Harry followed Ron out of his room and went into the room just by Ron’s.
Harry’s jaw dropped. His room looked completely opposite from at Privet drive, the shelves, unlike at Privet, had pictures of him, his friends and favorite teachers from school, and the Weasley’s in frames every where. The room, unlike Ron’s was not decorated in Chudley Cannons everything, but Gryffindor colors. Harry felt a stinging sensation behind his eyes, and quickly subdued it. This was the most anyone had ever done for him.
“You like it?” Ron asked, grinning as Harry picked up a frame containing Luna, Ginny, and Neville, “We got the school ones from Colin.”
“It’s amazing! You guys did way too much! Its so, wow!” Harry said amazed, and completely at a loss for words, which was an unusual thing for him.
“We thought you’d like it. Those, with Colin’s help, are Fred and George’s touch,” Ron laughed pointing to yet another picture. Harry, upon further investigation, found that it was a picture of him and George beating the stuffing out of Malfoy the year before that replayed over and over again, and one of Fred and George flying over the swamp and away from Umbridge.
“Fred and George are putting that picture of them flying over the swamp on the box they’re selling it in. And they’re selling the one of Malfoy getting the crap beat out of him for 2 galleons just for kicks, and Malfoy’s embarrassment of course.”
“Those two there were Ginny’s touch,” said Ron with a wink, pointing at two on the window sill. Harry found that they were of Ginny and Harry in a chess match, and one of Ginny and Harry sitting next to each other in the common room. The second photo Ginny waved and smiled, as photo Harry put his arm around her. Slighly embarrassed, as he didn’t know photo’s could reflect his current thoughts, he quickly put the photo down.
“And, that one is all Mum and Dad,” said Ron pointing to a picture of all the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione, taken before the Quidditch World Cup.
“This is awesome; you guys did way too much!” Harry said smiling.
“Aaah, you should have heard Mum!” said Ron, looking disgusted. He put on a high, but caring voice that sounded just like Mrs. Weasley’s, “Oh I hope Harry likes it. Please let him like it. Are there too many pictures? Are there too few pictures? What if he doesn’t like it,” Ron finished with a laugh and a jump, because just as he started laughing there was a knock on the door.
”Oh, Harry, you’re here,” said Ginny’s familiar voice. Harry was surprised to see how much Ginny had changed in the past 2 weeks. She had gotten taller, about half an inch, if that was possible, her hair had gotten longer and now fell to just below her waist, and her face looked like it had matured at least half a year. She was really very pretty. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed her before every other guy in Hogwarts was his competition. Then he caught himself. She was his best friend’s little sister! Ron would kill him. Or, would he? He had said that he would rather, if Ginny had to date some stupid git, have that git be Harry. But there was still Fred and George to deal with. Though, they had joked about it. But had they been joking? And most importantly, Ginny didn’t fancy him anymore, as Hermione had said. To think, he might have missed his chance because he was too thick to notice her.
Ginny seemed to notice his lingering gaze because she asked him if anything was wrong.
”Oh, noting, it’s just taking some time to sink in,” Harry managed to recover. As to make the moment less awkward, George apparated in closely followed by Fred, and said dinner was ready, threw a couple of their ‘newest inventions’ at everyone, and apparated out.
“UGH,” Ron groaned, “I’m soaked. I hate those things. I must have gotten 20 shirts shrunk because of those! Where would they come up with a thing like that? They call them ‘Raging Water bombs.’”
“I think they are something like the muggle ones,’ Ginny said, wringing out her hair, “Hermione told us one time about a Water bomb fight where she had gotten soaked.” She started to wring out her shirt, but then said, “Oh, yeah, I forgot.” She whipped out her wand and preformed the drying spell. “Ministry threw out the decree banning underage magic.”
Harry and Ron preformed the drying spell as well, and Ron continued their earlier conversation.
”Fred and George have made some modifications,” Ron grimaced as his shoe made a loud squishing sound, realizing he forgot to dry his shoes, “The bombs stay over the person until the person is completely drenched, as opposed to the muggle ones which sometimes you throw and miss the person completely.”
Harry noticed just then that Ginny had been looking at him too, in much the same way he had earlier been looking at her. They both blushed and quickly looked away. Ron stood there oblivious as normal, God love him.
To change the subject, Harry asked what they had been up to and if they had heard anything new about the Order. Saying the Order caused a pang in Harry’s chest, God, he missed Sirius. Before he could hold it back a small tear escaped and rolled down his cheek. Thankfully Ron hadn’t noticed.
“Oh no,” Harry thought. Ginny had noticed. Before Harry could do anything, Ginny came over and put a comforting arm around him.
“It’ll be ok Harry,” she whispered soft enough so Ron couldn’t hear, “He died fighting against Voldemort, trying to protect the people he cared about, that’s the way he would have wanted to go. He was a good man, Harry,” she smiled, her own voice shaking a bit.
Harry thought to himself, as Ron kept talking about not knowing what was going on with the Order, and then moved on to Quidditch, “Some life he had. Parents who make the Dursley’s look like a family of Gidgets, then being locked up in Azkaban, then being locked up in his old house, and finally dying because of a stupid move on my part.”
Ginny, as if sensing his thoughts, took his hand and continued, “He had people that loved him dearly, whom he loved back. That made his life worth living. Don’t blame yourself Harry; you did exactly what anyone of us would have done. Has it truly not crossed your mind that he did exactly what you did? He went after you, because you were in danger. He loved you Harry, like a son. His love was strong for everyone he cared about. That made his life, and that made his death heroic. You should be celebrating his life, not just morning his death.” She gave him a quick hug, gave his hand a squeeze, and gave him some space.
Harry flashed a small smile at his friend. She really was a good friend. He had really noticed her after the Ministry last year. She had been so brave, and really stuck by him, not to mention taking several Death Eaters on her own. Over the remainder of the school year, he had had her at the back of his mind, always. Did he really want to possibly wreck his friendship by going out with her? No, he didn’t want to chance it, but what if, what if she was the one? After all, his parents had met at Hogwarts? Great, there went another prang again. He caught himself in time. Another thought came across his mind; did he want to catch himself? IF he started crying again, maybe he’d get another hug from Ginny. Hmm, this grief thing had an upside. He immediately regretted the thought. Of course he was horribly sad about losing Sirius, but, hey, if it could bring Ginny and him closer, Sirius would have loved that. He remembered how much Sirius had truly liked Ginny. A conversation came to mind, between Sirius and himself, they had been talking about Harry’s friends. Sirius telling them how much he was reminded of his best friends; the best of Marauders, and Lily; Ginny had reminded him so much of Lily.
He shook himself back into reality only to realize that Ron had finished talking and was looking at Harry for a reaction, while Ginny was trying to stifle a giggle, and was shaking hard from trying to restrain herself.
“Sorry Ron, what did you say? I kind of zoned out there.”