A Short Letter To Sum It All Up

He wished that he could think of beautiful, flowing songs and meaningful poems like his father. Harry knew quite well that that was the way his father won his mother over. But, as corny and cliché' as it sounded, words couldn't express what he felt.

Every man in the long line of the Potter family had fallen for a beautiful redhead, and he was certainly no exception. Even when he sat at his bedside desk, quill in hand, he couldn't stop thinking about her.

Ron didn't know, of course- it would be the end of their friendship for sure. Hermione was catching on fast, and he wouldn't be surprised if she knew it all already. Ginny, of course, had no idea, even when she herself was the object of Harry's emotions.

These deep feelings were alien to him, even with his short-term relationship with Cho Chang, which had ended last year when she graduated. And it came with a bang, Harry thought.

Flying pots and pans, swearing, the whole lot. It was then he saw the real Cho, not the paper-thin cover on the outside that had fooled him for so long. Harry wished he would have noticed Ginny sooner, then maybe she would still love him.

He was a fool and he didn't deserve to be with her after all he'd put her through. Six years and he'd only just realized it this year, his last at Hogwarts. Finally and without hesitation, Harry wrote three simple words on the blank parchment: I LOVE YOU.

He signed his name and folded the paper clumsily, stuffing it into an envelope. Now came the two hard parts-keeping his heart in his chest and slipping the letter under Ginny's pillow.

He let out a small laugh under his breath as Ron muttered about Hermione in his sleep. He had been obsessing over her night and day, pressing his hands down in her usual seat by the fire when he thought no one was looking, or pretending to study her papers whilst looking deeply at the writing as if he was looking at Hermione herself.

Harry wasn't quite sure when this- his feelings- began to emerge. He suspected around their second year and it was quite obvious why; trying to shoot slugs at Malfoy when he called her a mudblood, sneaking out at night to visit her in the hospital wing, her body frozen and ridged.

The first time Harry had watched him sneak out of the dorm he had been a bit hurt that Ron had gone without him but quickly adjusted to it. Harry knew that he loved Hermione just as he himself loved Ginny.

Harry slipped on his old invisibility cloak and crept out the door silently, walking with his transparent head down in the brightly scarlet hallway. As his thoughts returned to his duties, he nearly tripped and completely lost his footing on the girl's steps.

He thudded quietly up them and opened the sixth year's dormitory door. Inside was a typical girl's dorm; decorated with flowered wallpaper and cloths hung out for the next day to wear under their frame-fitting robes.

He crept over to the farthest bed which read Virginia M. Weasly on the foot. She wasn't in it; Harry wondered nervously where she was. He pushed the note under her fluffy pillow and quickly tiptoed out the door, closing it behind him.

Harry stumbled down the dainty steps and down the hallway once again, his vision cloudy from nearly closed eyelids. As he neared his own room, something small and warm knocked into his chest- no other than Virginia Marie Weasly herself.

She looked through him, startled.

"Who's there?" she asked loudly, her red hair flying as she turned her head to look behind her. Harry noticed she was carrying a worn potions book in her hands. She turned to look at-THROUGH-him again and reached out, pushing her hands into his chest. She gasped sharply.

Harry said nothing as he held his breath and stood like a stone. Should he say something, should he move? But her shaking hands were so warm and comforting against his Quidditch-worn torso that he decided against it.

She felt up his scruffy neck and to his thin cheek, her eyes wide. She felt up into his jet-black hair and grabbed a hold of the slick cloak. Harry suddenly panicked- what was he thinking? He needed to get back up to his dormitory!

He ran stupidly, Ginny still grasping the cloak, trying to get to the boy's stairs. His body slipped from the water-like material and he became visible. Ginny made somewhat of a surprised choking sound, her eyes like saucers.

"Harry?" she asked. Harry stared at her embarrassedly. Why had he just stood there? Why didn't he run? Suddenly and with a burst of great strength, Harry broke through his embarrassment and began to blurt out everything. He didn't know how, he did know why, he just did and threw all caution to the wind while he was at it.

"Ginny, Do you remember the time in the Chamber of secrets when- wait- no, you were sort of unconscious-," Harry tried to think of something better to say than wait, no, you were sort of unconscious. The words I love you had completely vanished from his mind.

Ginny stared at him angrily.

"Why did you let me do that?" Ginny asked madly.

Harry, despite himself, even thought she was amazingly radiant in this mood as well. His words caught in his throat and he tried a direct approach at changing the subject again.

"Wait, what about the time in my first year- No, I didn't know who you were-," Harry knew at once that his words had been a mistake. Ginny's face turned violently red and screwed up in anger.

Why did he do this to her? Why did he torture her like that? Maybe if he hadn't been so incredibly stupid- maybe- they could be together.

For a fleeting second, Ginny looked at him, her anger melting away and her face anxious and wanting. But it quickly turned back and Harry felt a hand slap him hard across the same cheek that it had so delicately touched earlier. Ginny stormed off in the opposite direction and up the stairs to her dormitory.

He took a few steps forward but thought better of it and just stood there, silence and great despair surrounding him on all sides. What the hell had he just done? Why had he said all of those things to beautiful, radiant, bedazzling Ginny, with her red Hair and her pink lips and her blue eyes?

He faintly remembered the letter he had written but knew it was too late to take it back, mostly because he could already see Ginny's shadow moving steadily down the stairs again.

She turned a corner and faced Harry at the top of the stairs, expressionless. Harry couldn't tell if she was angry or not. She clutched the letter tightly in her right hand.

"Ginny, I," Harry began, but he couldn't bring himself to finish. He didn't need to. Ginny walked down the stairs and stood six inches away from him. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment before sharing a long, meaningful kiss, latching onto the other's lips and not wanting to let go.

And there they stood for quite a while, the short note clasped in Ginny's hand and the invisibility cloak laying useless on the ground ten feet away.

FIN [I just love that word]