then… about five minutes ago.'
'What do you mean it meant nothing, he kissed you for Merlin's sake, regardless of his motives,' Hermione still looked far too thrilled.
Ginny really just wanted to express to her that the kiss really had meant… nothing.
She just wasn't sure how to do that when deep down even she wasn't sure it meant nothing.
'Well obviously there's Cho, isn't there?' Ginny said angrily.
Hermione blinked.
'Oh… oh, no…' Suddenly… she looked sympathetic. 'So he kissed you… but then…'
'As soon as I brought up Cho… he said that… well he said that he shouldn't have done it. That he regretted it…' Ginny sighed and shook her head. 'I don't know what I was expecting. I mean honestly…'
'But it was still rather cruel of him to kiss you like that, if he knew that it wouldn't…' Hermione trailed off but Ginny shook her head.
'I don't think he really knew anything before he kissed me. He looked pretty dazed and confused and I believe… that it was just spur of the moment. Which I can forgive him for. I guess.'
Hermione gave her a soft look.
'I'm sorry, Ginny. If it makes a difference, I think it was a pretty terrible thing of him to do.'
'It doesn't really make a difference. But it makes me feel at least somewhat better,' Ginny offered a weak smile.
Hermione smiled too and reach out to hug her tightly.
Since about Ginny's third year, Hermione had been one of her closest friends, if not her best friend.
She was the only one who knew about her feelings for Harry and she was the first person Ginny knew to come to at a time like this.
'I'm glad,' said Hermione gently. 'Now come on. Let's head downstairs and we can get an actual decent breakfast rather than trying to sustain yourself on caffeine alone.'
Ginny giggled and agreed and soon the two were headed down the stairs, back into the kitchen.
The two girls entered to find Harry sitting at the table with Ron next to him.
Harry was laughing a bit and Ginny could only guess it was at the braindead look on her brother's face.
He, on the contrary was not a morning person.
Upon the girls' entry into the kitchen, however, he looked up.
He hesitated for a moment, eyes lingering on Ginny.
Then he smiled tersely.
'Good morning you two.'
'Well it was before,' Ginny mumbled, plonking herself down at the table.
'Ginny!' Hermione scolded.
Ginny shrugged sheepishly and avoided looking at anyone, Harry especially…
'I'm going to make myself some cereal, does anyone want a bowl?' Hermione asked.
'No thanks Hermione,' said Harry.
Ron made a vaguely disagreeing grunting noise.
'Um, yeah that'd be good Hermione, thanks,' Ginny said.
From the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Harry studying her from across the table.
But she almost blatantly refused to look at him.
It was just too hard.
And she was just too angry.
The rest of breakfast was a terse affair and once she had finished eating, Ginny made a quick excuse to leave before darting up into her room.
There, she brushed her teeth, redid her hair and decided upon something.
She was feeling pretty down.
And there was really only one thing that got her out of these moods.
So, determinedly… she grabbed her old Cleansweep 7, changed into something more suitable and headed out of her room again.
Halfway down… she debated asking Harry if he wanted to join.
Breakfast was far too awkward… and she really didn't want to be on such icy terms with Harry, regardless of what he did.
So…
Sighing, Ginny stepped back into the kitchen, completely prepared to let bygones be bygones…
At least that was before she saw Cho.
Ginny blinked. Then scowled mightily.
Cho Chang was standing in her kitchen, looking sleepy and sporting one hell of a bedhead.
Immediately, something dark twisted in Ginny and anger sparked to life in her.
'She stayed over,' Ginny blurted before she could get the chance.
Harry, Hermione, Ron and Cho all looked to her.
But it was Cho who first regained composure.
'Yes… I did,' Cho frowned.
Ginny frowned at her.
Then she glanced to Harry who looked rather upset all of a sudden.
'Well yeah… Remember? Last night, Ron offered if she wanted to sleep on the couch and…' he trailed off.
Vaguely Ginny did remember that kind of a conversation in the last few minutes of her being awake.
But that didn't make anything better.
In fact it might have made things a bit worse for the fact that she could have paid more attention and been prepared for this surprise…
Harry seemed to be pleading with her using his expression, asking her to forgive him for what he had done.
The look was purely disarming to Ginny.
So after a while… she had to look away, frowning and feeling a wave of sadness wash over her.
'Were you about to play some Quidditch?' Cho asked.
Ginny looked back up.
At her… then back to Harry.
'No. Forget it,' she said before turning and hurrying back up the stairs.
It was hard not to hate Harry.
And it was harder not to feel pointlessly upset as well.
Ginny rather shoved her broomstick back into her wardrobe before falling back onto her bed and sighing.
She knew she had to change…
Her feelings for Harry were becoming too much… they were hurting her too much.
She had to change.
Maybe there was a time in the past when she had hoped that he might come around but…
This morning had taught her one thing… that was never going to happen.
So… change she would.
She would try as hard as she could… not to love Harry.
But as is with most things…
That was a concept far easier said… than done.