Weasley the Younger

Harry Potter knew that Ginny Weasley's O.W.L.s were approaching and that she'd go absolutely crazy with the study regime Hermione had sworn she would put her on. But not only did Harry want to save her from the nut known as Hermione, but from thoughts about Tom Riddle. So much inside of him wanted to say, "It was four years ago; let go," but none of him knew how.

In fact, for such a long time, thoughts about Ginny and Tom had been laying dormant in Harry's mind. It wasn't until the conversation in the closed ward back at Christmas last year that Harry thought that possibly...he still haunted her...

She hadn't forgotten...couldn't forget? Nights where he had been tossing in his bed thinking about Voldemort and his parents and green lights, she had been tossing, thinking about possibly being possessed by Tom Riddle again? Waking up in a cold sweat, crying thinking about things that she couldn't change?

Harry was positive that these feelings of protection for Ginny weren't anything romantic, but were simply platonic feelings of brotherhood. He needed to protect Ginny for she was his sister, and if anything developed between them, it would feel like incest. And since the Department of Mysteries escapade, he knew that she was in danger of possibly being in that situation again. More fitful sleeps about dying alone at the hands of the evillest person to ever live. Harry's and her spirits were identical, and it was something truly unsettling to Harry.

"Ginny," he asked her one night in the common room in front of a warm, comforting fire. "Ron, Hermione, and I need you if we're going to defeat Voldemort. You're the only one of us who knows what it's like to be possessed, and that might come in handy somewhere down the road."

A look of pure admiration and gratefulness filled Ginny's pale, heart-shaped face. "Well, you finally admitted that you just might not know everything there is to know about You-Know-Who. You're on the road to recovery, Potter," she pat him on the back, and smiled. "I accept."

"Glad to have you on the team, Weasley," he grinned. "Weasley the Younger."

"Not just Weasley the Younger. Weasley the Smarter, Weasley the Prettier, Weasley the Superior," and Ginny began to tick off things that she was better than the elder Weasley (Ron) at.

Harry looked at her small frame as she walked to the fifth-year girls' dormitory, and suddenly he felt the desire to protect her. He didn't know exactly what he felt about her, but he did know that he was worried about her.