Chapter Text
Harry wakes to a gentle hand brushing the hair from his brow and a voice calling his name. Opening eyes reveals a temporarily blurry figure, before said figure readjusts his glasses and he sees Ginny.
“Good morning, sleepy head.” She says with a smile, leaning over him on the couch.
“Morning.” He sits up, nearly knocking heads with her in his ascent.
“Did you sleep here all night?”
He looks down at himself, seeing that apparently his sleeping self was fare cleverer than his awake self and had escaped Mrs. Weasley’s binds. “Yeah.” Not wanting to admit his blanket struggles, he adds, “It was warm down here.”
“Good point. The only thing warmer than a fireplace is sharing body heat with another person.”
“I guess…” Harry suddenly notices how close they were sitting and eases himself off the couch. “Is there any breakfast? I’m starving.”
“Oh, right! We let you sleep in, so you missed it.” Ginny pulls out a steaming plate of eggs and sausages. “But I saved some for you. Here.” She holds out a fork for him.
“Thanks. I’ll just take this to the table then.” Says Harry hastily, unsure of why he suddenly feels uncomfortable. It was a nice gesture on Ginny’s part, after all.
“I’ll join you.”
“Oh, sure.”
Ginny sits beside him at the table and pulls out a notebook. “I know this is kinda Hermione’s thing, but I was thinking we should make a record of any important information regarding Malfoy’s plots at school, so like that we don’t get our information jumbled.”
Instantly Harry feels relief, Ginny had said she would help and here she is, there was no reason for him to feel uncomfortable, she is one ally he knows he can rely on. And if it just so happens that she is currently leaning against him as she writes down all they know so far, it is because she is just a naturally physical person, nothing to read into or worry about there.
“Don’t forget to mention Sirius.” Before she can protest, he adda, “Malfoy might have something to do with it, or it could be a hallucination from Voldemort, we shouldn’t discount it too early.”
With a nod she accents, marking down Sirius Black with a large circle and question mark around his name.
“Have you mentioned any of this to Dumbledor?”
“I haven’t had a chance to yet, but I’m going to be talking to him as soon as I can once we return to school.”
“Good. At the very least you should tell him about your worries that Voldemort is getting into your head again.” After a pause, she adds, “Right! That reminds me, we’re going straight to Hogwarts from the Burrow, so you should get packing. We will be leaving today.”
With that, Harry funnelles the last of the eggs into his mouth. “I should get to that then, I’ve already slept in enough.”
“Do you want any help?”
“Nah, I’m good. I like to keep my stuff tidy. Ron’s the one who might need help.”
Ginny laughs at that. “I’m already packed, so I’ll see if I can brainstorm some more.” She gestures towards the notebook.
Upstairs Harry sees Ron slumped on his bed, looking distracted.
“Ron? Done packing?”
“Do you ever wonder what the point of romance is? Or friendship? Or any of those things? Why aren't we just like this little spot of mould, drifting through the world without a care in the world?”
Harry squints at the mould in question, not feeling particularly philosophically compelled but willing to humour his friend. “I suppose it is more interesting that way. There might be tragedy, but there’s good moments too. Without it we wouldn’t even be able to have this conversation.”
Harry waits a moment as Ron stares at the mould, wondering if the other had heard him. He notices a large and hideously pink necklace dangling out of Ron’s hand.
“Did something happen with Lavender?” He remembered he’d been meaning to ask Ron about her, but now really didn’t seem the time.
That seems to knock Ron out of his reverie. “What? No, nothing’s wrong. We’re all good.” He stuffs the necklace into his pocket. “She just gave me a really ugly gift, is all. I think she has bad taste in jewellery.” He tries for a laugh, but Harry knows what a genuine Ron laugh sounds like and that isn’t it.
“Oh…” Harry trails off awkwardly.
“So, when are you going to get yourself a girlfriend?” Ron turns to look up at him, clearly changing the subject. “It’s been ages since Cho. You can’t stay stuck on her forever, you know.”
“Yeah, I know. I just…”
“There’s plenty more women in the world.”
“Right.”
“If you don’t start looking for them they’re going to start looking for you.”
“I just don’t know if I can get over Cho yet. She really felt like the One.” It was a lie he’d told himself so often that it had lost its bitter taste, sliding off the tongue easily.
Ron gave a sympathetic frown. “Sorry, bro.”
Now they were both sitting there awkwardly, reminding Harry of why he rarely tried to get emotionally deep with Ron.
“Want to pack?”
“Yeah, let’s.”