Harry was an idiot. Or at least he felt like one. Who would have guessed he'd end up falling in love with his best mate's little sister. Hermione probably. But he definitely didn't see it coming.
Honestly he'd have been more of an idiot if he didn't fall for her, But he missed his chance. Well not really, she was single he knew that, but she'd given up on him he knew that too, they were friends now. The entire time he'd known her she had a crush on him. He just ignored it her brothers already gave her enough shit he didn't need to pile on by rejecting her. If only she knew he didn't want to reject her anymore. He just wished he'd noticed how pretty, and free-thinking, and kind, and just how perfect she was sooner. You see Harry wasn't good with emotions, having them, expressing them, but with Ginny Weasley all he wanted to do was tell her all the reasons he loved her and everything he loved about her. He felt like he was going to explode. He felt that every single time he saw her he'd end up confessing everything. Here's where Harry made his second mistake, his first being that he is an idiot. The second was writing everything he was feeling about Ginny down. He had come to the conclusion that if he didn't let what he was thinking out of his head then it would come spilling out of his mouth. His third was leaving the 'letter' on his kitchen counter where his roommate, the older brother of the girl he wrote it about, found it. And then proceeded to show it to everyone. The arsehole.
"What was it he said in the second paragraph." George asked after family dinner on Sunday after Ron had showed everyone the note.
"Oh, that was my favorite line what was it, Harry?" Ginny asked with a smirk. His only saving grace in all of this is that he hadn't addressed it.
"If it was your favorite line why don't you remember it?" Harry grumbled knowing exactly which lines they we're talking about every one did, Hermione had stopped right after that and said it was the sweetest thing she'd ever read.
"I just can't remember the specifics." Ginny shrugged.
"I think it was something like, 'I'd rather be in love with you and find a way to hide the truth than risk the chance of losing you.'" Hermione said hoping to save Harry some embarrassment. George nodded
"That's it, thank you Hermione. Who knew Harry was such a romantic?" George walked over to Harry and ruffled his already messy hair. Harry pushed his glasses up with his index finger that had been steadily slipping down his nose for the last hour because he hadn't lifted his head in as much time.
"You know I bet we could figure out who he was writing to?" Ron said
"You're right!" Ginny exclaimed "it's very obvious he is friends with this mysterious witch, or wizard." She continued with a cheeky smile at the last part. Harry looked up and threw her a glare that would have anyone who didn't know him well enough shaking in their boots.
"Definitely not a wizard." Harry said through clenched teeth
"Just had to make sure." Ginny said teasingly
"Would you even tell us if we guessed it." Hermione asked
"No." Harry said flatly
"You are a terrible liar, Harry if we say the right name it will show on your face." Ron said
"The issue with this guessing game," Hermione said waiting until everyone's attention was on her to continue "is that aside from me, there isn't any other witches Harry would consider friends."
"That's not true." Harry was quick to counter instantly regretting the words.
"What other witches would you consider friends, Harry?" Ginny asked
"I've already incriminated myself enough." Harry said getting up from his chair to maybe head back home and get some extra hours of sleep; George, however, had other plans. He wordlessly cast a disarming spell at Harry and caught his wand as it flew from his pocket.
"You'll get this back when we know who your super secret crush is." George said using the five inches he had on Harry to hold his wand above his head.
"I don't think it's any of your business, Ron had no reason to be showing any of you that letter, he shouldn't have even read it in the first place." Harry snapped at them.
"No need to get so defensive, Potter, we're just teasing, it's what siblings do." Hearing Ginny refer to him as a sibling pretty much broke his heart.
"Besides if you didn't want me to read it you should have put it away." Ron shrugged
"I shouldn't need to fight for privacy in my own home." Harry grumbled
"I live there too, you left it in the kitchen, that's a common area."
"That shouldn't matter, it very clearly wasn't meant for you. you shouldn't have read it." Harry had pretended to be impartial to Ron reading the letter but he'd actually been livid especially after Ron brought a duplicate copy to dinner tonight for everyone to read. At this point Harry was just glad they had dropped the idea of guessing who it was for.
"Listen, I know it was stupid of me to leave it out, but it was a private matter and I guess I expected a little bit more loyalty from my best friend." Harry said watching Ron's face melt into a hurt expression. "Now I don't care if you want to sit here and discuss my pathetic excuse for a love life, but I'd rather not sit here and listen to you do it." Harry stuck his hand out for his wand which George refused.
"No can do, Potter."
"Fine!" Harry yelled exasperated throwing his hands in the air and storming out the front door. He couldn't apperate without his wand so he just kept walking around the grounds of the burrow.
It was twenty minutes later when he realized he was not alone, that the one person he wanted to see was standing there on the porch watching him.
"I'd really rather be alone, right now." Harry called over to her.
"I know." She said moving forward so that they didn't have to shot
"They really didn't mean any harm, you know." She told him grabbing his shoulders so he faced her.
"It's just so embarrassing." He said
"Tell me about it, remember when we were younger and I had a huge crush on you, they never seemed to stop bringing it up." Ginny smiled a slightly self deprecating smile. Harry reached out and lifted her chin so she was looking him directly in the eye.
"I never thought that was very embarrassing." Harry said she sucked in a deep breath
"It wouldn't have been for you." She huffed
"No, I think it was worse for me." He said
"And why is that?" She said defensively
"I don't think I want to answer that." Harry said dropping his hand from her face.
"Why was it worse for you?" She asked
"Your brothers used to tease me about it like it was something I had control over." Harry said
"My brothers can be arseholes sometimes." She said
"Tell me about it." He chuckled
"All jokes aside, that was some letter you wrote, Potter," she said moving her hands, that were still on his shoulders down his arms so her hands were in his. They did this a lot actually, usually after these dinners at the burrow the two of them would slip away and they'd walk around the property hand in hand.
"It had me falling for you all over again. To bad your heart is already spoken for." She said, Harry laughed.
"I'm serious, I've never heard you talk about anything as passionately as you wrote in the letter. I was a little jealous." She said as they completed a loop around the lake.
"What?" Harry stopped walking
"Well you know about my crush on you, I say I've gotten over it, and I've gotten better at hiding it over the years but, god Harry I've been in love with you since I was at least six years old. When I met you and got to know you I just feel so much harder. I value you and our friendship so much, Harry," he turned to face her seeing tears forming in her eyes "it broke my heart to read those words, knowing that you felt so strongly in love with someone."
"I wrote it for you." Harry whispered before she started crying
"You what?" She looked up at him wide eyed
"I love you, Ginny, I've been in love with you for years, not as long as you've been in love with me, but years. You played a very convincing 'over me' I was crushed thinking I missed my chance." He explained "I wrote that letter because I had to get those feelings out some how before I told you everything and ruined our friendship because I value our friendship so so much." Harry continued making sure he left nothing out. Ginny had the most amazed look on her face and then she snorted. Which Harry found unusual.
"I'm so sorry," she said between laughter "I came out here to learn who you wrote the letter about, I never expected you to say me." Ginny said trying to stop the laughter.
"I don't get why that's funny." Harry said cautiously
"It's funny because, we were so afraid of losing the friendship we had that neither of us realized the other wanted more. We could have been together for ages." She laughed, he stated laughing to. It was so utterly stupid. The two of them calmed down after a few minutes of uncontrollable laughter. Once they'd stopped however they stood there awkwardly. This is the first time they had an awkward moment since he'd forgotten she was possessed.
"I've been waiting for this since I was six." She said moving to her tip toes so she and he were level.
"I've been waiting for this since I was sixteen." He said leaning into her so he could capture her lips in a kiss that was earth shattering. It lasted only a minute before she pulled back.
"You've had a crush on me for eight years?" She asked, Harry shook his head.
"I've been in love with you for eight years." He corrected kissing her quickly
"God, I love you." She said pulling his lips back to hers.