Improper:
Ginny's POV:
It was the middle of the night, and Ginny was slowly descending the stairs. It was completely dark, and she couldn't see a thing. Grimmauld Place might have been creepy during the day, but that was nothing compared to how creepy it was at night. The blurry outlines of the heads of the old house elves on the wall was enough to make Ginny run back to her room screaming. She was seriously considering this option when she bumped into something very solid and stumbled backward, crying out.
A wand was lit and Ginny covered her eyes with her hands. Through her fingers she could see the slightly blurry face of Sirius. Her heart, which had been beating wildly a second before, seemed to stop.
"Are you all right?" Sirius questioned, holding out a hand to help Ginny up.
Ginny accepted the help and was pulled to her feet. They were then overwhelmed by a huge awkward silence which neither of them could seem to break. Ginny scratched the inside of her left ankle with her right big toe but kept looking straight into Sirius's eyes- they were like a magnet. Her face turned blood red.
"So," Sirius finally muttered. "What're you doing up so late?"
"I couldn't sleep," Ginny replied.
"So you decided to take a stroll through the completely dark house?"
"Well," Ginny replied, feeling utterly foolish, "I was going to go sit in front of the fire in the kitchen."
"Ah," said Sirius.
"What were you doing?"
"I was actually reading in front of the fire in the kitchen." He lifted his left hand, and Ginny noticed a copy of The Daily Prophet was rolled up in it. "I was going up to get a quill to make a note of things."
"Oh," was all Ginny could thing of to say. She instantly cursed herself for being so stupid. She'd ended the conversation, and Sirius would probably go get his quill and not come back down.
"If you really can't sleep, I would enjoy some company," Sirius said after a moment or two, much to Ginny's surprise.
"Okay," Ginny said.
Sirius turned as if to head for the kitchen, but Ginny stayed put.
"What about your quill?" she asked.
"Oh," Sirius said. He muttered something, and a quill zoomed down the stairs and into his outstretched hand. "Got it covered."
They entered the kitchen, and Sirius went to sit at the table. While he unrolled the Prophet and began scratching something down, Ginny lay down on the hearth and stretched.
"You are so like a cat," Sirius commented after a moment.
Ginny lifted her head and looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing," Sirius replied, shaking his head and looking back down at the newspaper.
"No," Ginny said, getting up and going toward him. She hated when people started to say something and then stopped. "What?"
"Well," Sirius went on, rather reluctantly it seemed, "The fire just sort of makes you go limp."
He sounded like he wasn't quite telling the whole story, but Ginny let it go. She then realized that she was standing awkwardly in front of him.
"What are you doing?" she decided to ask, hoisting herself up on the table to sit in front of him.
"Just business," Sirius replied. "Order stuff."
"Can I see?"
"I don't think Molly would like that much," Sirius replied. "Besides, it's nothing big."
"Well, if it's nothing big, why won't you tell me?"
Sirius looked her straight in the eyes, and Ginny sensed that Sirius was weighing his options. Then he said, "There's this... weapon."
Ginny felt her eyes grow wide. "Weapon?" she questioned.
"Yes," Sirius replied. "And we're trying to figure out how much Voldemort knows about it."
"How does writing down things in the newspaper help?"
"Well," Sirius began, "we want to see if Voldemort can get any information from it."
"Oh," Ginny replied. Then she whispered, "Is Harry in danger? At his aunt and uncle's, I mean."
"He's being followed," Sirius replied, his eyes still boring into hers. "He's safe."
"Oh," Ginny said, silently cursing herself for her lack of conversational skills.
There was silence for a moment, and Ginny was about to ask if Harry knew he was being followed when suddenly Sirius's lips were on hers.
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A/N: Review please!!
M-L07