Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, a look of dread on their faces, they both knew this was coming, they just didn’t know how to answer it. After a long silence, Hermione cleared her throat and muttered, “Harry’s …fine, Ginny. Nothing to worry about.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Hermione. Ron, tell me the truth, tell me about Harry,” Ginny hissed.
“Well…Ginny, do you remember what Harry was like last year?” asked Ron with a pained expression on his face.
Ginny’s insides contorted when she thought of how Harry treated her last year, “Not really, he didn’t speak to me did he?”
“Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot about that. Well last year, ever since he defeated Voldemort, Harry has been getting more and more withdrawn, more and more focused on catching dark wizards. Well, one dark wizard in particular.”
“Who?”
“Peter Pettigrew.”
“Pettigrew? I thought you’d got him?”
“Nope, he managed to escape right after the fall of Voldemort. Harry’s become obsessed with catching him, it’s like he feels he owes to it to his parents, to Sirius.”
“Don’t you see him outside of work?”
“…Now and again. Last time I was at Grimmauld Place, but its not like old times. Harry’s different, all he wanted to talk about was work, and show me some new spells that he developed. I tried to talk to him about the family, about Quidditch, about you… but he didn’t want to know,” Ron sighed.
I know why that is, thought Ginny to herself, he doesn’t want to know me, so he’s punishing you, I’m so sorry Ron, I’ve cost you your best friend.
“On the other hand,” Ron grinned. “Sometimes, only sometimes mind you, you can catch him at the right time, usually when he’s looking through his old photo album, looking at the photos from the night that he defeated Voldemort, and he has the faintest flicker of a smile on his face. Its in those moments you know that he is the same Harry Potter he was before, he’s just got a lot of his mind.”
Ginny didn’t know what to say; she thought she had an inkling of which photos Harry was smiling at, but she didn’t say anything. Ron and Hermione still didn’t know what happened after those photos were taken.
“Personally, I don’t know what has come over Harry. He’s so caught up in his work and his own spells, last time I saw him he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, I miss the old Harry, I miss being able to talk and have a joke with him, he completely ignored his own birthday,” Hermione sighed, looking away. Ginny thought she saw a tear in her eye, and thought to herself.
I just miss Harry.
The rest of the trip around Diagon Alley passed uneventfully, and at five past four they all headed back to the Burrow.
As the days passed, counting down to her 17th birthday party, it seemed that all Ginny could see was happy couples: Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron and Hermione, Bill and his wife, Fleur, who had tied the knot at the Burrow the previous summer. That had been a happy day, but a sad one for Ginny, as that was the last time she had seen Harry properly, and even then he wouldn’t speak to her alone. He carried on ignoring her and hiding from her for the rest of the year.
Ginny had hoped against hope that Ron and Hermione would have good news about Harry. But all they had done was confirm what she had dreaded: he had become withdrawn, his confidence in his friends was lost, and she knew why.
“I should have said yes,” she spoke to herself.
As August 11th came nearer, Ginny looked forward to, and dreaded in equal measure, her coming of age party. On one hand, she’d be legal to do magic outside of school, she could learn to Apparate, she’d be made a fuss off, which she enjoyed, and she’d been promised lots of presents from her family. However, the only person she wanted fussing over her, was the same person who would be the best present of all.
Ginny cried herself to sleep that night.
Ginny woke with a fright the next morning, a huge CRACK seemed to fill her room, and her brothers, Fred and George, appeared out of nowhere.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINNY!” the twins shouted in unison.
Ginny groaned, “Oh leave me alone. I want a lay in.”
“You’ve had a lay in, Birthday Girl. Now come along!” said Fred, and with that the twins grabbed Ginny under the arms and started to drag her downstairs, she was still wearing her pyjamas.
Ginny was squealing as her older brothers dragged her towards the stairs, they were tickling her as they were dragging. “WAIT! WAIT!” she giggled. “I need to get something first.” She reached to her drawer and grabbed her locket, and she threw it on. “Okay carrying on dragging.” She grinned.
“Yes, Miss!” joked the twins, giving her a salute and dragged her downstairs.
The Weasley kitchen was a sea of people. All her brothers were there, she was glad to see Percy, who had returned to the family the previous summer, following Voldemort’s defeat. She was also very glad to see Remus Lupin, who had looked much worse last time she had saw him, the werewolves he was spying on before the fall of Voldemort had found out he was working against them, and had beaten him to within an inch of death; it was only because of Ginny, Ron and Hermione, who happened to be in the right place at the right time, that Lupin had been found alive, and was able to make a full recovery.
“Remus,” she ran towards him, and hugged him a little too enthusiastically, “How are you?”
Lupin removed himself from Ginny’s grasp, panting slightly he replied, “I’m fine thanks Ginny, and how are you? Coming of age eh? I guess that makes you the last one.”
Ginny smiled at him and turned her attention to Mrs Weasley, who was having words with Fred and George, “Mum, what’s the matter? Where’s dad?” she asked, just noticing that Mr Weasley wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
Mrs Weasley’s expression instantly turned from anger to a huge smile, as she rushed towards Ginny and began smothering her with hugs and kisses, “Oh your father had to pop into work today, he’ll be back later.”
Over her shoulder, Ginny saw Fred and George wink at her and then huddle together, they were obviously planning something. Ginny smiled at the thought of it, Fred and George always managed to do something outrageous at family occasions like this. Ginny hoped that whatever it was would not ruin the day.
After a long and boring lecture from Percy about international regulations on magic lamps, and a chat with Charlie about being made Quidditch captain Ginny sat down on the floor by a large pile of presents. Soon enough Ginny was sitting amongst a huge pile of presents, including spell books, sweets, jokes from the twins joke shop, and the new Cleansweep broomstick from her parents, until there was only one present left, from Bill and Fleur. She tore it open to find a scaly dark green jacket, “That’s pure dragon skin Ginny. Happy Birthday.” Said Bill.
“Eet weel look very good wiz your ‘air Ginny.” Fleur smiled, admiring Ginny’s long red hair.
“Wow thanks Bill! Thanks Fleur!” shouted Ginny as she pulled on the jacket over her pyjamas, “I’m going to go and get dressed properly, I might scrub up well enough to do this justice.”
Ginny headed upstairs and tried on the jacket again, Fleur was right; it did look good with her long scarlet hair. Ginny decided to take her time getting ready and she amused herself by summoning her clothes to her by magic, it felt good to be allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts.
When she returned fully dressed the party was in full swing and some more people had arrived; Mr Weasley had appeared at half past four in the afternoon, apologising profusely for having to go into work on her birthday, and he handed Ginny a heavy package, wrapped in brown paper, she opened it to find a copy of ‘A beginners guide to Apparating” inside. Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevy, two of Ginny’s friends at Hogwarts had also arrived, wishing Ginny a happy birthday. Colin explained that Dennis had been unable to make it, due to an unfortunate accident involving a straw and a large amount of pudding.
After a big lunch including lots of cake and ice cream, Fred and George entertained the guests with an enormous display of fireworks and muggle magic tricks, during which Mr Weasley got thoroughly over excited when George asked him to pick a card he had to step out of the room.
After the guests had left and it was only the Weasley family, Hermione, and Lupin who remained at the Burrow, talking about Ginny’s last year at Hogwarts, and how Ron was doing at work when the fireplace suddenly erupted into a roaring green flame. Ginny gave a little yelp and moved away, it had made her jump, she had been sitting in front of the fireplace at the time. Then, as quickly as it burst into flame, the flames died away, the fireplace returning to normal.
“Interesting.” Said Fred.
“Very.” Agreed George.
Mr Weasley got up and walked over to the fireplace, examining it, “It looks like someone was going to come through, but thought better of it. How very odd.”
“Well,” Percy cleared his throat and began to speak, “this is exactly the sort of thing that there is too much off these days, we don’t need people wasting floo powder like that. Totally irresponsible. What if one of us had wanted to use the fireplace at that exact moment?”
Fred and George rolled their eyes, “Oh shut up Perce,” they said in unison, “Come on Ginny, let’s go play Quidditch, test out your new Cleansweep. Ron, Charlie and Bill can play as well. Right fellow Weasleys?”
“Yeah I suppose I could stand to show Ginny what a real captain can do.” Grinned Charlie, winking at Ginny.
Ginny laughed, “Bring it old on man.”
“Speaking of old men,” said Ron, “come on Bill, get a move on.”
“Hang on, hang on. I’ll show you young whippersnappers what for!” laughed Bill, and he got to his feet, pulling Fleur with him.
Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Charlie, Bill, Hermione, Fleur, Lupin, Percy and Mr Weasley all headed out to garden, Hermione and Fleur sat down in a couple of chairs that Bill conjured for them, and began to talk amongst themselves whilst the others split into two teams, Ginny, Charlie and Bill were one team, Ron, Fred and George making up the other team.
They could not play with Bludgers or a Golden Snitch as they were liable to escape, so instead they all played chaser, with Bill in goal for one team, and Ron in goal for the other.
“Well played Ginny!” shouted Bill from the goal hoops as she scored her fourth goal, she beamed, Ron on the other hand was looking murderous.
“Come on Ron you can do better than that! Stop waving your arms around like a fairy and catch the ball!” teased Fred and George, “Didn’t you win the Quidditch cup three times as the Gryffindor keeper?”
“Shut up!” yelled Ron, his ears turning pink.
“Well he didn’t need to save many goals then, I was on the team, and I scored more than he saved.” Said Ginny, sticking her tongue out at Ron, everyone laughed, and continued playing, until an ear-piercing scream cut through the growing darkness.
“That was Mum, we better go and see what’s happened.” Said Charlie anxiously, already flying towards the ground.
The Weasley’s, Hermione, Fleur and Lupin all ran back towards the house to find Mrs Weasley as white as a sheet and pointing at a figure who had just appeared in the living room. A figure with messy black hair, shocking green eyes, and an all too familiar scar on his forehead. Ginny stared in shock as she spoke his name.
“…Harry.”
A/N - Thats it for Chapter 2, please R n R. Thanks to my Beta Orlaith!