Nervous hearts .. (Christmas at the burrow 1998)

[ginny]

"No," she mumbled into the cloth of his shirt at his shoulder once she had yawned into it and nestled into his shoulder. "Don't mind spending some more time with you before they all get up." She nodded and was greeted by the warmth of her house and the door closing the cold winds out behind her. She sighed in contentment against him when the warm air greeted them. She felt better already. Harry carried her past the front room and to the staircase that led up to all of the bedrooms. She opened her eyes to see why he had stopped and found that all of the lights were off. She'd forgotten how dark it was inside when she had been out in the bright moonlight that reflected off of the snow. He set her down lightly on her feet to light his wand and collected her back up into his arms quickly. A steady rhythm of his walk up the stairs began and she moved back into his shoulder comfortably. She'd missed this in the past year or so.

She felt his arms shift, and Ginny opened her eyes in time for him to set her back down on the ground in front of her door. His hands stayed at her waist, probably with the idea of keeping her upright. Ginny nodded and rubbed at her eyes in response. Before she could let out another yawn, he covered her mouth slowly and pulled away. Ginny laughed and waved behind her as she shut the door and nodded again as a promise to meet back up with him downstairs when she was done getting dressed. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a few seconds. Now everything seemed to be catching up to her. In the past hour she had gone from barely talking to better than she remembered with Harry, and it was hard to think about it all happening so quickly. She laughed to herself again and let her breathing catch up with her. Now she was just being silly, she knew.

She pushed herself off the door and into her room. Right away she set herself to working through her closet for something to wear. The only clean, warm thing she could find was her sweater from the year before. How embarassing would that be? She'd just kissed him, and now she would have to show up in her Weasley sweater? Ginny sighed and pealed off her soaked sweater. She replaced it with her past Christmas sweater and sorted around through the piles for a clean pair of jeans. She found some at the bottom of her pile and replaced her wet ones quickly. Then she spent another few minutes trying to find a pair of socks that fit. Even with hers being the only small girl's in the house, she could never find the sets that matched. Ginny sighed and pulled on a red and green one, claiming it was Christmas spirit in her head. How embarassing. Vacation was all it took to get through all of her favorite clothing and onto outfits like these, though. She hadn't thought about caring how Harry looked at her. Oh well. Somehow she'd manage.

Ginny glanced over herself in the mirror. With another sigh, Ginny ran a brush through her wayside hair and found it acceptable. She looked over herself again and nodded. Then she turned to the door and closed it behind her. The house was still quiet, telling her that the rest of her family was still asleep. That brought up a good question. How would Harry and she act when her family came down? How would they want them to act? Just snogging by the tree wasn't exactly how Ginny wanted to introduce a boyfriend. They'd have to figure out something. Ginny went down the stairs and saw the fire that outlined his figure against the couch. She laughed and snuck up behind the couch, slipping her hands over his eyes. "Hey, guess who?" she asked without bothering to change her voice. "Miss me?"

[headauror]

He'd gotten lost in the flames. Starring into the flickering colors, his mind running over random thoughts.. most of which had a certain red head tangled up in them in some way or another. In the span of time span between realizing she still cared for him and now, Harry had come to a few firm conclusions. The first was that he absolutely loved her.. Harry James Potter had fallen head over heels for his best mates little sister and he had no desire what-so-ever to be able to gain his footing again. If anything he wanted the feelings to deepen if that were in any way possible, and he wanted to do every thing he could to make hers grow for him as well. That, however was going to be bloody hard to do after she went back to school and he returned to training.

He just couldn't stand the thought that she might wind up thinking him not interested again.. that she'd grow tired of a love that was never there in the common room, able to cuddle and talk before the fire in the evenings as they'd once done... the thought occurred to him that there would be a great deal of blokes available who could and his chest gave a violent, angry and very green lurch at the idea. He found himself at a loss as to what to do about the matter though.. he supposed for starters, he should try and get past the loss of he pet owl Hedwig.. stop relying on Kretcher and borrowed owls at work to carry his mail and buy a new bird of his own. That way that he could get letters off to her more frequently. Aside from that he really wasn't sure what he could do to show her the level of his devotion. Reassure her that come the end of term he'd be waiting just as eager as he was now to hold her again. He'd have to work on that before the break was over.. come up with something to really get the point across.. hopefully something less daft than giving her that ridiculous candle.

So lost was he in his day dreams that he jumped ever so subtly as a pair of warm hands came to rest across the surface of his glasses. Hands that had that enticing flowery scent he could never quite place.. it was simply the smell of Ginnny, something he'd done with out for far, far to long. Grinning he tilted his head a bit as if in consideration.. " Ermm ... is it that blond from my last dueling lesson? ... because really, I've got to say if it is you've earned the galleon bet.. never thought you'd be able to track me.. and to sneak up on me to? ..rubbish as an Auror I am...bloody humiliating. "

He smirked for a moment letting his teasing sink in before he was lifting her hands to press a gentle kiss against one of her palms. Turning them lose he twisted on the couch to face her, shoving his glasses up on the bridge of his nose with a finger to keep them in place as he did. Grinning at her he reached over the back of the couch, his knees propped on the cushions for leverage, and wrapped his arms around her waist, hoisting her over the cushions and helping her to settle at his side on the couch.. " As for missing you.. you have no idea... " He locked his gaze with hers, his own intense green eyes alive with the truth of that statement. leaning back into the pillows he gathered her to his chest and tugged the blanket up over her shoulders. His hand then traveled up to play absently with a silken lock of her hair as the highlights in it sparked in the fire light. His voice turned wistful and content as his focus was distracted by the fiery glints. " Of all the places I could have been tonight.. I'd not be nearly as happy as I am right here.." Moving his hand from her hair to touch her chin lightly with the curve of his finger and guide her face up so that their eyes met he smiled softly.. " and its not the burrow I'm referring to, much as I do love this old place".