Choices and Consequences

Ron's curtains were drawn around his bed when Harry made it upstairs, and he had no intention of intruding into his friend's self-imposed solitude just yet. His conversation with Hermione had cleared up some of Harry's confusion about why Ron had been reacting so badly to such an isolated incident, but he knew that eventually he would have to broach the subject with Ron directly.

After hearing Ron's litany of complaints about him, it wasn't a task that Harry was looking forward to. Even though they had made up after their argument over the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry recalled the time with little pleasure, having spent most of it waiting for Ron to apologise for the unfounded accusations he'd made.

Also running through Harry's mind were the thoughts about a potential girlfriend. Despite Hermione's suggestion that he talk to Ginny, he wasn't fully convinced that he particularly needed a girlfriend right now. Even though he'd enjoyed his flirting with Tonks over the summer, it had felt pretty risk-free since he knew she wasn't seriously interested in him, and getting involved with someone who was, or at least might be, made him a little nervous.

Still, he figured that it couldn't hurt to take a small risk. If it seemed like he was getting in over his head, or appearing to promise more than he could deliver, he could always slow things down and back off. He hoped that it wouldn't come to that though, and he hoped that Ginny would understand if it did.

Having done as Tonks had asked and given serious consideration to the girls he knew as potential girlfriends, the only one that had seemed even remotely possible was Ginny. She had grown into an attractive young woman, her striking red hair cascading down her back and wide, deep brown eyes that narrowed when she concentrated and made you feel as though she had you rumbled.

Harry hadn't realised he'd paid quite that much attention to her to be able to recall details like this. Although they hadn't really had much time to make friends over the past few years, the first month of term had seen them spend quite a lot of time together in the Gryffindor common-room, with Ron and Hermione on frequent prefect patrols. All in all he'd enjoyed her company and they were able to joke together about all sorts of things.

Harry knew that she also wouldn't take any guff from him. He remembered the way she'd brought him out of a funk at Grimmauld Place the previous Christmas, and how she had helped him find a way to talk to Sirius when he'd been at a really low point the previous year. He still wasn't sure that this was the best of ideas, but he did at least trust Hermione to make sensible decisions, and if she thought he and Ginny were well matched, what did he know to argue?

One thing was for certain, she wasn't the type to be put off by the danger that Harry was likely to face - she'd already faced up to Voldemort once, even if it was only the avatar of his sixteen year old self - and she had been key to their evasion of the Death Eaters at the Ministry.

The thought of Hermione as matchmaker tickled Harry a little. Even had he no intention of acting on the results, it intrigued him to think that the bushy-haired Gryffindor had an idea of who would be suitable for him. He wondered if she had been scouting out the potential opposition or something, or whether she and Ginny had been comparing notes over the past four years with this particular moment in mind.

He shook his head, and hoped that a night's sleep would help him get things straight.

Nearly twenty-four hours later, Harry waited in the Room of Requirement with his nerves on edge. Ron had spent the whole day ignoring him, though to be fair they'd had little opportunity to speak since they shared but one lesson on a Friday.

It did look as though Ron was going out of his way to avoid Harry though - he'd already been up and breakfasted by the time Harry surfaced, and hadn't eaten his meals at the same time, which was almost unheard of for the three of them over the past few years, even though Harry had made efforts to spend more time with the first years.

In their Transfiguration lesson that afternoon, Harry had forced Hermione to sit on the other side of him from Ron, determined that they were still all going to sit together even if it meant him sitting between the two of them to prevent any problems. As it happened, Ron barely acknowledged the presence of either of them, and didn't respond to Harry's attempts to make conversation when McGonagall wasn't paying attention. When the bell had sounded for the end of the lesson, Ron had been the first to pack up his bags and dash off before Harry could try and talk to him.

Right now though, it wasn't Ron that was making his nerves jangle. A confrontation between the two of them was inevitable and, although the unresolved tension felt a little like a weight hanging over him, it was something that Harry knew they would deal with in time.

No, the cause of Harry's anxiety was Ginny. He'd spent most of the day thinking about Hermione's instruction to talk to the youngest Weasley, and had finally decided that he would do so, quietly asking her to meet him in the Room of Requirement at nine o'clock when they crossed paths at dinner.

Her quick acceptance and the knowing look in her eye confused him a little. Hermione and Ginny had obviously been up to something the previous evening beyond getting Ron's intransigence out of their system, and Harry strongly suspected it had something to do with him. The quiet smile on Hermione's face confirmed that whatever the two of them had been planning had apparently worked.

He supposed that the anxiety was partially because he didn't really know what to expect. His encounter with Cho the previous year had been pretty abrupt, despite his fairly long-term infatuation with the pretty Ravenclaw; this was something totally different. Much as he liked the way that Ginny looked, the feeling of butterflies in the stomach wasn't quite the same as when he'd seen Cho around the school, though perhaps the fact that he at least knew Ginny a little already might have had some impact on that.

Whatever the reason, his nerves were certainly returning with a vengeance now.

Harry thought back through his memories of Ginny: her appearance at Kings Cross to see off Ron in their first year; their proper introduction at The Burrow before Harry's second year and the way that Ginny had reacted to Harry's presence; the singing Valentine.

Harry smiled to himself at that. He couldn't imagine now Ginny being too nervous to talk to him, or putting her elbow in the butter dish because she was so distracted by him. She'd grown up a lot. He had a strong suspicion that it hadn't been her who'd sent the Valentine, either. Fred and George had been in fine form that year.

He also remembered her near-lifeless form as he rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets later that year, but then recalled almost nothing for another year. Had she struggled to overcome the experience and gone into a shell in Harry's third year? He couldn't remember at all, and felt slightly guilty for it, even though his focus had been on Sirius Black and learning to cast a Patronus to fight off the Dementors that year.

Then his fourth year and the trip to the World Cup. She'd obviously regained some of her confidence, and her long mane of red hair seemed to be ubiquitously in the background: in the common room; at the Gryffindor table at meals; at the Yule Ball. Wistful once again, Harry recalled her unhappy expression at going to the Ball with Neville, and wished he'd done something to make her happier. He'd been wallowing in his own misery at being rejected by Cho, and had paid her little heed, but could sense her presence in the background as he remembered things, almost as though it was out of the corner of his eye.

Then fifth year. Her mischievous look as she lied to Mrs Weasley about throwing dungbombs at the kitchen door in Grimmauld Place; her enthusiasm for the DA; the way she had roused Harry out of his misery at Christmas when he'd felt he was a danger to them all; her help in getting in to Umbridge's office to try and talk to Sirius.

Yes, she'd always been there one way or another, and Harry felt very secure with that. He knew that, even if she didn't want to be his girlfriend, they would still be friends, but the more he thought about her, the more he liked the idea of having a special relationship with her.

Pulled out of his musing, Harry noticed that the room had provided a fairly romantic atmosphere - the comfortable sofa and low lighting perhaps adding to the intimidation factor - and he hoped that it wasn't too suggestive for what he had in mind, but he didn't have much time to think about it. Ginny pushed the door open and stepped into the room, letting it close behind her and adding a quick locking charm for privacy, as she glanced at the setting.

"Hi Harry! You okay?"

The butterflies that he thought had been long banished once again appeared to have made their home in his stomach.

"I think so," he replied a little nervously.

Ginny plopped down on the sofa next to him, letting out a little sigh.

"Long day?" he asked.

"Just feels like it. I'm looking forward to having gaps between my lessons next year. Even though it's nine months until the OWLs everyone seems to be piling the work on us."

Not wanting to prolong his anxiety, Harry cut the small talk short, and got to his point.

"Hermione suggested I should talk to you. I suspect you already knew that."

Ginny nodded. "She might have mentioned something along those lines, yes," she replied with a grin.

"She seems to think that I need a girlfriend - and that you're the best candidate. I'm sure I'm doing this all wrong, but what do you think of the idea?"

Ginny giggled a little at Harry's awkwardness, but quickly brought herself under control. She shifted along the sofa so that her shoulder was touching Harry's.

"Yep. You're right. You're doing it all wrong," she said with a chuckle. "You're not supposed to ask my opinion about it, you're supposed to sweep me off my feet with gushing praise about how beautiful I am, how much you love me, and how you couldn't possibly live without me."

Harry winced at the thought. "That doesn't really sound like me, I'm afraid," he apologised.

"Of course it doesn't, Harry. If you came out with that all of a sudden I'd be boggle-eyed with shock," Ginny sniggered. "Bedsides which, I'm not looking for a guy who smothers me with compliments just because it's what he thinks I want to hear. I'd much rather be told the truth."

"The truth?"

"Put your arm around me, Harry," she instructed, and he took a breath and then did as she commanded, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder as she slipped an arm around his back.

"I know I had a crush on you for three years, but this is a little different. We're both more mature now, and I've gotten over that," she told him without lifting her head.

"The difference now is that I know you as the real Harry Potter. Not the guy from all my girlhood dreams who would swoop down and carry me away to live in a castle in the sky, who would be there to save me from danger and deliver me from evil.

"You did that once, back in my first year, and that only reinforced my crush on the Boy Who Lived, defeater of evil, and rescuer of fair damsels in distress." She slid her arm down to Harry's waist and pulled him closer. Harry stiffened for a moment, then relaxed against her.

"But after that, I slowly started to realise that you weren't interested in the fame and notoriety that followed you around; that all you wanted was to have a normal life, to be in the company of people that love you, and that you had a childish crush of your own."

Harry squirmed a little at this last statement, not having thought before about how his focus on Cho might have looked to Ginny.

"Now I see you as you really are, what Ron and Hermione see; what I expect Dumbledore sees: a young man who's had the world dropped on his shoulders, who has witnessed and fought the darkest evil in the land; who gets surly and moody when things don't go his way; who gets angry when things upset him; who has a clear sense of fairness and justice, but who gets little in the way of a fair deal himself.

"The last few months, I see something else as well: I see a young man who has matured - if only because he had to; a man that has accepted he has a job to do and must get on and do it; someone who has been able to forgive the worst, but now has also been able to accept forgiveness."

She stopped for a moment, and looked up at him. He was a little surprised to see tears forming in her eyes as she thought of all the ways that he had suffered over the years, and he felt guilty about how angrily he'd reacted the previous year.

She tried to clear the tears before she carried on.

"Harry, I don't think you really know what you want. I know that Tonks and Hermione have both been nagging at you to try and get yourself a girlfriend, and you aren't totally convinced that it's the right thing, this very moment. To be honest, and trying to be objective about it, I think that they're right. You need someone else to focus on outside of all the training you are doing, and classes, and stuff like that. If you want that to be me, I'll be here for you."

Harry looked down at her. "Thank you," he said sincerely, pulling her closer into a hug. "I ... well, I..." he stammered.

Ginny lifted her head to look into his eyes, and placed a brief, soft kiss on his lips.

"Don't say anything, Harry, just hold me."

He hugged her again, and felt her face burrow into his neck.

"You might have to give me some pointers, you know," he half-joked.

She lifted her head again.

"Just relax, Harry. I know you've not really done the girlfriend/boyfriend thing before, whatever people are insinuating about you and Cho, you and Hermione, or you and Tonks. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to." Her eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth twitched into a smile that she tried hard to suppress. "It does mean I get lots of hugs and kisses though, which is always good."

She shifted slightly so that she was knelt on the sofa, balancing carefully as she faced Harry, their eyes at the same level, and he loosened his grip on her slightly so that his hands rested on her hips.

"You are going to have to tell me what Tonks has been talking to you about though. Much as I like her, I think I want to know what sort of things she's been putting into your head this summer."

"I don't think there's anything to worry about," Harry informed her with a blush, taking her hands in his as he did. "She was basically just trying to get me to think about what I was looking for in a girlfriend, and perhaps a little bit of what it would feel like to spend a day as a couple."

He embarressedly recounted in detail how that day in Diagon Alley had gone, and how he'd had such a good time and realised that it wasn't all about snogging a crying girl under the mistletoe, and going to overtly romantic tea-shops - a date could actually be good fun.

Ginny perked up at his explanation. "Sounds like you had a good time?" she half-questioned.

"I did," he admitted. "But it would be great to do that sort of thing with you, you know. Tonks was sorta 'safe', because I knew we were just there to have fun and get the stuff I needed. It'd be much better to take you shopping or have a day in Diagon Alley where there was no pressure on us to run around and visit all the shops."

"I might just have to hold you to that, but it's not going to happen for a while though, is it?" Ginny asked wistfully, thinking how much she'd enjoy such a day as well.

"Probably not. I can't see me being allowed a day in Diagon Alley unsupervised, even if we could get away from school."

Ginny shifted slightly in her seat.

"Much as I'd like to stay here all evening with you, I think you should get used to this a little more slowly than that. Besides which, we're already out well after curfew, and if Filch catches us I'm sure there'll be detentions to serve."

Harry chuckled at that, and explained the differences in detentions for NEWT students.

"Oh that's really not fair!" Ginny complained loudly, even though she could see the reasoning for it.

"Believe me, you won't be saying that next year," Harry argued playfully. "Just be glad that you haven't known this for the last four years - I'm sure the school would be up in arms about the supposed preferential treatment that the sixth and seventh years get!"

Ginny huffed and puffed a little, but calmed down when Harry pulled her into another close hug to stifle her protests, and she kissed him on the collarbone in response.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go. We've got to tell your brother at some point, too, but I suspect that Hermione's just begging for a report."

She slipped of the sofa, and took his hand, and they headed back to Gryffindor Tower to face what would undoubtedly be some form of inquisition. Harry mentioned his trepidation at the prospect, but Ginny reassured him.

"Everyone in Gryffindor has been waiting for this for years, Harry. They all knew about my crush on you, and most of the girls will think it's the romantic thing ever. Those that don't will be the ones that fancy you themselves and feel like they're missing out."

He gave her a crooked little smile at the thought of numbers of girls competing for his attention.

"I hadn't noticed," he shrugged.

She stopped him in the corridor in front of the painting of the Fat Lady that guarded the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, and eyed him up.

"You know, all that training has put some muscle on you," she said placing a hand on Harry's upper arm. "I could get used to that," she added with a gleam of humour. "Just make sure it's only me that gets used to it!"

"Come on you two," the Fat Lady huffed at them. "Get inside, won't you - it's well past curfew, you know."

Harry smiled at Ginny, gave the password and the two of them stepped through the portrait hole and into the welcoming warmth of the common room.

As Ginny had predicted, the reception they received was fairly warm. Lavender and Parvati were keen to spirit Ginny off to the girls' dormitories for a full debriefing, no doubt already having heard from Hermione about the clandestine meeting. Ginny preferred to remain in the common room with Harry though, and they pulled up a sofa in front of the fire and just enjoyed spending a little time together.

Harry did wonder to himself why he hadn't done this years before, since it was quite comforting, snuggled up with Ginny, especially since neither of them had anything particular to do for the remainder of the evening, though they did spend a while fending off the questions that they were being bombarded with by their curious housemates.

Once the novelty wore off and the Gryffindors finally left the new couple in peace, they spent a while just talking about mundane things like schoolwork, until Harry remembered something.

"Hey, I'd totally forgotten. It's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up," he said, sitting up, and startling Ginny with his sudden movement. "I haven't been able to do this before but still: Ginny will you go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?"

Ginny giggled. "I wondered if you'd remember that. You don't really have to ask though, Harry. I'm expecting to spend the day with you, so if you had other plans, you'd bets cancel them!" She smirked briefly, before remembering something else. "We might have to keep Hermione company as well, though. I'm not sure she'll want to spend the day with Ron at the moment."

"Damn! I'd forgotten about that as well!" Harry groaned. "What are we going to do about him?"

Ron was one of the few Gryffindors that hadn't been in the common room when Harry and Ginny had returned, and Harry suspected that once again he was trying to avoid Hermione.

"Well, I think you need to talk to him," Ginny advised. "I'm pretty sure Hermione's not going to apologise to him first, and really it's you that he's got the problem with, not her, even if she's the one that keeps facing the brunt of his anger."

"And about us?"

"I really don't think it will be a problem, Harry."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty much." She shrugged. "He certainly gave me enough hints once he knew I wasn't seeing Dean, and he was keen enough for me to go to the Yule Ball with you, remember? I'm sure he'll be fine with it - he's too occupied with his own misery at the moment, anyway"

"In that case I probably ought to find him now," he said resignedly, starting to lift himself out of the sofa.

"Not so fast!" Ginny stopped him, pulling him back down onto the seat, and planting a kiss on his lips before he could say anything else.

Harry chuckled, pulling Ginny up after him as he regained his feet, and into a tight hug.

"Well if we can't get out to Diagon Alley, we'll just have to do with Hogsmeade," he decided, kissing her on the cheek before heading up the stairs in search of her recalcitrant brother.

Despite the late hour, it was clear that nobody else in the sixth year boys' dormitory had yet gone to bed, and the first thing Harry noticed was that Ron lay on his bed with his face buried into his pillow.

He hesitated a little before approaching, not sure how Ron would react to his presence, and wondering what sort of approach he should take to try and get his friend back into the right frame of mind. He idly wondered whether Ron would turn and lash out at him, as he had done verbally to Hermione, but hoped that wouldn't be the case. He'd had plenty of chance to do so over the last few days and nothing had come of it.

"Ron?" Harry spoke tentatively.

"Go 'way," the muffled response came.

"I just wanted to apologise."

This surprised the red head, and he turned over to face Harry. He looked pretty miserable, even if he hadn't actually been crying.

"Apologise? What for?"

"For not realising that there was a problem."

"S'all right. Not your fault," Ron muttered.

"I heard what you and Hermione were arguing about."

Ron's face, which was redder than Harry had seen before, scrunched up, partly in frustration and partly in anger. "Yeah, I'm sure one of the bloody gossips told you about it!"

"No. I mean I could hear your argument. I was in the common room."

"Oh shit!"

"That's why I'm apologising. I'm sorry that I'm always taking the attention away from you. I didn't realise you felt so badly about it. I thought we'd sorted this out after the dragon thing at the Tri-wizard Tournament."

Ron was silent for a moment, and Harry didn't want to break into his thoughts, so he sat down on his own bed and waited for Ron to respond.

After a minute or so, Ron spoke again.

"You know what? I always figured that being best mates with the Boy-who-lived would be great, that all the attention you got would make me feel good about being your friend," he thought out loud, reaching behind him to plump up the pillow he'd been resting on before shifting up the bed and placing it vertically against the headboard and leaning back against it. "I figured we'd be seen as a team: you, me and Hermione, and we'd end up having a real great laugh. You'd be lauded wherever you went, and the two of us would bask in your reflected glory, probably never having to pay for a meal anywhere in the wizarding world."

"Life's not like that, Ron," Harry grimaced at Ron's description. "You know what the press are like about me, and how people like Lockhart only wanted to know me for my fame, and how it would help their career. Did you want to be like him?"

"Hell no!" Ron spat at the thought. "It would just have been really cool to be able to hang around with all that attention. I always figured that I'd end up with Hermione, and you'd end up with Ginny, and we'd be one big happy family once we got out of Hogwarts, doing whatever we wanted to do: play Quidditch, be Aurors, or whatever.

"But as you say, life's not like that. We don't live in a dream world where everything we want falls into our hands. As she eloquently pointed out, if we want something, we have to go out and get it, not wait for it to come to us."

Harry sighed, knowing that Ron was talking about his relationship with Hermione, and how he felt he'd missed out.

"Ron, you know nothing went on between me and Hermione. I told you that."

"Really?" he replied, looking sceptically at his friend. "Can you honestly say you didn't even think about it?"

"Actually, Tonks made that insinuation too, though she was only joking at the time." Harry had a sudden thought - he could actually show Ron his memory of the evening if he really needed persuading, but he thought he'd save that as a backup plan.

"See? That's part of my point there," Ron indicated. "You've got half the girls I know falling all over you. How can I not be jealous of that?"

Harry barked out a laugh. "You think I'd even notice that?" Ginny had said something similar. "Come on, Ron!

"Anyway, she's not really my type. Much as I like her as a friend, I just can't imagine her as my girlfriend. I just don't think it would work," Harry continued. "I'm far too stubborn to change my mind because Hermione thinks what I'm doing is wrong - remember the arguments we had about the Firebolt? And how she kept nagging at me last year? I mean, I know she was right, but that's not really the point."

"I'm sorry mate. See, the worst thing is, I know Hermione was right about all of this, too. I know you'd give up everything that I'm jealous of just to be normal and have a happy family life. Look how I can talk to you about it.

"Would I want to have grown up as an orphan? Be singled out by Voldemort as his number one enemy? Hell, no! I'm just plain old Ron Weasley, and best mates with the Boy-who-Lived. That's going to have to do. It doesn't mean I won't be jealous - I'd love to be rich, famous and a great Seeker - but it isn't something I can control."

"I understand, Ron. I just wish you wouldn't take it all out on Hermione though."

"Sorry, Harry. I didn't want to take it out on you because I didn't want to lose you as a friend. She was just there. She knows how to get on my nerves, and it just irritated me that she wouldn't even deny that you'd been sleeping together. I don't know why, it just felt like I'd been left out of something."

"Ewww! I don't think Hermione would be all that keen on a threesome, Ron. I know I wouldn't be!"

Ron pulled a face at the thought, then chuckled.

"That's not exactly what I meant, Harry."

"I know - but it made you laugh," he replied with a grin.

"The strange thing is, I don't even really fancy her," Ron commented, his head cocked to one side. "I mean, she's not ugly, or anything, but she's not exactly the sort of girl you see on the front of Playwizard."

Harry looked at Ron with an odd expression.

"Umm, I mean on the front of Fred's copy of Playwizard," Ron amended hastily.

Harry snorted. "I don't want to know."

"Fair enough. But anyway, even though we've spent most of the last five years doing stuff together, even though I always assumed we'd end up together, I just can't contemplate it. The thought of her seeing someone else still upsets me, but I don't think it's because she should be with me. It's more that she's got someone special, and I don't have."

Harry was a little surprised at Ron's forthright explanation, and also about his self-awareness. Apparently Hermione had been wrong to intimate that Ron had a problem with her specifically, or with Harry, it was more a case of him feeling left out in general. He realised that what he needed to tell Ron probably wouldn't help matters either.

He decided to broach the subject gently.

"Ron, I don't want you to feel like you're being left out, but I have something that you need to know."

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"You know what you were saying before, about your vision of the 'ideal' future, and how you and Hermione would end up together and Ginny and I would?"

"Eh?"

Harry decided he'd get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Ginny and I have come to an agreement," he said, stuttering a little over the words. "We're sorta ... seeing each other."

Ron's face changed colour about four different times before he finally spluttered out the words "That had better not involve anything you wouldn't do in front of us?"

"Umm, Ron, we haven't got as far as discussing anything like that," Harry stammered out. "We only sort of decided this evening!"

Ron's expression relaxed into a friendlier grin. "Good. Glad to hear it. Now if you don't mind, much as though I'm pleased for both of you, I never want to hear anything about it again."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Besides, I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for," Ron added. "Her temper's worse than Mum's sometimes."

"I know," Harry cringed a little at the reminder. "Remember how she bawled me out when we were at Sirius's?"

"Oh yeah. Well it's yours to cope with full-time now."

"What? You don't think she'll be looking for her big brother to take it out on?"

"Nah. You'll be a much easier target. You're too nice to fight back."

"Hmmph!" Harry snorted at the last. He didn't really want to fight Ginny anyway - he'd leave that to Ron. "Anyway, back to Hermione."

Ron grimaced. "Do you have to remind me?"

"You do know you're going to have to apologise to her?"

"I have to?"

"You can't exactly just ignore her for the next eighteen months Ron. I know you've been trying to since yesterday, but you have classes together. I still want both of you to be my friends, and I can't do that if you're avoiding each other, okay?"

"Bugger. Okay, Harry, I'll try."

"Good," Harry noted with a satisfied smile. "Don't forget that it's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up - if you haven't made up with Hermione by tomorrow, Ginny's going to invite her to tag along with her and I."

Ron's face fell. "Damnit, it's Friday night already! I have to apologise by tomorrow?"

"Well, you could always see what Neville, Seamus and Dean are planning for the weekend."

Ron sighed. "Well, I'll see how it goes. That might still be the better option."

Harry left Ron alone to his thoughts for a while and went back down to the common room in search of his girlfriend. Ginny was still in front of the fire where he'd left her, which made that task relatively easy. He slid onto the sofa next to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"I had a word with Ron."

Ginny looked him up and down in conspicuous fashion as though searching for something.

"I don't see any serious wounds, so I'm assuming that everything went okay?"

Harry nodded. "He took the whole thing fairly well, to be honest. We had quite the chat, and it's not just me he's jealous of, it seems to be everyone that gets something he's not getting."

Ginny wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Harry's unintended double entendre.

"Not like that."

She smirked at him. "I know."

"Anyway, we're okay now, and Ron's going to think about apologising to Hermione tomorrow before we go to Hogsmeade." Harry explained how Ron hadn't decided one way or the other really.

"And you told him about us?" Ginny asked.

"Of course."

She rolled her eyes. "Well?"

"He's fine with it, as long as we're not doing anything too serious."

Ginny snorted. "He'd say that on my wedding night. 'Oh yes, I'm really pleased for you Ginny, as long as you're not letting him do things to you that I fantasise about doing to other girls'."

Harry laughed at Ginny's impression of Ron. "Would that be his main problem, then?" he asked. "The fact that he wouldn't want any guy to get involved with you because he knows what depraved thoughts he has himself?"

"Something like that," Ginny giggled, leaning in to Harry's shoulder.

Harry grimaced. "That must have made it tricky for you when you were seeing Michael Corner last year, then?" he asked.

"Why do you think I didn't tell him? He'd have been all over me like a rash, insisting on knowing where I was going and what I was doing. I wouldn't have had a moment's peace!"

"I hadn't thought of that," Harry muttered. "I hope he doesn't think he's going to be following us around everywhere."

"Don't worry, Harry," Ginny reassured him. "I'm sure we'll find a way of putting him off the scent."

As it happened, Ron hadn't managed to work his way up to an apology to Hermione by the time Harry, Ginny and she left the castle to go to Hogsmeade the following day. Harry explained to Hermione what they'd talked about the previous evening, and she agreed that if Ron did apologise to her, she'd be willing to accept it.

In fact, Harry hadn't seen Ron at all that morning. When he'd got out of bed at six to exercise, the dim light of the dormitory showed Ron's hangings opened to air and the red-haired boy nowhere to be seen. Neither was he at breakfast when Harry had finally made it to the Great Hall to meet Ginny, who reported that she hadn't seen him either.

He shrugged his shoulders. Whatever Ron was doing, he'd obviously decided that he'd have to go to Hogsmeade without his friends. Perhaps he was still nervously thinking about how to apologise, but perhaps also he wanted the day to himself.

The three of them spent a quiet morning wandering around the village without much of a plan. It was dry and fairly mild for the time of year, which made it pleasant enough to be wandering around the village without having to wrap up against the elements. Some of the leaves on the trees had already started to turn various shades of brown, red and orange, and the village seemed ablaze with autumnal colours.

They started off by visiting the shops they normally would do on a Hogsmeade weekend, stocking up on all sorts of sweets in Honeydukes, where the 'Special Effects' section reminded Harry of the twins' experiments in developing their own pranks. Ginny suggested with a wink and an aside when Hermione was out of earshot that it might be worthwhile getting some Toothflossing Stringmints to clear their palate after lunch, but apart from that the two of them just enjoyed spending their time together.

Harry nervously took Ginny's hand as they walked from Honeydukes across the street to Zonko's and gave her a weak grin, as it to say 'you okay with this?', but Ginny simply grinned back at him and squeezed his hand in reassurance.

Looking into the window of the joke shop, Harry was a bit tentative about going in.

"You weren't planning to buy anything, were you?" Hermione asked him as he vacillated outside the shop.

"Not particularly," Harry replied. "I've still got a fair few of the things that Fred and George gave me for my birthday."

"Then don't worry. I'm sure the twins would be happy for you to scout out the competition."

Harry brightened at this idea.

"Anyway," Ginny suggested, "nobody else knows you're a partner in the business. I reckon Fred and George would get thrown out of the shop if they were spotted now."

The three of them chuckled, knowing that Zonko's had provided the twins with some great ideas for their own products, simply because they weren't able to afford the type of things that they wanted.

They pushed the door open and entered the shop. Surprisingly, it wasn't as packed as it had been when they had visited in previous years, though there were a fair number of Hogwarts students replenishing their supplies of dungbombs and other stock items.

Eyeing up the shelves, and taking a quick scan of the merchandise on display, it didn't look as though Zonko's had many new items in their product line. What they could see simply seemed to be larger stocks of the more popular items. One assistant, a bald wizard wearing peculiar checked dungarees under his work robes, was almost constantly restocking the shelves with Dr. Filibuster's fireworks. When Ginny asked him about the lack of new products, she got a slightly unexpected reply.

"Not much point," the sales assistant responded grumpily, looking suspiciously at her red hair. "With that new shop in Diagon Alley stocking all sorts of new stuff, we're better off sticking to our best-selling items. Product development isn't profitable. You're not related to those Weasleys are you?"

Ginny reassured the sour-looking man that she didn't even know the twins, and hastily moved to another part of the shop.

Harry wondered how Fred and George managed to make product development profitable for them, if Zonko's found it difficult, and made a mental note to ask next time he saw them.

After leaving the joke shop without buying anything, they took a wander down the street and passed Madam Puddifoot's tea shop. Ginny noticed Harry's grimace as they walked outside the window, and prompted him for an explanation.

He was rather reluctant to answer though, and promised to tell her some other time.

"Well never mind. I promise not to make you go in there again," Ginny joked, making Harry snort with laughter.

They stopped briefly outside Gladrags, where the two girls cast a critical eye over the designs in the window, which made Harry feel a little left out, since they were predominantly for women. A thought did occur to him though.

"Ginny?" he asked, interrupting her conversation with Hermione. "Is there something that you want from here?"

The youngest Weasley turned to Harry with a sour look on her face.

"You don't have to buy me stuff, just because I'm your girlfriend, Harry," she told him shortly. "That's not why I agreed to go out with you, you know."

"I know," he said nervously, "but if there was anything you wanted, you'd tell me, right?"

She gave him a strange look and turned to the third member of their group.

"Stay here for a moment please, Hermione," Ginny told her, taking Harry's arm and pulling him a short distance away, out of earshot.

"Look, Harry," she said softly, "I may not show it like Ron, but I can be just as sensitive about money as he is. I don't want you to think that you have to buy me stuff that I want, just because I want it. It doesn't work like that," she continued, placing a hand on Harry's upper arm to soften her words.

Harry's expression turned a little melancholy. "I'm sorry, Ginny."

"Don't be sorry about it," she replied, reassuring him that nothing was seriously wrong. "It's just not something that I can accept just like that. We've only just started going out, and it wouldn't be fair on either of us for you to start showering me with expensive presents."

"Why not?" he enquired, confused.

"Well, what happens if it doesn't work out? You'd feel a bit stupid for spending all that money on me, and I'd be left with stuff that I probably wouldn't wear because it brought back bad memories."

"I guess I hadn't thought of it like that," Harry admitted sheepishly. "I just thought it would be nice to be able to get you something you really wanted."

"It's okay, I'm not upset with you," she told him calmly, and pulled him into a hug. "I just wanted to make sure you knew why I can't accept gifts like that from you just at the moment."

Harry nodded. He hadn't realised just how complicated having a girlfriend would be.

"Of course, after we've been going out a while, I might let you," Ginny added, breaking the tension of the situation a little, "or if you wanted to buy me a Christmas present. That would be a different matter."

She pulled away from him slightly and looked him in the eye.

Harry could see that she was just teasing now, and wrinkled his nose in her direction in response.

"Well, you'd better point out some things that would make good Christmas presents then, hadn't you?" he replied, returning her joke and putting an arm around her shoulders as they turned to walk back to Hermione.

Hermione gave them both an understanding look as they returned, seemingly happy that they'd resolved the little wrinkle that had threatened to derail their enjoyment of the day, and the two girls turned their attention back to the robes on display in the window of Gladrags.

Remembering that Tonks's advice for dealing with the way that the staff at Madam Malkin's had talked to the Daily Prophet had included threatening to take his business and that of his friends to Gladrags, Harry left the two girls and strode into the shop.

Behind him, Hermione and Ginny looked at each other in confusion and scurried in after him, wondering what had prompted his sudden movement.

Harry strode up to the counter and asked to speak to the proprietor. The shop assistant gave him a quick confused look, and was about to open her mouth to object when she spotted Harry's scar. She clamped her mouth shut and disappeared through a curtain behind her, reappearing a few moments later with an elderly wizard with grey hair, wearing expensive-looking dark blue robes and scratching his head in curiosity.

"Mister Potter," he said, extending his hand. "Thomas Bristow at your service. What can I do for you?"

Harry shook the proffered hand and glanced around. The two or three assistants that had spotted him and were hanging around to see whether their services would be needed conspicuously moved away and busied themselves in the tasks that they had no doubt been involved prior to Harry's entrance. Meanwhile, Ginny and Hermione joined Harry at the counter.

"I was wondering if you recalled reading, probably in the Daily Prophet, about a little trip I took to Diagon Alley this past summer?" he asked.

"Indeed I do, sir, but what brings you to Gladrags in relation to that?"

"I'd like to discuss the notion of client confidentiality with you, Mister Bristow," Harry suggested.

If Bristow had been surprised by Harry's request to see him, he hadn't shown it, but this particular choice of conversational opening made his eyebrows shoot up, disappearing beneath the swathe of grey hair before returning to their normal position as he realised why Harry was asking.

"I understand completely, sir. Let me reassure you that my staff are well trained and know better than to repeat information, or to tittle-tattle to the press about my customers." Bristow sounded most sincere as he talked to Harry, and cast an eye over the Gryffindor's shoulder at his workers to ensure that they had heard his words. He was apparently satisfied with their reaction, as he turned his gaze back to Harry with a small smile.

"Thanks, Mister Bristow, it's good to hear that," Harry smiled in return. "You can be assured of my custom in future."

"Given your profile, Madam Malkin is bound to hear about this sooner or later," Bristow said speculatively, grinning at the prospect of one of his major rivals suddenly realising that they had made a big mistake.

"I'm sure she will," Harry responded. "I intend to write directly to her to tell her, and explain why."

Behind him, Harry could almost hear the winces of the Gladrags staff, and could certainly feel Ginny, as she slipped her right hand into his left.

"Then I can confidently say it will be a pleasure doing business with you, Mister Potter," the old man nodded with a knowing smile, and offered his hand again for Harry to shake in departure.