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Ginny's Gift by Ashwinder

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Ginny's Gift, Chapter Three


"Look at this stuff. It's brilliant! What you do want to bet Filch blacklists most of this stuff when they start selling it at Zonko's?"


Ron was looking through the box of joke items the twins had given Harry for his birthday. Harry, wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. He was lying on Ron's bed, staring at the ceiling and pondering the mystery of Ginny's behaviour, which he found rather distracting. Several days had passed since his birthday, and he was no closer working it out.


"What do you suppose this is for?" asked Ron, holding up what looked like a model of a ferret. "It sort of reminds me of Malfoy." He grinned as he bounced the toy animal off his palm.


Harry barely looked up. "No idea."


Ron wasn't paying much attention to Harry, either, set down the model ferret, which uttered a rather rude phrase. "Not a ferret, a Jarvey, then. Just think of the things we can get up to with this…"


Harry stopped listening, as Ron went on enumerating the pranks they could pull in the coming school year. It was afternoon, and Harry hadn't seen Ginny all day. She hadn't appeared at breakfast--Hermione had said she was still asleep--nor had she shown up for lunch. Harry had been waiting for the ideal chance to continue the conversation he and Ginny had begun on his birthday, as he was still extremely curious about why she'd given him the necklace, but he'd barely seen her over the intervening days. He was beginning to suspect what part of her motivation might have been, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions on that score. The twins really had chosen a bad time to interrupt.


"Harry!" Ron's voice broke in on his thoughts.


"What?"


"I just wanted to know if you minded if I had a look at that book Hermione gave you."


"Oh, right. Help yourself. It's in my trunk." Harry went back to his musings, but it wasn't long before they were interrupted again.


"Harry, who is Dr. Zog?"


Harry looked up to see Ron holding up the book Sirius had given him and froze. He'd completely forgotten about it; now he had a clear memory of placing Hermione's book on top of it the other night. He also remembered that Sirius' gift carried an enormous embarrassment potential with it. He swallowed. "That? That's nothing."


It was too late. Ron was already paging through the book. Harry bit his tongue, knowing any sort of objection would only make the book more interesting to Ron, and hoped Ron would dismiss it as another boring spell book. But luck wasn't with Harry, seemingly. As he watched, he saw Ron's eyes get a bit larger, and the pages start to turn more slowly. The tips of Ron's ears were going red.


"Harry, where did you get this?" Ron asked at last in a deceptively calm voice.


Harry felt his own face heat. "Sirius sent it to me," he mumbled.


Ron broke into a coughing fit. When he'd calmed down, he replied. "Just when were you planning on showing this to me?"


"Well, I haven't had it all that long. I haven't had time yet," Harry hedged.


This was a blatant lie, and Ron wasn't fooled; it had been raining for the past few days, confining everyone to the house. "No need to be embarrassed. Come on, Harry, this is brilliant!" He hesitated a moment, in spite of his contention that there was nothing embarrassing about the subject, before asking, "Do you think I could, erm, you know, borrow it?"


Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron.


"Just for my own information, of course."


"Yeah, sure. I really believe that. But go ahead and borrow it. It's not as if I need it." Harry had the worst luck when it came to girls. His first crush had come to a guilt-filled end when Cho Chang's boyfriend was killed on Voldemort's whim. Since that incident, whenever he'd experienced the nascent pangs of a new crush, he'd deliberately buried them. And if any girl had shown interest in him, he'd been careful to avoid her attention, not because he wasn't interested, but it just seemed easier that way. His life was complicated enough with Voldemort after him, after all.


Ron had turned back to the beginning of the book again, examining it more closely. "I dunno. There's a whole section here for beginners. Tells you how to tell if a girl is interested, and all." Harry hadn't noticed that the other night. Perhaps it was worth having a closer look.


Then the full meaning of what Ron had just said struck him. "And you're such an expert? Remind me. How long did it take you to notice Hermione was interested in you?"


Ron looked up from what must have been a particularly interesting page. His ears were redder than ever. "That doesn't count. Hermione isn't a normal girl. She's exceptional. She's subtle."


Harry laughed. "She had to resort to making the first move herself, Ron. Practically had to hit you over the head with it."


A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. "Harry? Ron? What are you two doing in there?" It was Hermione. Harry and Ron stared at each other for a moment in panic. It went without saying that she would not appreciate the content of Dr Zog's Practical Spells For Wizards. Ron stuffed it back into Harry's trunk, picked up Aurors' Secrets For Getting the Jump On Dark Wizards, shut the trunk lid, and sat down on Harry's camp bed.


"Nothing, Hermione, nothing at all," he called to her.


Hermione opened the door. She looked sceptical, but merely said, "what are the two of you doing up here on such a lovely day?" It had finally stopped raining just before lunch time. "Why aren't you outside playing Quidditch or something?"


"There's only the two of us to play Quidditch," replied Ron, "or are you offering to play too?"


"Ron, just what's…"


But Ron cut her off. "That's an excellent idea, actually. Let's play Quidditch, boys against girls. Where's Ginny?"


"Ron, you know I'm no good at flying!"


"Oh no, you're not worming out of this now. This was your idea. Come on, let's go." Ron trooped out of the room, followed by Harry, who gave an apologetic shrug to Hermione as he passed. She brought up the rear, obviously dragging her feet.


They found Ginny, looking as if she was almost back to her normal self. She was in a good mood and seemed quite keen on playing a game of Quidditch, much to Hermione's disgruntlement.


In the end they managed to have a good time. With only two players per side, each team was forced to field a Keeper and a Chaser. Ron was the natural choice as the Keeper on the boys' team, since he'd already been Keeper for the Gryffindor house team for the previous two years. If Hermione thought it unfair that she have to try and score on Ron, she was a good sport about it. Ginny made quite a good Keeper herself, and Harry couldn't help but notice the look of intense concentration on her face as he bore down on her with the apple they were using as a Quaffle. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes flashed, and the smile that broadened over her face each time she made a save were all rather distracting. Harry told himself his lack of success at scoring a goal was due to the fact that he wasn't normally a Chaser.


Hermione had managed to catch the apple and was flying rather unsteadily towards Ron once more. She tilted sideways on her broom, narrowly missing a nasty spill, in her attempt to throw the apple into the makeshift goal they had rigged up. Ron caught it easily and lobbed it to Harry, who sped off towards the opposite end of the orchard. Ginny was waiting for him, guarding her goal as if she'd been playing on the house team since her second year. She was doing it again, biting her lip, as she anticipated Harry's feint, and catching the apple easily when he did throw it in earnest.


Harry caught her eye, and she hesitated. "You're quite good, you know," he blurted out without thinking. "Why haven't you ever tried out for the team?"


Ginny's flushed face went even redder. "You don't need me. You have Ron as Keeper."


"We can always use a reserve, and Ron won't be at school next year. You should try out. We could train you up to take his place next year."


"Better ask Ron about that first. He's captain."


"It shouldn't be a problem, should it?"


"What's the hold up?" Ron had flown over to join them. He hovered in mid-air looking from Harry to Ginny, his face alight with curiosity.


"Erm…" Harry felt awkward. It was bad enough he'd blurted out the first thing he'd had on his mind to Ginny. "Ginny just made a good save is all."


Ron merely shrugged.


Harry turned to him, suddenly irritated at Ron's indifference. "Why didn't you tell me Ginny was about as good a Keeper as you? We need to think about the future of the team. You and I won't be around next year."


"Ginny's never really played. Playing for fun at home isn't quite the same as a real match."


"Shouldn't she have the chance to try out?"


"Would you two please stop discussing me as if I weren't even here?" Ginny was glaring at both Harry and Ron. "Perhaps I'm not interested. Did that ever cross your minds? I'm tired of this, anyway." And she pointed her broom towards the ground, landed, and headed off towards the house on foot, leaving Harry and Ron to stare at each other in bewilderment.


"Think there's anything in that book you got from Sirius about figuring girls out?" Ron asked.


"What book?" Hermione had managed to fly over to them at last, having had some difficulty controlling her broom.


"Nothing," both boys replied at the same time, perhaps a bit too quickly.


Hermione looked from one to the other. "Come on," said Ron, before she could voice the suspicion that showed all too obviously on her face. "Let's go see if there's anything to eat. I'm starved."


*


As the month of August passed, Harry noticed just how much time Ron and Hermione spent together. He supposed he should be used to the idea by now, but this was different than being at school, where there were a lot of other people his age with whom he could pass the time. School also meant other distractions, such as Quidditch practice and homework. There was simply a lot less to do at the Burrow than there was at Hogwarts, and Harry felt more and more like the odd man out when he was around his friends.


The previous summer Hermione had been allowed to visit Ron at the Burrow, and Harry reckoned they'd become used to occupying themselves as a couple then. Harry had had to spend the entire holiday at the Dursleys'. Indeed, this was his first visit to the Weasleys since the week he'd spent here after fourth year. The situation in the wizarding world had been deemed too dangerous to allow him to leave the magical protection afforded by his relatives.


This year circumstances were hardly better, but there was one important difference. Harry was of age now. According to Professor Dumbledore, whatever the nature of the magical protection was at Privet Drive, it was no longer effective after Harry's seventeenth birthday. So he was as safe here at the Weasleys' as he would have been anywhere.


But things just weren't the same now that he was seventeen. His best friends were paired off, and he had no one. This had been his own choice, but as the summer wore on, it weighed ever more heavily on his mind. Ginny was not helping matters. He found himself watching her when he thought no one was paying attention. He wondered why he'd never noticed before the way her hair caught the light and radiated back so many shades of red. And she'd caught him looking a time or two. Sometimes she held his gaze for a moment before looking away, causing his heart rate to speed up.


"Morning, Harry!"


Harry was startled out of his reverie, as Ginny took a seat beside him, tossing her hair back. Did she do that on purpose? he wondered a bit irritably. He felt his cheeks heat.


"Morning," he mumbled back, staring into his bowl of porridge. In the two odd weeks that had passed since his birthday, he still hadn't asked her about her gift. It was becoming more and more a matter of his no longer being certain he was ready to hear the answer.


Harry was saved from having to make further conversation with her by the arrival of a strange owl bearing a thick envelope, which Ron took. It was their school letters. Ron kept two of the letters in his possession, his own and Hermione's. Hermione made a grab for her letter, but Ron held it out of her reach.


"Ron!" she protested. "That's my letter!"


Ron grinned and held the parchment higher. "No need to read it. We all know what it says." He turned away from her so he could unfold the parchment. A badge clattered out of it onto the table. "Just as I thought," Ron crowed. "Head girl! You're not going to turn into Percy on us, are you?" His words were teasing, but the pride in his tone was unmistakable.


"If I do turn into Percy, won't you be in trouble?" she replied, picking up her head girl badge and finally succeeding in snatching the letter from Ron.


"I don't suppose I fancy dating my brother. I'll just have to keep you in line. Or not."


Harry looked quickly down at his own letter to avoid having to watch his two friends send each other such significant looks. On the one hand he was happy for them, but on the other they could make him uncomfortable. At times he felt like an intruder. He read over his school list; there were only two texts on it:


The Standard Book of Spells, grade 7, by Miranda Goshawk


The NEWTs: Preparing Yourself For the Worst, by Alphonse Ennui-Payne


Harry knew he'd have to get some new school robes with all the growing he'd done the previous year, and there was still the question of some ordinary clothes that actually fit him. He hadn't had an opportunity to bring that subject up yet.


Mrs Weasley was looking over Ginny's list. "We're going to have to plan to get your school things soon."


Ginny spoke up. "Mum, I've still got that assignment for Muggle Studies."


"What's that, dear?" asked Mrs Weasley distractedly, as she looked over Ron's list. No doubt she was calculating how much school supplies were going to cost the family this year.


Harry looked over in time to see Ginny roll her eyes. "Mum, I told you about this at the beginning of the holiday. I have to write an essay on how the Underground works."


"Can't you ask your father how it works?"


Ginny heaved a sigh. "Mum, Dad only thinks he knows a lot about Muggles."


Mrs Weasley looked as if she might want to defend her husband but seemed to realise it was a lost cause in this instance. "Well," she began, looking around. Her gaze landed on Hermione. "Hermione is Muggle-born. She can tell you. You've been on the Underground, haven't you, dear?"


"Yes, of course," replied Hermione, "but…"


Ginny cut across her. "Mum, it's not the same thing if Hermione tells me about it. I want to experience it for myself. I'll get a much better mark that way."


Mrs Weasley was adamant. "No. It's too dangerous."


"I'm not a baby, Mum," Ginny protested. "Why is it any more dangerous for me than it would be for all the Muggles who use it every day?"


"You're a witch, Ginny. Our world is at war."


"So wouldn't the Muggle world be safer? Wouldn't it be the perfect place to hide? How would anyone know I was a witch?"


"Because you look like one?" Ron's joke fell quite flat, and Harry was sure Hermione had stepped on his foot under the table, judging from the way Ron winced.


Ginny glared at her brother a moment before continuing. "I'd dress as a Muggle, of course, and I wouldn't go off by myself. Hermione's been on the Underground. I'll bet Harry has, too." She looked at Harry pleadingly for support.


"Yeah, I have," Harry put in. "Hagrid took me on the Underground the first time we went to Diagon Alley." They all fell silent for a moment at the mention of the former Care of Magical Creatures Teacher. He had been an early casualty of the war.


But Mrs Weasley wasn't swayed by their argument. "No, I don't like it. Ginny, you'll just have to find a way to write your essay without first-hand experience." Ginny opened her mouth to protest further, but her mother added, "and that's final", before she could get another word out.


Harry stole occasional glances at Ginny during the rest of the meal. He could tell from her rigid posture she wasn't happy with the situation, but he was formulating a plan in his mind. He wanted to get out into Muggle London, as well, before school started, and he didn't think the elder Weasleys would be too keen on the idea of him going off into a world that was largely unknown to them when he was supposed to be under their protection. In his opinion, though, Ginny was right. Muggle London shouldn't really pose much of a danger to any of them, just because they were magical. Why would any Death Eater expect to find him, or indeed any of them, in the Muggle world?


After breakfast, Ron and Hermione disappeared outside, while Ginny headed for her room. Harry followed her, catching her up on the landing outside her door. "Wait, Ginny."


"What is it?" She didn't sound very pleased. Harry supposed she was still hacked off with her mother.


"Well…" He hesitated, not sure how to explain this. He was used to planning bouts of rule-breaking with Ron and Hermione, but he'd never done it with Ginny. If he was completely honest with himself, he'd barely even had a normal conversation with her. "It's about your Muggle Studies assignment."


"You're not planning on telling me about your experiences on the Underground with Hagrid, are you?" Ginny must have realised just how harsh this sounded, for she immediately looked down and muttered, "Sorry."


"Erm, no. I have a better idea."


Ginny looked over his shoulder, as if she were expecting to see her mother come up the stairs at any moment. "Come in," she said, entering her room and motioning for him to follow.


Harry stepped forward with a certain reluctance. This was her domain, and he'd never really seen it before. The room was decorated in shades of blue that must have been brighter at some point. Now it just looked faded and slightly shabby, not unlike the rest of the Weasley house. Ginny closed the door, and the sound seemed to echo out into the corridor, then she turned and looked at him expectantly.


"We're going to have to go shopping for our school things soon, right?" he began without preamble. Ginny nodded. "When we go down to Diagon Alley, we'll already be in London. All we'd need to do is lose Ron and Hermione for an hour or two…"


"Do you mean sneak off on our own?"


"Yeah. I don't think it'll be much of a problem. They go off on their own often enough these days. We'd just need to make up an excuse to leave them…"


"…and go out through the Leaky Cauldron," Ginny finished for him. "But why? What do you want to go off into London for?"


Harry looked down at his ill-fitting clothes. "I think I need some new things, don't you? Something that fits."


Ginny burst out laughing. "You want to go shopping?" she asked incredulously.


"Yeah. Is there anything wrong with that?"


"Don't look so hurt. I just wasn't expecting you to say that. I mean you said something at your birthday party, but I didn't think you'd take George seriously."


"Well, I wasn't planning on looking up the same shop he went to, but as long as we're going into London, and you need to do some research, I thought we could sort of kill two birds with one stone."


Harry found himself quite looking forward to the outing. He didn't question the reason why; pulling one over on Ron and Hermione seemed reason enough. That he'd be going off somewhere alone with Ginny never even entered into the equation. He hoped she'd just get on with it and agree to the plan.


She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes," she said finally. "I suppose it would. But won't we have to plan this a bit more? I don't know where the shops are in London."


Harry was forced to admit he didn't know either, but George had mentioned Oxford Street. "Look, do you have a map or anything in your Muggle Studies book?"


"Yeah. Just a moment."


She went over to where her school bag was set on a small desk in the corner near the window. Rifling through it, she withdrew a copy of Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles and moved to sit on her bed, leaving a space for Harry to sit down beside her if he chose to. He hesitated, suddenly aware that they were alone in her bedroom with the door closed. Sitting on her bed next to her seemed so intimate, somehow.


"What do you make of this?" Ginny's voice intruded on his thoughts. She was gesturing towards the textbook. She obviously wanted him to sit with her, so he could see whatever she was looking at. Why was this so hard? Why was his face beginning to heat? He sat down next to her, consciously avoiding physical contact. For some reason the thought of their thighs brushing against each other was making his palms go sweaty.


He had to lean towards her more than he'd expected to see the book. On the page he saw a street map of London, but this was no ordinary map like the ones he'd seen Uncle Vernon use. As he watched, the lines on it blurred and changed. He realised after a few moments that the map magically showed whatever location the viewer had in mind. He thought of the Houses of Parliament, and the map focused on Westminster, clearly demarcating the location along the Thames. Then for some reason he thought of the Royal Albert Hall, and the lines shifted again until Harry could see it marked off near Hyde Park. Finally, he thought of the Leaky Cauldron, and saw Charing Cross Road come into view on the map.


"This is absolutely brilliant! But will it show us the Underground?"


As if in answer to his question, the map changed once more. The streets disappeared entirely, and in their place a number of different coloured intersecting lines came into view. It looked very confusing. He wondered how Hagrid had managed to negotiate the bewildering maze. Upon closer inspection, however, he noticed a stop marked Charing Cross. He pointed it out to Ginny.


"This must be near the Leaky Cauldron. It has the same name as the street where the Leaky Cauldron is." Sure enough, the map responded to his thoughts and showed the location of the wizarding pub.


"Looks as if Tottenham Court Road is closer though," commented Ginny. She was leaning over the map now, as well, and Harry noticed her head was very close to his.


Harry traced a red line with his finger. "And the next stop over is called Oxford Circus. Do you think Oxford Street might be near there?"


"It would make sense." The map corroborated Ginny's observation, by showing that Oxford Street was indeed very handy to the Oxford Circus stop. In fact, Oxford Street reached as far as Tottenham Court Road. Ginny giggled. "It looks as if we wouldn't need to take the Underground at all. We could walk."


"Or we could take the tube to another stop, maybe Bond Street, and walk back. Looks like we'd have enough time to do it, anyway. It's not like we have to go all the way out to"--Harry traced the red line to its very end with his finger--"Epping."


"Now all we need is a convincing story to feed Ron and Hermione, so we can ditch them."


Harry thought she looked as if she had something in mind. Her brown eyes had a mischievous glint to them. "Have you got something specific in mind?" he asked with a smile.


"Er, no," Ginny admitted. "If we had to fool just Ron by himself, I'd stand a chance, but we have to take Hermione into consideration here."


"True. I suppose we could always wait until we're in Diagon Alley and spring it on them."


"Do you think they'll let us get away with that?"


Harry grinned at her. "We won't give them a choice."


It was only after he'd left her room, their plans finalised that Harry realised he'd missed the perfect opportunity to ask Ginny about her gift.


A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I really appreciate it…


A Monty Python reference slipped into this chapter. It was the "How do you know she's a witch? She looks like one" lines, which are taken from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.


Thanks also to Imogen, Paula, James, and my editor for their beta help.