chapter 2 - kissing by the lake
Harry had disappeared after Ginny had seen him talking to Andromeda, Tonks' mother. It had been over two hours since she'd last seen him, and she was beginning to worry. Looking around at her family, who were all sitting, staring at the body of Fred, she felt a sudden rush of anger flow through her and she jumped up.
"What the hell are you doing?" She said, quite loudly.
"Ginny! Shh!" Bill hissed. "You're disturbing people."
Ginny looked around at various families, all stooped over the bodies of their dead relatives, glaring at her.
"Well I'm sorry," She said, barely lowering her voice. "But how on earth is sitting here, staring at Fred's body going to help us move on?"
"What if we don't want to move on?" Charlie said, quietly. "We should remember him."
"Charlie's right, Gin," Her father said gently. He reached out to take her arm, but she pulled away. "If you want to move on, that's fine, but right now we want to remember our son and brother."
"Ginny's right," George murmured.
Everyone looked around at him; it was the first time he'd spoken since Fred's death.
"What?" Charlie asked, somewhat angrily.
"Well," George swallowed. "Fred wouldn't want us all sitting here, moping. He'd want us to celebrate. I'm going upstairs."
With that he got up and left the Great Hall, heading in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.
Nodding triumphantly, Ginny left the hall through another door, in search of Harry. She assumed he would be wearing his invisibility cloak in order to escape attention, but she had a hunch as to where he'd be.
Hogwarts was in pieces. The normally beautiful castle looked like a place of evil and destruction, quite out of place in the grounds which, despite being littered with rocks, looked quite picturesque. It was an unusually warm and sunny day for early May and as Ginny watched she could see some of her fellow sixth years tickling the giant squid, somewhat immune to the pain their peers were going through.
She walked around the outside of the Black Lake to a large tree. It had a broad, dark drunk and the branches were hidden by the bright yellow leaves. It was beautiful.
"Harry?" She said, timidly. "Harry, are you there?"
She waited, but nothing happened. She sighed; she had been sure Harry would have been here. From experience, she knew that this was the place Harry always came when he was angry, upset, scared or even happy.
"Harry?" She said once more.
Slowly, Harry pulled off his invisibility cloak. She had been right; he was standing up against the trunk of the tree, looking at her.
"Hello," She said.
"Hi," He replied, quietly.
She took a nervous step towards him. "How are you?"
"I'm okay," He said simply. "You?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," Ginny sniffed.
Noticing she had been crying, Harry dropped the cloak and took a step towards her, so they were close. He looked at her for a few moments, his bright green eyes searching her face.
Ginny opened her mouth to say something, but he got their first. He leant towards her and kissed her full on the lips. The kiss was tender, as if he was promising to look after her and protect her. When they broke apart they started at each other, bewildered, then they both broke out into simultaneous grins.
Ginny kissed him again, harder this time. She never wanted to let go off him.
"I love you," She whispered.
Harry paused. He tucked her hair behind her ear, smiling. "I love you too, Ginny Weasley, and I am never letting you go again."Ginny smiled, laughed with joy and they kissed again, by the tree they had spent so many hours at before. The huge weight of grief was beginning to lift from both of them as they stood together. It looked like everything was going to be alright.
