AN: This is my first HP story in a looong time and Ive never read the books in English, so there are bound to be mistakes. You may keep them or write me a review ;) This first chapter is more like a prologue or exposition, the real story starts in the 2nd chapter! I hope you enjoy this!
-Harry-
There were quite a few things Harry Potter was absolutely positive about: first, he was wizard. Second, Lord Voldemort, the most dangerous wizard in the last few decades, had returned and the ministry was doing jack shit about it. Third, no matter what, his friends would have his back. And lastly, that he would never understand how his best friend Ron could have a crush on his other best friend, Hermione. It just didn't make any sense. To Harry, Hermione had always been like a sister (or, if he was being very honest, like a mother, but he would never say that out loud) and Ron like his brother and everything had been perfect; now tho, everything had turned a little awkward. Harry wasn't sure how it had started, but sometime over the summer, probably when he had been stuck with the Dursleys, something had changed between his two best friends. He hadn't realized it at first, the awkward glances, the silence that was just a little too long... Only when Sirius made an offhand comment to Lupin did Harry figure it out.
"Ah, to be young and in that awkward stage between friendship and fu..."
"Not in front of the children!", Molly interrupted Sirius with a furious movement of her wooden spoon and with a stern glare indiacted Harry to leave and follow Ron and Hermione.
"Ah Moony, I remember when we were that age...", Sirius continued on with a suggestive wink towards Lupin, whose cheeks promptly reddend.
"Huh, I wonder, what that's about", Harry thought as Molly ushered him out of the kitchen and into the empty hallway of Grimmauld Place 12.
It had been like this the past few days. While both Ron and Hermione were ecstatic that Harry was finally released from the Durselys and got to spend the remaining summer with them, they seemed less enthusiastic to spend that time with each other. Now Harry knew why. It seemed they really were in 'that awkward stage between friendship and fucking', as his guardian so eloquently put it. The image that started to form in his mind made him shudder and he quickly tried to think of something else. Harry sighed. Crushes, he thought, were entirely overrated.
"Especially when you're the Chosen One", he mumbled under his breath.
"Pardon?" Ginny, who'd appeared seemingly out of nowhere, gave him a lopsided grin.
"You talking to yourself now?"
Harry was momentarily at a loss for words. He felt embarressed to be caught mumbling to himself, but he couldn't very well tell Ginny of all people why he'd felt the need the vent. She probably hadn't caught on to Ron and Hermione yet, otherwise she would have teased her brother mercilessly. So he just shrugged and smiled at her.
"Well, let me know when you get your voice back", she winked at him and went into the kitchen.
"Ginny had a crush on me when she was younger", Harry thought. "And she got over it. So maybe there's still hope for Ron and Hermione."
Harry decided he had to talk about this with someone. Obviously, Ron and Hermione were out of the question, as were all the other Weasleys. Sirius and Lupin were out, too. While Harry loved his guardian fiercely, he knew that maybe he wasn't the best source for sound advice in teenage problems, and he felt weird asing his former professor for help. He made his choice quickly, because - so he told himself - she was the best person to ask for advice, because while technically an adult, she was still young and relatively fresh out of Hogwarts. He told himself that that's why she was absolutely the right choice to go to and that's why he wanted talk to her tonight after the Order meeting and not because he had just the teeniest, tiniest little crush on her.
-Ginny-
Ginny Weasley had absolutely not gotten over her crush. No matter how cool she might seem and feel and act, everytime Harry Potter got near her, her heart still started to skip a beat, her palms grew sweaty, her knees got weak. It was all quite annoying, honestly. Over the past years she had gotten better at hiding it, thanking Merlin for her quick wits and loud mouth; but no matter how hard she tried, no matter how many handsome boys she tried to like, this feeling, this crush, persisted.
'"You talking to yourself now?' Great, now he probably thinks I'm rude", she mentally kicked herself.
"Sleep well?" Her mother's question threw her back into the here and now and she put on an effortless smile and strolled to the kitchen table, where a sizable portion of scrambled eggs were waiting for her.
"Thanks for saving me some!", she said to her mother excitedly and threw a sheepish glance toward Remus and Sirius. "I can't believe you didn't steal some of my eggs. Normally nothing is safe from you... You're just as bad as Ron!"
"Please, I do not have death wish! Molly would kill me and you know it!"
"That didn't stop you ten minutes ago", Remus protested and, to Ginny, said: "I've saved your eggs and some of the bacon from the beast, and thus, the beast from itself and the wrath of your mother." He winked at her and she couldn't help but giggle. Sirius rolled his eyes and pouted, which made Ginny giggle even more. It was like her former professor had sensed her mood and was trying his best to lighten it. So far, he was succeeding. She hoped someone was doing the same for him. She thought it might be Sirius, but she wasn't sure. Sometimes, they seemed to her like an old married couple, when they were bickering or sharing jokes only they understood. There was a certain air of sadness and melancholy around them which seemed to lessen when they were around each other. Ginny wondered if maybe that was love. She thought about asking someone about that, how you could know it was love and not just a silly crush, like the one she had on Harry. She thought about asking Remus and Sirius directly, but discarded the idea quickly. Her brothers were of course out of the question! Normally, she would go to Hermione to talk about stuff like this, but she was far too occupied with her own stuff with Ron (Ginny almost gagged at the thought of that). There really weren't many options, all things considered, so Ginny decided there was only one person she could go to with a question like that, and she decided to go to her after the Order meeting tonight.
-Tonks-
To say it was a weird evening for Tonks was a bit of an understatment. It all started with the damning realization, that maybe, in certain instances, she didn't hate her first name. Really, it was just one instance, and that was when a certain Order member drawled every syllable of that impossible name with a smug smile and stared at her with a mocking challenge in his black eyes. He knew how much it vexed her to hear her first name; what he didn't know tho, was that it made her entire body tingle whenever that name fell from his lips. She'd always assumed what she felt when he said 'Nymphadora' with that impossible voice was displeasure, but - to her shock - she realized that evening it was quite the opposite! So in addition to two hormonal teenagers, who had come (inexplicably) to her of all people with their problems and questions, she had loads of questions of her own, the first and foremost being 'When the hell did I start crushing on Snape and how do I stop it?'
