To her relief, the last week at school passed reasonably quickly. The only thing that had taken forever was the train ride home. Her stomach was flipping with anxiety and she couldn’t sit still. Sirius had not written her back and she was afraid of what he was thinking and how he was feeling. She didn’t even know if he received the note or not.
As the train finally pulled into the station, she felt as though she were going to be sick. Her stomach flips had become more frequent and couldn’t be controlled any longer. She looked out the window for the familiar black dog, and though she knew she couldn’t handle seeing him at that moment, she was still a little heartbroken when he was nowhere to be found.
Ginny stood shakily, glad that no one had seemed to notice her strange way of behaving through out the trip, and walked slowly out of the compartment. As everyone exited the train, she walked quietly over to her family, still looking around for her shaggy black dog. Her interest spiked when Harry asked where Sirius was, and upon hearing it was on Dumbledore’s orders that he not attend, smiled slightly. She was glad that she wasn’t the one that had to ask, and was hopeful that Sirius would be waiting for her when they arrived.
The ministry car pulled up to 12 Grimmauld Place, and Ginny’s stomach began to flutter again. She looked up at the door and smiled. There on the front step was the one thing she had longed for all day, a mangy black dog, with fathomless eyes. It took everything she possessed not to jump out of the car and run to him, but somehow she managed.
Pulling her trunk behind her, she walked hesitantly to the door, every step towards him becoming more difficult. In his animagus form, she couldn’t tell how he felt and it scared her. As she got nearer to the house, he ran inside, and she caught a glimpse of him changing forms. When she finally reached the door, he grabbed her trunk with a shy smile. Her heart lifted and she smiled back.
That night, as she sat quietly in her room willing herself to go down stairs and look for him, a quiet knock sounded at her door. She looked up as the knob turned slowly and Sirius popped his head through the crack. She smiled timidly and he slid through the small opening and entered her room.
Without saying a word, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square of parchment. She looked at it quizzically, faintly recognizing the paper as her note, and he grinned with a sparkle in his gray eyes. She could tell it was fairly worn for only being a week old, and a smile crossed her face as realization set it that he must have carried it with him, reading it over and over again.
“Tea?” he asked with a widening smile.
***
Ginny enjoyed every night she spent with Sirius. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed her nightly tea with him. The days and nights went by faster than she had realized until Christmas morning was staring her in the face. She awoke to the sound of her brother’s stampeding down the stairs and quickly jumped out of bed herself.
She dressed quickly and before leaving the room, reached for a small box wrapped in dark red paper. She thought about Sirius, then about her nosy brothers, and changed her mind. Placing the box under her pillow, she looked down on it one last time before joining everyone for breakfast.
When Sirius hadn’t come down for breakfast, she was a little worried, but as the family moved into the living room for gifts, she saw him. He was leaning against the wall, looking from the tree to the people bounding towards him. As his eyes caught hers, he smiled and then glanced to a small rectangular box with blue wrapping.
Her brothers tore greedily through the gifts, and everyone expressed their gratitude for what they received. As the pile slowly reduced, only one gift remained; the small, rectangular, blue box. Fred picked it up, and reading Ginny’s name, threw it to her.
“Who is it from?” Hermione asked impatiently.
Ginny pulled a small note from the top of the box and read it.
To my wild fire...
Always know that my love for you will last as long as this flame will burn.
With love...
Without saying a word, Ginny handed the note to Hermione, as she unwrapped the small box. Lifting the lid, she pulled out a long chain with a beautiful glass ball pendant. The pendant was a small glass sphere, and in it was a flame. There was no wick, just a single burning flame.
“Oooh,” exclaimed Hermione loudly, “that’s an everlasting flame! It’ll never burn out!”
Ginny smiled as she recalled what the note had said, and understood that he was telling her his love was everlasting. Harry leaned forward and took the slender chain from her hands. She lifted her hair as he placed it around her neck and closed the clasp.
“So who is it from?” Ron asked as he nudged Hermione, who had been so caught up in the gift that she forgot to tell them.
Hermione looked at the note again. “A secret admirer, I suppose,” she stated, slightly confused.
Everyone seemed to turn their gaze on Harry as he sat back down. “It’s not me!” he said to his accusers.
As the gaze turned to her, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled. Everyone knew she had become fairly popular at school, so it was left at that. She stood slowly and went upstairs, Hermione trailing closely behind her, prodding for more details. Before turning up the stairs, she glanced quickly to Sirius, who was smiling serenely, and after sending him a sweet smirk, continued to her room.
As night approached, Ginny had finally freed herself from Hermione, who had finally left to say goodnight to Harry and Ron before everyone headed to bed. She listened carefully from her room as the many doors of the house finally began to close, and she reached under her pillow for the small red box. She cracked her door open slightly and peeked out, making sure everyone had indeed gone to bed. Hearing no other sounds, she opened her door a little wider and slipped out and down the stairs.
Entering the kitchen, she saw that Sirius had already started the tea. She sat at the kitchen table and cleared her throat to inform him of her presence. He turned abruptly and seeing her at the table, strode over and sat next to her.
“So you like it?” he asked, gently touching the pendant of her necklace.
“Of course...”
“You know, it had more than one meaning...”
She smiled. “It represents your pet name for me too, right?”
Sirius blushed slightly and nodded. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to red box she carried.
“For you...”
Ginny slid the box to him and watched quietly as he opened it. He pulled out a lovely gold pocket watch and turned it in his hand to see both sides. He gave a slightly perplexed glance and she motioned for him to open it. As he did so, he realized that it wasn’t an ordinary time piece, and in fact, didn’t tell the time at all.
“I got the idea from our family’s grandfather clock,” Ginny started, “but I put my own spin on it.”
She pointed to the words around the face, Thinking of You, School, Family, Harry, Danger, Crying, and Dreaming. There was only one hand on the pocket watch, and on it was a small likeness of Ginny.
“Now you’ll always know what I’m thinking about,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder.
He smiled again and kissed her hair. “Thinking of Me, are you?” he said with a smirk.
“I doubt you’ll ever see the hand move,” she replied.
“I better see it move young lady,” he said, attempting authority, but failing miserably, added, “at least once and a while.”
He stood up and placed the pocket watch into his pocket, making sure it was safe with her letter. He picked up their tea cups, and she followed as he walked to their regular place in front of the already burning fire. She curled up at his feet, like she had so often months before, and he gently stroked her hair as they stared into the flames, enjoying each others presence again.
a/n: I hope everyone enjoyed that! It took me forever to write because I couldn't think of what Ginny could give Sirius. And obviously I said only 3 chapters and it's not finished. Well I had more ideas than I thought, so the next chapter is the final chapter.