Story: Goodbyes
Author: 1angelette
House: Sugar Quills
Rating: K+

 

The sun was shining brightly and hotly, but not so much of either as to blind or burn, which was surprising, considering that they had been through a heat wave the last week, only ending with the month of July. The sky was a beautiful azure, with just enough fluffy white clouds to look interesting and beautiful. A cool, gentle breeze fluttered through the leaves of the oak tree that a young woman was sitting in. In short, it was one of the most perfect summer days imaginable.

 

Ginny hated it.

 

How dare the most beautiful day in her memory also be the worst? For, today, she would have to say good-bye to one of her best friends, her brother, and her …

 

Her …

 

What was the right word to describe Harry?

 

Oh, she could think of so many adjectives – handsome, kind, gallant, perfect - but what about a noun, that described her relationship with him?

 

Friend? No, no, not quite right. Boyfriend? No, he had heaps and heaps of reasons why they could never, ever be together. That ruled out Lover, too. Crush? Although Ginny knew that was the most accurate of everything that she had considered so far, it made her sound like the silly schoolgirl she had been so many years ago. Maybe … Ah, well, close enough.

 

Where were we?

 

Oh, yes. Today, she would have to say goodbye to one of her closest friends, her brother, and her crush. Which Ginny did not want to do, because she had gotten to spend so much time with them earlier this year … She had gotten used to it, to being accepted as part of the little Golden Trio …

 

But now she wasn’t.

 

This was why she was sitting miserably in a tree in front of the burrow, determined to be unhappy for the rest of the day. Nothing was going to stop her.

 

Not her mother coming outside and asking Ginny to please replace the sheets, now that Mr. and Mrs. Delacour were gone.

 

Not Hermione commanding Ginny to “please be sensible!” and come down.

 

Not cheese wheels raining from the sky.

 

Not even Harry Potter himself, climbing up the tree and sitting next to her.

 

Wait, what was that last bit?

 

Oh, yeah, The Boy Who Lived was climbing up the tree and sitting next to her.

 

No pressure, Ginny told herself. Don’t blush. Don’t stammer. Look him in the eye. Don’t make it ridiculously obvious that you’re nervous around him …

 

“Hey,” Harry said as he grabbed the branch Ginny was sitting on, flung his leg over it, and sat on it, before turning to face her.

 

“Hi …” Ginny managed, quickly forgetting everything she had just told herself.

 

“I know that I’ll miss you -”

 

“Of course you will! You just keep saying that; keep saying that Voldemort will target me, just because you love me! But you love Ron and Hermione and all my family and Hogwarts, so how is that different? How do you love me, then?”

 

“Like this.” That was when he kissed her, finally, and she kissed him back, knowing that this was even better than the other times they had kissed, because …

 

What was the best about it? Ah, well, who cared, it just was. Besides, she considered herself lucky that they hadn’t fallen off the branch yet …

 

“Hey, Harry? Can we go now?”

 

“Ron …”

 

“AAIIEE! Sweet Merlin, if my back turns out to be broken, so help me, I will Bat-Bogey you so many times that you would look better if you had Spattergroit…”

 

And that was how what started out as the worst day of Ginny’s life turned into a memory at least as pleasant as the sunshine that shone the entire day.

 

FIN

 

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