Growing Up Weasley

Chapter 6. Stealing Them Back

Ginny headed out toward the shed, looking for Harry and trying to figure out what she was going to do. After all, she still had to repay her brothers for that ambush yesterday. And, truth be told, she wouldn't mind getting Harry back for taking her by surprise - twice! - no matter how much she enjoyed it. Plus, she'd like to know just what he was thinking.

"Dad?" she called, making her presence known, in case they'd been having a discussion at all like the one Ginny had just had with her mother. She didn't want to walk in on that. "Dad?" she repeated, knocking on the door to the gardening shed.

"Come in, come in," Arthur Weasley called back. Ginny opened the door to see her father and Harry leaning over a workbench covered in Muggle gadgets. It appeared Harry was explaining the purpose of each of them.

She smothered a giggle, as the scene from a Muggle cartoon floated into her mind. Hermione had told her about it, even sung the song on a dare one night in the Gryffindor common room. What was the line? "I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, I've got whosits and whatsits galore. You want thingamabobs? I've got twenty!" Something about a mermaid, Ginny thought. Pity the Muggles didn't know what real mermaids were like. Still, the song fit her father perfectly. He was enthralled by the hundreds of little objects that made no sense in his world but were fascinating just the same.

"Now tell me, Harry, what the Muggles do with this thing. A blender, is it?"

This time, Ginny giggled aloud. She loved her father - she really did. But sometimes she had to wonder if he had forgotten everything he ever learned at Hogwarts. He'd done Muggle Studies, just as Ginny was doing. There were some things he really should know. "Dad, you know they use that thing in the kitchen. For mixing up drinks, right, Harry?"

Harry gave her an approving look. "Right, Gin. How did you know that?"

She rolled her eyes. Really. Harry may have been many things, but apparently he was just like the rest of her family when it came to underestimating her. "I do have Muggle friends besides you, you know. And Hermione isn't the only one who reads her textbooks." He still seemed in a bit of a fog. "Muggle Studies, Harry. Remember? Or weren't you aware I was studying Muggles?" The question got her thinking. How much did Harry know about her, after all?

Time enough to worry about that later. Right now she had some vengeance to wreak. "Dad, is it all right if I steal Harry away for a minute?" she asked.

"Not at all. I was just going to go inside and see if I might pinch a treacle tart from the pantry anyway." Arthur shooed the pair of them out, then followed. Ginny would have had to be blind to miss the significant look her father sent to Harry. Apparently they had had a talk that paralleled the one Ginny and Molly had had. Ginny just rolled her eyes. Honestly. Was this really necessary? It was just Harry, after all. Better save significant looks and warnings and such for when Ginny got into real trouble.

Once outside, Harry turned to Ginny, a little warily, and asked, "You wanted to ask me somthing, Gin?"

What she wanted to do, Ginny thought with sudden irritation, was smack Harry right in the head. Why was he suddenly so nervous? Afraid she was going to do something embarrassing, or maybe demand a declaration of love? What, Mr. Two Kisses thought he could dish it out, but he couldn't handle the reprecussions? The way Harry was looking at her, she might have been a black widow spider eying him for her next meal.

Apparently Lancelot wasn't quite so dashing when he was just sixteen.

But Ron and Hermione were just returning from town. She'd have to think about Harry later. Perhaps...just maybe...she could kill two birds with one stone. It would torment Ron to no end if he saw her and Harry kissing. And at the same time, he would probably hound Harry to within an inch of his life - which would be fair payment for his stolen kisses. Ginny eyed Ron and Hermione, waiting until they were close enough to make no mistake, and then -

She threw her arms around Harry and gave him a great loud theatrical kiss.

When she stepped back, Harry look positively flummoxed. Ginny couldn't keep from grinning at him and tossing a light-hearted wink at her big brother (who also looked a bit - well, astounded. And disturbed. And...Ginny thought it best not to ponder too long on her brother's current state of mind). She left the scene with a light heart and a skip in her step. Let Harry explain.

Once in her room, Ginny plucked her journal out from under her pillow and slid down to sit on the floor, scrunched up between her bed and the window. She picked a quill from the six in her nightstand drawer and opened a bottle of ink that had fallen in the crack between her nightstand and the wall. She had a lot to write about, and she wanted to get the exact look on Harry's face down in ink before she forgot it.

Alas, it was not to be. Just as Ginny finished her first page, the door to her bedroom burst open, admitting a rather shocked and confused Hermione. "Ginny Weasley! What has gotten into you?" Ginny peeked over the top of her bed and smiled a bit at Hermione. For her part, Hermione shut the door and went over to where Ginny was sitting, folding her legs under her as she sat down on Ginny's bed. "Your brother is downstairs right now ready to tear the stuffing out of Harry - and of you. What were you thinking, kissing Harry like that in front of him?"

Really. Honestly. For the love of Count Chocula (some breakfast cereals were everywhere) and Helen of Troy. Did everyone have it in her? Ginny would have expected Hermione, at least, to be on her side. "You know, 'Mione, if you keep having these bipolar moments, Madame Pomfrey is going to keep you locked away in the infirmary all year long." Ginny sighed loudly. "Aren't you the one who told me that Harry was, and I quote, 'mad' for me? And didn't you tell Ron this morning that he should stop treating me like a baby? And," by now Hermione had turned quite red, "didn't you say that you thought Harry and I were good for each other?"

"Well...yes... But Ginny, I didn't think you'd -" Hermione stopped, shaking her head. "All right. You're right. I apologize." Ginny's barely-there eyebrows rose at this; Hermione rarely admitted she was wrong about anything. "I suppose you just shocked me." At this, a small smile played about Hermione's mouth. "But then, that was your intent, right?"

Ginny grinned.

Hermione shook her head again, only this time with grudging respect. "Remind me never to upset you, Ginny. You get your revenge in the most unexpected ways. Ron should've let you play quidditch, eh?"

"You think he's learned?" Ginny asked in reply. The two girls stared at each other a moment before coming to the same conclusion. "Not bloody likely," they said at the same time, before dissolving into giggles.

After their giggles passed, the girls found they had much to talk about. Ginny picked Hermione's brain for how she really felt about Ron. And Hermione acted as confidante and Wise Advisor while Ginny talked with total honesty about Harry. She told Hermione about Harry's stolen kisses, Molly's Heart-to-Heart Talk, and Harry's sudden wariness. She asked Hermione if the older girl knew what Harry was thinking and if he might really - really - like her. Hermione, who could only guess at her best friend's frame of mind, nonetheless tried to reassure Ginny.

And so it went. The next two weeks were a bit tense for all of them. Ron had decided that Ginny was acting like a veela and had somehow bewitched Harry. Harry seemed not to know his own mind. Sometimes he seemed fond of Ginny, and they continued their game of stealing kisses, and then he ignored her for an entire day, even at meals. Hermione spent her time alternating between disgust with her two best friends and casual flirting with Ron. Ginny couldn't wait for school to begin. At least then she'd have classes and her own friends to occupy her mind. And she wouldn't have to put up with all her brothers' overprotective concern - only Ron's.

It appeared that Ron had been a bit loud in his bewitching accusations, and Percy had overheard. Percy had then put the word out, and every day Ginny received a lecture from one or the other of her brothers. Bill sent owls from Rome, special delivery Howlers for Ginny. Charlie sent two owls, also howlers, from Romania. Fred and George sent terrified chickens they'd bewitched to be messengers, from their new London digs. Percy took time every morning before he left for the Ministry to caution Ginny (and Hermione; Percy wasn't particularly choosy about his audience when he was delivering a sermon) about her wayward path. Ron, at least, was fair in his lectures. As much as he said to Ginny, he also said to Harry. If he caught them kissing (which he tried his best not to do), he lectured them both. For that bit of equality, Ginny decided to stop tormenting Ron with the over-the-top flirtations that even Harry didn't take seriously.

All things considered, the four students were definitely relieved when their Hogwarts owls arrived with the new textbook lists. It was time to go back to school.