A Stolen Past

Back to the Beginning

Mrs. Weasley woke Harry early the next morning so that he could see Hermione off. She was leaving to spend the summer holiday with her parents, as usual, and had only come to the Burrow because she had wanted to see Harry in person. He trudged down the stairs in his pajamas and told her to have a safe trip as she boarded the Knight Bus and headed for home. Once the bus had vanished, he followed Ron and Ginny into the kitchen for breakfast.

After a delicious meal of sausage and eggs, Harry, Ron, and Ginny retreated to the living room, where Harry engaged Ron in a game of Wizard chess. Ginny sat nearby, watching them but not engaging in much conversation. It appeared that she was having some sort of internal battle over how she ought to act toward Harry. She obviously wanted to be near him - twice she walked around behind his chair and leaned over his shoulder to look at the chessboard just so she would have an excuse to be physically closer to him - but he could tell she was still afraid that he would drop her like a hot potato the moment his memory returned. Harry couldn't really blame her - after all, he had apparently ignored her for the entire five years they had known each other - but that didn't stop him from getting slightly annoyed with her indecision.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before Mrs. Weasley asked Ron, Ginny, and Harry for help de-gnoming the garden. With the physical activity for a distraction, they quickly fell into an easy conversation as each of them tried to outdo the others by throwing their gnomes the furthest. The fact that Harry was able to use the task as an excuse to purposely bump into Ginny or brush her hand with his as they reached for the same gnome was just an added bonus. By the time the de-gnoming began winding down, they were all laughing so hard that they could only throw the last few gnomes a few feet, forcing them to catch and re-throw them several times before they could quit for lunch.

Harry spent most of the afternoon listening with rapt attention as Ron and Ginny explained the intricacies of the game of Quidditch, and later playing Wizard chess against Ron again while Ginny mocked his pathetic attempts at strategy. Thankfully, after spending most of the day laughing and joking with Harry and Ron, she seemed to have put aside her discomfort and was just enjoying their company. Although Harry would have preferred to have her treat him more like someone she fancied and less like one of her brothers, it was more important that she not feel uncomfortable around him the way she had that morning.

It's only been one day, he reminded himself. He had promised Ginny all the time she needed to sort out her feelings, and he meant it, but that didn't make it any easier to just sit by and wait for her to make a decision. So much had happened over the past couple of days that he couldn't blame her for being overwhelmed and a bit skeptical of his feelings, though.

The evening passed quickly and uneventfully, and before he knew it, Harry was bidding the Weasleys goodnight once again. As he lay on his camp bed in Ron's darkened bedroom, he smiled at the ceiling before closing his eyes and slipping into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

* * * * *

Knock, knock, knock!

Harry awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the door to Ron's bedroom. Ron groaned, mumbled something unintelligible, and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.

Knock, knock, knock!

This time, it was Harry who groaned as he sat up and fumbled to put on his glasses. He blinked in the morning sunlight that was streaming through the window, and for a moment considered just using magic to open the door. He sighed; he wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school. Besides, his wand was downstairs in his school trunk, which he still didn't feel ready to sort through, and he had promised Dumbledore that he wouldn't let anyone know he could do magic without it. Stretching as he stood, he crossed the room and opened the door.