chapter 32

John Potter exited the Burrow's floo and looked around. Ginny wasn't here. She and he had been drifting apart over the last few months and it was only now that he realised he'd missed having her hanging around. It was true he hadn't been doing much for her, but he'd never seen the need when she wouldn't ever leave him alone.

He'd asked Dad what to do, which had been educational.

"Son," James Potter had said, "girls expect you to chase them. If you don't, they'll eventually give up, no matter how into you they are. I chased your mother for six years before she finally agreed to date me."

"But I don't want to d-d-date her… I just like having her around."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Son. Face it, Potter men can't resist a pretty redhead."

A quick check in with Mrs. Weasley confirmed Ginny wasn't in the house.

"She's recently been spending a lot of time in the orchard, John dear."

John walked the path to the orchard. Maybe Ginny would like a ride on his broom. That would surely work. Ginny seemed to like flying, even if she never did any.

He reached the orchard's edge and saw her sitting below a tree… practising occlumency? That was different.

"Gin Gin!"

Ginny raised her head, and his world shattered.

Hate.

It shouldn't be possible for eyes to contain such loathing. Such malice. And for those chocolate-brown orbs to be directing all that revulsion at him.

"G-gin?" he stammered. "What's wrong?"

Ginny stood and walked off without saying anything, giving him nothing but a final disgust filled glare.

He felt like he was going to cry. Tears welled up, and his breath started to shudder. What had he done?

Ginny felt her magic course through her, felt it ride the currents of nerves and blood, felt it pool in her hand, felt it seep into her finger tips, and watched the stinging hex shoot towards her intended target who instantly swatted the spell away with his wand.

"I did it!" She leapt up, ran at Harry, and threw her arms around his neck, forcing him to spin her around, or risk losing his balance.

"Well done." Harry smiled. "Keep it up and at this rate we'll be doing actual duelling soon. I'll have to start thinking about introducing you to your duelling partner."

Ginny's face fell. She looked at her feet. "Duelling partner? I thought we were going to…"

"Oh, we are." Harry lifted her chin and grinned. "But you're going to be stuck here for a whole year while I'm in Scotland and I don't want you getting rusty. I've been training a few others, so we're not going to face this future alone. There will be a good number of us to rely on."

Not alone. That sounded good.

"Oh, that reminds me," he said, snapping his fingers and reaching into his pocket. "I have something here for you. Since you've just mastered your first wandless spell, I guess this will do well for a reward."

She took the object and looked at it. It was a ring, but it clearly wasn't a ring ring. It was silver and had a small lightning bolt design on the face.

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm giving these to those who know all three of my secrets. They're invisible to all but those who also wear one. They're also soul bound, and have most of the usual goodies you'd expect from a high end piece of jewellery."

Ginny fingered the ring. It was a gift from Harry. "It doesn't make you have weird dreams does it?" she asked, tracing the ridges of the lightning bolt with the sensitive tips of her fingers.

"Nope, no dreams," Harry said. "Although they do have a few cool features. They can send very basic messages to each other using vibrations and they make you immune to compulsion charms. That was the only immunity I could get to work. I swear, Merlin was a freakin' genius when he created the noble-house rings."

"You were trying to re-create the noble-house rings? Ambitious aren't we?"

"Well it is my house's nature."

"Well that's true." Ginny looked thoughtful. "You know, if you'd told me a year ago I'd be going to Slytherin, I'd have said you were mad, and to piss off."

"How we change, mmm?"

"Yah."

"How's my brother doing?"

Ginny's expression darkened. "Still whining that his love detests him for no reason. Ever since the hate potion wore off, he's become so needy it's sickening. My family even tried to hold a mediation between us the other day."

Harry cringed. "I bet that went well."

"They spent the whole time trying to tell me that I was being unreasonable — that we looked so cute together. Well, Mum did anyway."

Silence descended on the pair for a moment.

"So, you want to put that on?"

She perked up. "Sure, which finger?"

"Pinky of your right hand. So it's very obvious when you shake or kiss hands."

"So, it's kind of like a secret club."

"In a way."

"Cool."

She slipped the ring on her pinky and felt the magic catch. It was the first time she'd ever worn a magic ring. For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine she was a real pureblood princess.

"Back to training?"

She beamed. "Yes, Harry."

.

.

.

🍀Visit my site at tiendup for more advanced content...🍀

🍀Read the complete novel in PDF, available at my Store!🍀

https://sunflowersfic.tiendup.com/