It’s seven already! I thought as I sat up in bed and looked over at Ron, whose chest was steadily rising and falling. Making sure that the house was quiet, I got up and walked slowly down to the second floor. I stopped in front of a room to admire the painting on the door, as I had many times before. In the center was the Gryffindor lion with Gryffindor written underneath it, but what outshone the rest was what was above the lion, two words in a beautiful cursive writing with silver stars that sparkled and illuminated the whole hallway. The words were ‘Ginny’s Room’ and hanging off the G as if it were lazily put on someone’s head was a princess’s crown. It had golden stars that were bright but not like the silver ones.
After what seemed like ages, I came to my senses and remembered why I came here. I gently opened the door and looked in to see Ginny sound asleep under her red and gold Gryffindor covers. The stars on the door dimmed as if they knew that they would wake her if they shone too brightly and they added a soft glow to Ginny’s face, making her even more beautiful. I wanted to treasure this moment forever, like all the previous mornings. Soon I quickly walked over to Ginny’s bed and laid down beside her, not daring to slip under the covers and risk waking her up. I enjoyed the peacefulness of just laying here beside her without anyone awake to disrupt our moment together by ourselves, even though she may not know it.
I woke up with a start. I accidentally feel asleep for the first time since I’ve been visiting Ginny in the mornings. I looked around for the noise that woke me up, and then I heard someone coming up the stairs. I quickly got up and rolled under the bed, thankfully Ginny actually cleans under her bed. The door opened casting a warm glow across the room.
“Ginny dear, wake up,” I heard Mrs. Weasley say and then I heard a grunt somewhere above my head. “We’re going to Diagon Alley today so get up and put on some clothes.” After saying this Mrs. Weasley left and headed upstairs. That was close, I thought. I rolled from underneath the bed and gave Ginny a surprise hug from behind.
“Good morning!” I whispered happily. She turned around in my arms and smiled back. I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and she blushed as if that was the first time I had ever done that. She looked beautiful, even if she did just get up. She had on some silky pajama pants with little lions on them that would tickle my legs whenever she leaned close and she had on a gold t-shirt that showed off her tiny figure.
“Harry, my face is up here,” Ginny said gently as she pulled my head up so I could only look at her face. I mumbled ‘sorry’ and she giggled and pulled her hands away from my face to cover her mouth o prevent herself from laughing to loudly. I grinned and began to tickle her. She was trying to get away but I was to fast for her and finally she just collapsed on her bed. I laid down beside her and we were both breathing hard and laughing. Only if I could wake up every morning like this, I thought. I naturally slipped my arm around her and she leaned against my arm. I turned her face towards me and once again, she was getting close. Very close…
“I’m getting a broom! Yeah! I’m getting a broom! Yeah!” Ron sang as we walked though Diagon Alley. I wish he would stop, I thought, he’s been singing that since we got here.
“Harry! Ron!” I turned to see Hermione skipping towards us. She gave me a quick hug and whispered, “congrats about you and Gin and I promise not to tell Ron!” Then she turned and gave Ron the biggest hug ever and he finally quit singing. Soon she began to drone on about what books she had read this summer and what they were about, every last one of them. I would rather Ron be singing…
Finally Ginny arrived after finishing shopping with her mom. “Hey guys! Mum said we could hang out for awhile and I really, really, really want to go to the ice cream shop!” Ginny squealed getting the last sentence out in one breath. We agreed and headed that way. Ginny squeezed in between me and Hermione and I automatically reached for her hand, but she moved it of my reach and shook her head. Hermione saw this and snickered but Ron paid no attention whatsoever.
Before walking in, we stopped to decide what flavor we wanted to get, there were pictures of each flavor of ice cream on the window. Ginny walked right up to the strawberry one and tapped her finger against it. It wiggled and she started to tickle and it began to laugh so that everyone on the street stopped and looked. I heard whispers of ‘I’ve never seen it do that before’ and ‘She’s torturing the innocent little ice cream!’ Finally Ginny quit and offered for me to go inside the ice cream shop first. I agreed and walked in.
“SURPRISE!”
I stood there, motionless and then there came Mrs. Weasley. “Oh Harry! Since we didn’t do anything for your birthday we decided to throw you a back to school party!”
What? Mrs. Weasley’s telling me she didn’t do anything for my birthday but we did have a cake and everything. That’s what the rest of her children get, so what’s so special about me? I looked over at Ron and he obviously had no idea what was going on either. Hermione and Ginny were already sitting down and chatting vigorously while glancing my way every once in a while.
“Hey mate!” I turned and saw Fred and George dressed extremely nice in a purple dragon skin suit. “Figured we’d dress up for your par-tay!” They sang in unison. I couldn’t help but ask why I was having a party and they laughed and said about the same thing Mrs. Weasley did so I gave up and went to talk to Lupin who had an extremely large shaggy black dog with him.
“Hi Professor, how have you been?” I asked.
“Don’t call me professor, that was two years ago! But anyways, I’ve been fine and so has Snuffles here,” Lupin replied smiling. I laughed and bent down to talk to Snuffles.
“So Sirius, how have you been?” I asked looking straight into the dog’s eyes.
“Fine, follow me,” Snuffles whispered and led me to a back room. It was dark and dingy, especially after I shut the door. If someone did walk in, they couldn’t see anything. Snuffles transformed while I turned away because I learned last year that it was a gruesome process.
“Lumos. That’s better. So how have you been Harry?” Sirius asked as I turned around.
“I’ve been great!” I said cheerfully, thinking back to this morning in Ginny’s room.
“That’s great. I came up here just for this party; I was down south in Florida. The people down there are nice, they leave scraps out for me all the time,” Sirius sighed.
Something was wrong, usually when he gets the chance to see me he’s jumping up and down or at least smiles. I was afraid to ask what was wrong, but I didn’t have to.
“Look, something’s happened,” he took a deep breath and continued, “Someone saw me transform and just so happen, he was a wizard. He reported what he saw to the American wizard president and now there are wanted ads with both a description of me and of me as Snuffles.” Sirius paused again to see what I’d say, but I just stood there, flabbergasted (A/N: I’ve always wanted to use that word!). Then he continued once again, “So there’s a possibility the president will tell Fudge and then I’ll never be able to be outside, at all. Unless I move to China or something…” He sank to his knees and I walked over to him and patted him on the back. Then I bent down and gave him a hug, hoping it would make him feel better.
After what seemed like hours, he stood up and transformed while I looked away. Taking a deep breath and putting on the happiest face I could muster, we walked outside to join the party. I felt like I didn’t belong here with everyone dancing and having fun. I just sat in the corner all by myself thinking. Couldn’t Sirius wait until after the party to tell me? What if I never get to see him again? What am I going…
“Harry, would you care to dance with me?”
I looked up and saw Ginny with the brightest smile on her face. I better not ruin her last night before school, I thought. I stood up and took her hand, this time she didn’t move it out of my reach. We walked over to the dance floor, and began to dance. She was smiling and laughing, not taking notice of my sadness.
“Time for cake!” yelled Mrs. Weasley, “Harry’s first!” I walked over to the table where she was standing. “Which piece?” Mrs. Weasley asked. I looked at the cake and picked the piece that said ‘Harry’ on it and walked over to my corner.
“Hey Harry, I brought you something to drink!” said Lupin who was rushing over to see me. He conjured up a chair and sat down after handing me the drink he brought.
“Look I have to talk to you about what Snuffles said to you earlier,” he said as he looked around to see if anyone was listening. “Look he’s going to stay at his house for a while and soon he’ll stay with me,” Lupin paused to see if it affected my mood but since it didn’t he added, “He’ll be fine, nobody would ever be able to find him-- Drink up, it’ll make you feel a little better.” I nodded and drank the butterbeer in one gulp. Afterwards he walked off to talk to some other people.
“Hey would you like to dance again?” I looked up from my uneaten cake and saw a blurred red shape that kind of resembled a lion. Well Gryffindor is a lion, I thought, so I guess it would be ok. I nodded and stood up, almost falling out of my chair. Thankfully, whoever asked me to dance caught me and led me over to the dance floor. Every time I heard ‘Are you okay, Harry?’ from various blurred shapes I’d laugh and ask ‘Who’s Harry?’ The night seemed to pass extremely fast and before I knew it, I was asleep at the Burrow.
A/N: Sorry for the wait! Please R and R!