The morning after the Gryffindor Quidditch team had won their final match of the year dawned beautiful and clear. The air was crisp and smelled of spring. Ginny Weasley’s eyes slowly opened to bright sunlight shining in through her dormitory window. It was a glorious day, she thought and closed her eyes again to relive the moments from the previous day...
The celebration of winning the silver Quidditch Cup was going strong except Harry wasn’t there. He’d been stuck in detention all morning with Snape and missed the match. They’d had to wait half an hour after the game was over before he came and Ginny couldn’t wait to see him.
Finally! Ginny saw Harry come through the portrait hole and ran towards him. She threw her arms around him to hug him hard. It seemed as if the world had slowed down to a stop when Harry lowered his head and kissed Ginny in front of at least fifty people. It was several long moments - or it might have been half an hour - or possibly several sunlit days - they broke apart.* The room had gone very quiet before several people started to wolf-whistle and there was an outbreak of nervous giggling. Ginny could see Hermione beaming at them and smiled back at her. She could feel Harry tugging her hand to get her attention and when he motioned his head towards the portrait hole, Ginny nodded her head. A long walk on the grounds seemed indicated, during which - if they had time - they might discuss the match.*
After leaving the common room, Harry had gripped Ginny’s hand tightly in his own, leading her through the castle and out to the lake to sit under the beech tree where she’d watched her brother, Hermione, and Harry sit on many occasions wishing she were sitting with them. For a while neither of them said or did anything except glance into each other’s eyes and smile. Ginny had been waiting for this day for a very long time and now that it was here, her heart felt like it was going to bounce right out of her chest. The sun shone and it didn’t seem possible that her world could be any more perfect than what it was right then.
“Oh, Harry,” she whispered , a small grin lighting up her face. “Did you see the look on Ron’s face after you kissed me? It was quite funny, don’t you think?” The memory of Ron’s shocked expression alone would give her fits of laughter for a long time coming. “Everyone seemed a little surprised. I think I even heard a glass break.”
Harry grinned back at her chuckling softly. “You did hear a glass break. It was Dean’s. I thought for sure Ron was going to blow up. It’s what has kept me from approaching you all year. Well, that and Dean Thomas,” he said plucking up some grass to tickle the end of Ginny’s nose. “There were days when I couldn’t stand to look at Dean. He’s a good guy, but…” Harry’s voice trailed off causing the grin on Ginny’s face to widen and laughter to burst out.
“How long? How long have you been waiting?” Ginny inquired and reached up to brush the back of her fingers across Harry’s cheek.
“Truly? Since my first Potions class with Slughorn.”
“Slughorn? Does Slughorn remind you of me?” Ginny huffed, looking down at her thin figure and pulled her robes out, letting them fall for what seemed like miles before they lay back against her body. “How could you possibly think that?” Her incredulity was written clearly across her face.
“Slughorn? Not hardly,” Harry said and burst out laughing. “When we got to class, he had cauldrons bubbling and one of them had a potion in it called Amortentia. It had a different smell for each person. For me, it was treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery I thought I might have smelled at the Burrow.* It was at lunch that day when I was sitting with Ron and Hermione that I smelled it again. I turned around to find where it was coming from and you were standing there. That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” Ginny inquired, a slight smile tugging the corners of her mouth. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling at Harry.
“Knew that I fancied you.” Harry’s cheeks turned a slight reddish hue causing Ginny to laugh again. “Of course, there wasn’t much I could do about it because you were with Dean. Nearly killed me to have him on the Quidditch team, I tell you. Then there were the days that I’d be walking along, minding my own business, and I’d find you and Dean…” Harry couldn’t say it.
“Kissing,” Ginny stated emphatically. “Well, now we’re even. I had to watch you with Cho Chang. Not that I ever came down a hallway and caught you. There were days when I thought my Bat Bogey Hex wasn’t going to control itself around her,” Ginny said, grimacing. “I was completely crushed when I found you’d asked her to the ball instead of me, but I knew that if I’d said no to Neville, I wouldn’t have gone at all.”
Harry laughed at the expression on his face. “Well, the next time there’s a ball, you’re my girl.” Harry reached up to the long length of Ginny’s hair and slid his fingers through it.
“You’d better believe it,” Ginny narrowed her eyes at him with a menacing look on her face. She watched as his face came closer and again felt the corners of her lips tilt upwards as Harry softly kissed her. It was a nice feeling, to have his lips against hers and his fingers playing with her hair. Pulling back, Ginny thought, this is nice. I never knew it would be this nice. Actually nice is kind of a pallid word. Exciting fits better, I think. My heart’s pounding and my blood feels like it’s rushing to get out of my body. She linked her hands around the back of Harry’s neck and laid her cheek against his, sighing in complete contentment.
The two sat there for a while more with Harry’s arm around her shoulders and Ginny’s head leaning against him. “I guess we’d better get back up to the castle. It's starting to get cold,” Harry said.
“I guess we’d better.” They stood up and once again were hand in hand, walking. Ginny looked up at him and said, “You know Harry, the only thing that would make this better, is…”
“Ron and Hermione?” They both said at the same time with knowing looks in their eyes and burst out laughing.
Ginny came back from her reverie of the day before when the dormitory door opened, and she grinned to find Hermione poking her head in the room.
“Harry wants to know if you’d like to come and have breakfast with him? Said something about discussing the Quidditch match.”
*Excerpts from the Half Blood Prince