Chaper 4 - Beautiful
Harry stared up at the sky above him, the first stars of the evening beginning to shine, and let his mind wander to the evening's events and reflect upon how much had changed in those few short hours.
Firstly, and most importantly, he had Ginny back. Her hand was in his as they strolled the familiar path through the woods to the stream near the Burrow. When Ron had finished telling his tale, they had sensed that all anyone needed was time to think over what had happened, and time enough they would have tonight, and tommorrow Harry supposed they would discuss it. Since he and Ginny were no longer needed, they had slipped out the back door for a little alone time.
Secondly, Ron had gone from being his best friend, to someone he hated. He still didn't understand why he would have done that to them, his sister and best mate. He supposed that would be part of what they would discuss tommorrow.
Thirdly and finally, he had gone from feeling uterly empty of emotion this morning to completely full now. He was guilty at how he had behaved towards everyone in the past week, annoyed at himself for not guessing what was going on, angry at Ron of course, and angry at himself for believing his Ginny would do such a thing, and upset too, that Ron would behave like that towards him. He also felt very sorry towards the rest of the Weasleys, for upsetting them again, so soon after they had already lost a son and a brother at a fault of his.
'Don't stress about it now,' Ginny said, as if guessing his thoughts, rubbing her hand up and down his arm and turning her body closer to his, 'I'm not gonna lie and say everything's gonna be okay, but for tonight, lets not mention it, alright?'
'Alright,' Harry looked down at her, and pulled her in for a hug.
It was in that moment, when he looked down at her, and she looked up at him, that he realised it. He loved her. He had never felt an emotion so strong towards anyone before, and there was nothing else it could be. He had known for ages that he liked her - and liked her a lot for that matter - but this was something different, something different entirely. And he had to tell her.
Then, as the trees cleared to reveal a truly beautiful spot: a gushing stream, sparkling in the moonlight, surrounded by lush greenery, he remembered the little gift sitting in his flat that he had bought her for her 17th brithday. He realised then that he had missed her birthday and another wave of guilt swallowed him.
'Is something wrong Harry?' Ginny asked, concerned.
He hadn't noticed until then that he had stopped walking.
'No, not at all.' he replied coming back to the present, 'I just have to pop back to the flat quickly, to get something. I''ll be back before you can say 'quidittch''
With that he let go of Ginny's hand, and spun on the spot. He knew exactly were it was, and he ran to get it, but a voice he hadn't been anticipating found him.
'Harry, is that you?' it asked.
He stopped where he was, spun around and slowly entered the rarely-used kitchen area. There, sat on a stool at the breakfast bar, was a muggle-born witch with frizzy brown hair, and a very soggy tissue in her hand.
'Er . . . Hermione,' he began, 'Are you okay?'
Stupid question, of course she not okay you fool, why else would she be crying?
'I mean, of course your not okay, what a stupid thing to say. I mean, why would you be okay, after what happended today. It was a shock for all of us, I know, but you must have felt it hardest, being so close to him, and all, and not knowing a thing.'
Okay, so now he was babbling. You just can't get anything right can you? he asked himself.
'Would you like another tissue?' he ended up asking.
She nodded her head so hopelessly that Harry just had to go and hug her. What he wasn't expecting was for her to wrap her arms around him and hold onto him for dear life. And he just stood there. If this helped her, he was happy to go along with it.
'Oh look at me,' she sniffed after several minutes, pulling away from him, 'It was you h-h-he was so horrible to, I should be comforting you!' she ended in quite a hysterical manner.
'Hermione, I'm fine, well, as fine as I can be under the circumstances, but you're not,' he said loudly, blocking out her feeble arguments. 'Just stay here, I'll be back in a sec.'
He ran off into his bedroom, not only to get Ginny's birthday present, but also a potion sat on his bedside table. He had used it a lot in the past week.
When back in the kitchen, he helped her up and led her over to sit down on the sofa. He then got her a tissue and fixed her up a cup of tea, pouring some of the potion in. It was a fairly complex Sleeping Drought and would put her mind to rest, and when she woke up again, not before tommorrow morning, she would hopefully feel relaxed, and be able to think things over in a rational manner.
'Here, drink this,' Harry said, handing her the cup of tea. 'You'll feel better soon.'
'Thanks so much Harry, you've been great.'
'No problem, but I really had better get back now, I told Ginny I'd be really quick. But don't worry about it, she'll understand.' he added when he saw the worried look on Hermione's face. 'I'll come back later to see how you're doing. Bye'
When he arrived back in the clearing, Ginny was sitting on the bank, staring across the stream. The sky above them was black. She turned when she heared him apparate.
'I could have said quidditch a good few times since you left you know,' she said with a small smile.
'Sorry,' said Harry, going to sit down next to her, 'but Hermione was there, she was kind of upset.'
'Is she alright now?' Ginny asked, snuggling up to Harry.
'I gave her a sleeping drought, and we just have to make sure someone, namely not Ron, is there when she wakes up,' replied Harry.
A comfortable silence fell between them then. The only noise was the rush of the river, and a warm Summer breeze whipping through the trees surrounding the couple.
'Are you going to tell me what you went back for or not?' Ginny asked him, smiling slightly.
'Alright,' Harry replied, rearranging himself so he was in a proper sitting position facing Ginny. The moonlight reflected off her face in such a perfect way, he almost forgot what he was going to say, but he regained himself quickly. 'I missed your birthday last week.' he began, looking down.
'Don't worry about it,' Ginny said quickly, 'Go on.'
'Well, I got you a present, it was, after all your 17th,' he added, when Ginny sounded like she was about to interupt him, 'And I never gave it to you, and I reckon now is the time.'
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little package wrapped in pale pink tissue paper and handed it to Ginny.
She took it and very delicately began to undo the spellotape. She gasped as she unfolded the final layer.
'Oh Harry,' she whipsered, 'you shoudn't have.'
He reached foward to pick up the white gold chain and draped it round her neck. He shuffled around so he was sat behind her and brushed her long hair out of the way so her could do up the clasp. He then gently kissed her neck, and let her hair fall back again.
'It's so beautiful' she uttered softly, as her fingered absent-mindedly went up to touch the two hearts hanging around her neck. The top one had the words, 'I love you' inscribed into it with a small diamond inset into the white gold beneath it. The second heart was just a rim, but the names Harry and Ginny had been inscribed into it so small it could barely be seen by the naked eye.
'You're so beautiful,' he told her, cupping her face in his hands, 'And I love you.'
With that he brought he face to his and softly kissed her lips.
I'll admit that was mainly a load of very pointless fluff, but hey, I had fun writing it!
Thanks to Dragyn42who gave me a load of good advice and yeah, I did agree with most of what you said, and it will probably make my fan fic better as whole (not to mention easier to write!) by changing my previous (and pretty bad) Chapter 4 to this one. Tell me what you think of the change. I like it, but please don't tell me parts of it are a bit rushed coz I noticed that myself and wasn't sure how to change it so just left it.