August

August 18th 1998

I was sitting on the common room floor with Ginny, who was listening raptly as I told her about the date I had been on the previous night. She found it all very romantic, and it truly was. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me.

After the war, me and Ginny had to got to talking, and realised that we just weren't right for each other, romantically. We were great friends, but it just wasn't meant to be. Ginny was upset at first, more through the shock of us not dating than anything else, there was very little feeling left anyway. But we move on and she's been on many dates since, me being told by Ron to be the big brother in his absence.

I had laid the roses I had kept on the floor in front of me, explaining what each of them mean.

"Oh Harry! That's such a cute thing to do, he's such a romantic.

"Do you know what we should do? We should totally preserve them, like a flower press or something. Dad gave me on when I was about five, it's a muggle item you see, and I love it. I showed it to Mum once, she loved it so Dad got her one as well. Very useful actually."

I laughed, but I was albeit fascinated by the idea, of preserving the memory with something so simple, that magic couldn't replicate. So she summoned her press and we continued talking, me being asked a variety of questions about dating him, and just rambling myself.

"Kissing him is so amazing though. It feels like everything is exploding, like you are weightless. I've never had that before. It's different. Unfamiliar, I guess."

"That's called feeling. When you really care, and ultimately love someone, you get that feeling. That feeling as though you never want to let go."

I blushed, considering this for a minute. She'd put it into words, that feeling. Given it reasoning, but love. That's a big deal. Oh sweet Jesus.

"Um...yeah...maybe..."

"Honestly there's no pressure with this Harry, you've only been dating for a few weeks anyway. It's okay. It's good that you have some feeling behind your actions, it shows that there's progress to be made on this."

She smiled at me, and demonstrated how to use the press. She pulled up the wooden top, and placed the flower in between. Then she pressed the top down and rotated the sides, tightening the screws to flatten the flower. Then Ginny removed the top and took out the preserved flower. It was flattened and had kept the colour, but had a more papery texture.

She continued to press them, while we were talking. She had already done the yellow and red flowers, and had to do the rest.

"So Ginny- how is your love life doing? I mean you've only got one year of Hogwarts left now, there's got to be someone who's caught your eye."

Ginny blushed, her cheeks turning the colour of her hair, and looked down, suddenly becoming very interested in pressing the white flower. I nudged her, knowing the truth would prevail.

"Um...well there is this one person. He's a Slytherin seventh year now, and he's really sweet. I'm in his Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons- I sit next to him in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"His name is Damien Newton, he's really clever and kind and cute and caring and loving and handsome. He's just amazing. Ugh. What do I do Harry? You should know, you've got an amazing relationship."

Ginny looked down, trying to avoid what she'd just said. She has never been very good at concealing crushes, as I knew from second year.