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“Yeah I noticed,” said Ron with a small smile, making Harry think he wasn’t quite so dense after all, “I was started saying stuff like ‘Kreacher got hit by a rampaging dragon that Charlie let loose to wreak havoc on the wizarding world’ and ‘Hermione stopped studying to get a job and buy a flying monkey,’ and ‘Malfoy joined the magical traveling circus because he finally realized he looked like a baboon and decided to act like one and join the freak show,’ and ‘Both Malfoys are acting as human piñatas as part of You-Know-Who’s stress management program.’ I thought that one would get you for sure but you just weren’t paying attention. What were you thinking about anyway?”
“I was wondering if I left anything at Privet Drive.” Harry lied quickly, blushing a little.
“Oh. Did you?” Ron asked, his smile saying he knew that that wasn’t what he was thinking about.
“Err…no. Hey; does this staircase seem longer to you?” Harry asked suddenly noticing they had been walking for a solid 5 or so minutes.
“Damn it, not again.” Ginny said, “Another one of Fred and George’s inventions. ‘The Never Ending Staircase.” Ginny pulled out her wand, mumbled Exeo, and they found themselves at the bottom of the real staircase.
”That’s a good one,” Harry said, impressed.
“You just wait. One night you’ll be half asleep and be trying to get to the bathroom and you’ll be walking and walking. It’ll be an hour before you wake up and finally realize,” Ron said, shaking his head.
“Nah,” said a voice that made them all jump. George was walking down the stairs closely followed by Fred.
“We wouldn’t do that to you Harry, we respect you too much,” Fred said.
“Right,” said Harry highly skeptically.
“Harry, I’m surprised at your distrust!” Fred joked.
“Ron, Percy, and Ginny were the unsuspecting test subjects,” said George with a laugh, “Ron is just sulky because it happened to him 3 times. We only did it to Ginny once.”
“Just last night,” Ron said, “OH, and HA I know how to get out of it now! Ginny said it. Exeo!”
“SHH!” George whispered, “Don’t want Percy to hear you! It wouldn’t be much fun trying to keep him in there anymore!”
“So Percy is still in there?” Ginny asked pointing towards the staircase.
“Yup,” said Fred proudly.
Ginny, Harry, Ron, George, and Fred burst out laughing.
“How does he get out then?” Harry asked.
“He hits a part which we like to call a magical pothole, where he falls through, or he takes a full 3 hours to get down the stairs and not a second less, one of us let him out, or, he finds out he exit word.”
Suddenly, Percy fell out of thin air at Harry’s shoulder.
“Percy, how unkind of you to drop in,” George said bitterly, shooting daggers at him with his eyes.
Percy stood up rubbing his tush, and cowered behind Harry, the only one of the group who had accepted his apology.
”I, well, uh, yes, I seem to be hallucinating, it keeps taking me longer than usual to get down and up the staircase.”
As if Percy had ordered it, Mrs. Weasley called that dinner was getting cold in the kitchen.
They all walked into the kitchen and noticed the table groaning under loads of Mrs. Weasley’s excellent cooking. Dinner was so enjoyable. No uncomfortable conversations or strained smiles, like at the Dursley’s. After 2 weeks Harry was really tired of their looking like they forced the look of disgust off of their faces.
Too soon, Harry was in bed, hoping he wouldn’t have to get up during the night, even though he had gone to the bathroom because of Ron and Ginny’s advice. Despite his worries about the Never Ending Staircase, his continued grief about Sirius, and the weight of defeating Voldemort or dying trying, Harry was happier than he had been in a almost a year. He was where he belonged, with the people who were closest thing to his family that he had had in over 14 years. With that thought in his head he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Suddenly Harry sat up. He had heard something. He went slowly too the door, careful to make no noise, and quickly opened the door. No one was there. He must have been hearing things. It was then that he remembered. Ron’s room was right under the Ghoul in the attic, so his must be too. With that he decided to go back to sleep.
When Harry woke up there was light coming in the window. He got up and dressed and went down to the kitchen. He found Ginny alone there, looking pretty upset.
“Is there something wrong Ginny?” He asked, looking genuinely concerned.
“Nothing, just a memory," she sniffled, trying to gain control of herself.
Harry sat down next to her and looked her in the eyes, "Want to talk about it?” he asked, surprising even himself.
Ginny let a few more tears roll down her cheek and just looked at Harry. He figured she was trying to get her voice steady. She opened her mouth to say something and continued to cry soundlessly. Harry kept his arm around her as he waited for her to regain composure.
“I w-was just thinking about Sirius," she mumbled, looking down, "About how wonderful a person he was, caring, strong, friendly, and just... wonderful." She stopped talking and started crying harder.
Harry felt himself starting to break, and he really didn't want to cry, he wanted to be there for Ginny… he didn’t want her to see him weak. Hard as he tried though, he couldn’t control himself. He started to cry too. Ginny wrapped her arms around him and they cried together.
Harry had a quickly passing thought of how good it felt to have his Ginny in his arms.
“My Ginny? Since when is she my Ginny?” he thought. He swiped the thought away and just enjoyed the closeness.
He remembered how much Ginny cared about Sirius. He had been like another older brother. Next to Bill’s, his opinion was the one that mattered most. Harry’s tears subsided, and he sat stroking Ginny’s hair, and rocking a bit, while she cried into his neck. After about another fifteen minutes, Ginny stopped crying. She looked up at him and his breath caught in his throat. Even with red eyes, she was beautiful. She smiled a sad smile at him, and before he knew what he was doing, he leaned in, and kissed her sweetly.
“When did she become my Ginny?” Harry thought again to himself, “Just now.”