Chapter 2:

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"So, what did she say, Ron?" Mrs. Weasley asked her tall son.

Ron looked miserably at his mother and said, "Well, Fleur was all frustrated, and I just asked her if she'd decided, then she starts this monologue on her favorite colors, and the next thing I know, I pulled out my wand and offered to help. I reckon she didn't hear me, because she was talking about indigo, so I just did a spell and  "

Harry and Mr. Weasley had just arrived in the kitchen before Ron could finish. Ron, completely forgetting about what he was talking about, looked happy and strode over to Harry instead of finishing.

"Hey mate!" Ron said enthusiastically. "Y'all right?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, grinning. Ron seemed exceptionally happy. Must have been that he was glad to have a distraction from his chores and speech.

"Hello, Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley greeted warmly. "Did everything go alright, Arthur?" she asked, turning to her husband.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did," Mr. Weasley said proudly.

"Good, good," Mrs. Weasley said, then turning to Ron, she asked: "Now, Ron, what happened next?"

Ron suddenly remembered what he had been doing before. His face fell and continued:

"I think I did the spell wrong in my head," His ears turned a bit red. "Because I pointed my wand at the plain white carnations Fleur was planning to Charm, and I accidentally turned them into rubber ducks. That obliviously set her off, because she started crying and saying stuff in French while glaring at me. Then, I ran back here."

Harry couldn't help but give a small laugh. Ron grinned sheepishly. "It was kinda funny, now that I think about it." he said.

"I'll go talk to her," Mrs. Weasley sighed. She departed gloomily through the kitchen door.

"Did you boys remember your Apparition tests?" Mr. Weasley asked. "They're holding the sessions in Diagon Alley sometime after the wedding."

"Blimey, I forgot about that!" Ron said, almost laughing.

"Me too," Harry admitted.

At that moment, Hermione appeared through the door, looking a bit grubby. She made a beeline straight for Ron, without noticing Harry. Mr. Weasley left when Hermione entered.

"There you are Ron!" she said, sounding thoroughly exasperated. "I was going to ask you if you could help me with the gnomes. There's only a few left, but it's difficult just doing them all myself. As my  "

But she stopped abruptly when she noticed Harry, a pink color rising in her cheeks.

"Oh, hi Harry!" she said, her voice a little shaky. "H-how are you?"

"Fine," Harry replied, looking at her strangely. "What were you saying to Ron? 'As my' slave?"

"Eh…no," Hermione said, still blushing, but then she regained her firm manner. "Why don't you help Ron and I? I've been weeding out the gnomes."

"Sure…." Harry said, still a little questioning about what this was all about.

As the trio made their way to the Weasley's garden, Ginny had popped into Harry's mind. He almost asked about her, but didn't. It was best to ask about her at a different approach.

"So, what's everyone been doing?"

"Ron and I have been helping Mrs. Weasley, and now Mr. Weasley has to get back to work. Fleur's been a bit on edge all day."

Hermione had completely forgotten about Ginny, to Harry's disappointment. It seemed as though she wanted Harry to be a bit braver by asking himself.

"That's all?" Harry asked, trying to coax it out of them.

"Yeah," Ron said as he made his way over to a gnome peering it's head out of a bush. "Everyone's doing something, except Ginny."

Harry smiled out of spite.

Ron, though being his best-best friend, wasn't as clever as Hermione. Sure enough, before Hermione chucked the gnome nearest to her, she gave him a small look of pity.

"So, you don't know what she's doing?" Harry asked, scanning the ground for gnomes.

"Nope," Ron answered simply as he tossed a gnome across the yard.

"What d'ya reckon she might be - ?"

"Oh, Harry," Hermione cut in with an exasperated tone. "We don' t know. Why don't you just ask her for yourself?"

Harry didn't give her an answer until he had full grip on one of the gnomes he was chasing. "Well, er - I, uh - don't know where she is and - "

But, as if on cue, (to cut Harry off) Fleur came striding into the garden. Her silvery hair was clumsily placed behind her shoulders and her blue eyes were narrowed. Her beauty was somewhat ruined by the hysterical scowl on her face. Harry noticed she was dressed almost like a Muggle: Blue long-sleeved shirt and knee-skirt, but with fuzzy Eskimo boots when it was the middle of summer.

Fleur made a beeline for Ron, still looking kind of creepy.

"Zi will 'av zou know," Fleur said throatily, leering down at Ron. "Zat I 'av feexed ze cars-nations. Vut do not disturb ve again, Vonald. Zit 'as been a long day, and zi am a vit tired."

She was about to turn around, but added, looking prettier with an apologetic face now, "Oh, zes, I am zorry for yeeling at zou." gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and departed. Hermione glared hard after Fleur, but Ron looked as though he was holding back a grin as his mouth twisted around.

"Ha, that's new," Ron said, now letting his grin free. "She gets mad at me, she confronts me, but then she - "

He stopped suddenly at the look on Hermione's face.

"N-not that I - " Ron started to stutter.

"Harry, there's a gnome right next to you," Hermione pointed out, trying to sound casual, but looking still a bit furious.

Harry managed to catch the gnome that was trying to run away, but Harry was too quick for it. After Harry tossed it, Ron looked around.

"That looks like all of them," he said. "Well, Harry, you go put your bags up in Fred and George's room. Me and Hermione - "

" - Hermione and I," Hermione corrected.

" - will just do a double check,"

"Okay," Harry said, leaving Ron and Hermione to scout the area for more gnomes.

As Harry headed upstairs, his right arm carrying the weight of his bag, he came across Ginny's room. He had to go up one more landing to get to Fred and George's room, but maybe he could just stop in Ginny's room to say hi? That wouldn't hurt…would it?

So, he cracked her bedroom door open a bit, and looked inside. She wasn't there.

Out of curiosity, Harry went inside. He hadn't ever been in Ginny's room, so decided to look around.

Crammed into the room was a twin-sized bed, dresser, and a closet. There were posters of famous Quidditch teams on the wall (much like Ron's, but the teams weren't Chudley Cannons). One of the Seeker's on the team the Irish poster, who had swerved out of view, slowly floated back to get a better look at Harry. The Seeker waved, then shot off again, most likely to find the Golden Snitch.

Harry proceeded to the dresser, where Ginny had squeezed in a lot of pictures; some being overlapped by other photo's frames.

One of them included the picture of the Weasley's in Egypt. Ginny obliviously had cut the picture out of the Daily Prophet to get it. There she was, waving as exuberantly as Ron, who was right next to her. The picture-Ron grinned at Harry and the picture-Ginny winked.

There were many other pictures: Bill and Ginny out in the garden (who looked about six years old, but still looking at Bill as though he were her idol), Pigwideon zooming in and out of the frame, apparently tweeting happily, Luna Lovegood gazing around her surroundings, but taking in the views of Hogwarts vaguely.

But one of the far-back pictures was something Harry hadn't expected: Himself, with Gilderoy Lockhart tugging at Harry's arm, trying to get him in the picture when he was twelve years old, and a picture of when he and Ginny had been together, when he was sixteen and she was fifteen.

There they were, and Harry remembered immediately that this was one of the days he and Ginny had spent down by the Blake Lake. They were both grinning at each other broadly, but appeared to be talking merrily, too.

Harry also remembered that it was Romilda Vane who had taken this picture, (who was planning to cut Ginny out and replace her with herself) but she had apparently dropped the photo somewhere and Ginny found it, and showed it to Harry, while Romilda was teeming with anger at losing her precious photograph.

Harry tore his eyes away from the photos and scanned the floor, trying to restrain himself from thinking of those rare, happy times. He finally found something more interesting than a sock: a halfway-folded letter.

Also out of curiosity, Harry picked it up, and read:

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass GradesFail Grades

OUTSTANDING (O)POOR (P)

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E)DREADFUL (D)

ACCEPTABLE (A)TROLL (T)

Ginevra Molly Weasley has achieved:

AstronomyA

Care of Magical Creatures E

CharmsE

Defense Against the Dark ArtsE

DivinationA

HerbologyA

History of MagicD

PotionsE

TransfigurationO

Harry looked at Ginny's grades again. She and him got mostly the same grades, (it seemed Ginny could not stand History of Magic either, but she did do better than him in Divination. But what was with an "O" in Transfiguration? How'd she manage that?) but some were different.

Just as Harry was about to set her O.W.L. grades back on the floor, he heard someone come inside the room. Harry held his breath for a second, hoping it was anyone other than….

Ginny looked at Harry with an incredulous expression. He could not exactly tell what was going on inside her head, because she didn't look exactly angry.

When she set down the armful of clean laundry on the edge of her bed, her expression did not change. They both stood there, without saying anything, until when Ginny scrutinized him suspiciously, Harry felt that was his cue to leave.