The burrow was, per usual, a hive of activity. The Weasleys had opened their home to Hermione, Harry and me so that it would be easier for us to go to King's Cross in the morning. Mrs Weasley was bustling around the house to try and make sure that everyone had everything they needed and I decided that rather than standing in her way it would be better for me to spend some time outside. Besides, it was sunny outside and I could use the fresh air.

Walking out of the burrow my eyes scanned over the garden, looking for some shade. There, under the shade of the tree, was Hermione with a book perched on her lap. I made my way over to her.

"Hey," I said once I was beside her. She looked up at me from the book in her lap.

"Hi," she said, placing a bookmark to mark her place and she closed the book, setting it aside. I sat down cross legged besides her, waiting for her to speak. "How are-"

Her words were cut off as the twins ran past the two of us, identical mischievous smirks etched onto their faces as they let out roars of laughter. They turned back to look over their shoulder to spot the furious look on Ron's face as he followed shortly after them chasing his older brothers around the garden. I laughed as I watched Ron attempt to tackle both of the twins to the ground at the same time. Hermione let out a slight laugh and tried to smother it with her hand when both twins dodged his attempt at a tackle and Ron found himself sprawled across the floor.

At the sound of approaching footsteps I looked away from the twins and towards the sound. Harry headed towards the two of us and I looked up at him, squinting slightly against the glare of the sun. When he was near us I felt the usual butterflies fill my stomach, just like they always did whenever Harry was near. But unfortunately for me, Harry was almost always near.

Harry smiled down at me before sitting down beside us. He tucked his legs underneath him and I took the opportunity to study his smile. It wasn't his regular smile; the one that was innocent and so full of happiness. Instead this one was sly as if being around the twins had finally rubbed off on him.

"Alright," I muttered facing him with a slight sigh, "What do you know?"

"About what?"

"What else?" I asked waving a hand in the direction of the three still brawling Weasley boys.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he protested with an innocent shake of his head.

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Harry glanced around slowly as if scanning the area for a threat and then moved closer towards me so that he could lean over to whisper in my ear. I squashed the urge to blush, catching sight of Hermione's knowing smile as she picked up her discarded book to pretend to read. I knew that she was actually listening in to the two of us. Her smile, almost a smirk, could have belonged to Malfoy.

"Well," he whispered quietly, "I might have helped the twins sneak into Ron's room so that they could set up a prank." He pulled back to regain some distance between us.

"Why?"

He shrugged lazily, "I was bored."

I rolled my eyes at him and watched as Hermione stood up, abandoning her pretence of reading her book. She brushed off her trouser and muttered under her breath, "Honestly Ronald."

She let out a sigh and walked over towards the three squabbling boys. The boys caught sight of her approaching figure and froze. It suddenly became eerily quiet as the twins exchanged frightened looks and dropped Ron to the ground. Ron scrambled to his feet and turned to look furiously at the twins. When Hermione had made her way over to the boys, Ron finally noticed her and turned red.

"He's so obvious," I said laughing quietly I said as I watched the interaction. Hermione glared at the three boys.

"He's not the only one," Harry said casually making me look over at him, my eyes wide. Harry didn't look at me and I turned back to watch Hermione and the boys. Harry couldn't have possibly known about my feelings, right?

I cleared my head of those thoughts, noticing Ginny as she stepped out of the Burrow. Scanning the garden her eyes fell onto Harry and she walked over towards us. Settling down on the other side of Harry, she began to talk quietly. As they continued to talk I couldn't help but notice how well they looked together. Unlike the two of us. Or how well their names sounded together. Unlike ours.

I sighed internally before catching sight of the prodding look that Ginny kept sending in my direction. She wanted some time alone with Harry. I wondered whether I should act on her obvious hints or not. I could have acted oblivious to her but decided against it.

Rising slowly to my feet I gave the pair of them one last glance and smiled slightly at Harry's inquisitive look. Turning to walk into the burrow I passed the twins on my way in, grinning when Fred wriggled his eyebrows at me.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked from behind me, halting me mid step.

"Just inside – I think I left something inside." I said looking back at him over my shoulder watching Harry but also seeing that Hermione was herding the three boys into the house.

"Are you alright?" He also rose to his feet and walked closer towards me.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I turned around to face him, "You always worry too much Harry, I'm fine."

"I can go with you if you want me to."

"No thanks Harry. It's fine." I smiled slightly. "I'm just going to check that Hermione hasn't killed any of the boys. Somehow, I don't think that would make Mrs Weasley very happy."

His face suddenly clouded over. "Yeah, I don't think it would," he muttered as I turned to leave and he sat down again beside Ginny

What was with the sudden change in demeanour? Shaking off Harry's odd behaviour as just one of the random things that teenage boys did I went into the Burrow. Maybe I should write a letter to my parents? If I didn't write a letter to my mum before I went back to Hogwarts then she would probably sent me a howler lamenting over the uselessness of having a daughter.

Sitting in the middle of the room, I curled my feet under me as I placed the parchment on my lap. Using my knees to lean on, my hand moved across the paper in small strokes as I formed the words. I decided to keep my letter short as I quickly ran out of things to say and signed the bottom of the parchment.

"Can you call everyone for dinner, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked when she popped her head around the kitchen door and saw me sitting in the room.

"Sure Mrs Weasley," I said looking up from the parchment to her.

Folding it up I slipped it into the pocket of my shorts and rose to my feet. Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps Mrs Weasley looked at the door and I followed suit to watch as Harry walked into the room, Ginny trailing behind him.

"Oh Harry, won't you be a dear and help her call everyone for dinner?" Mrs Weasley asked turning her attention onto the boy.

Harry glanced over at me before nodding his head and smiling at Mrs Weasley. "Of course."

Harry walked towards me and dropped in to stand beside me. He gestured to the staircase and I nodded silently telling him to lead the way as we went to call everyone down for dinner.

"Mum," Ginny called out, "Do you need me to go with Harry as well?"

"No that's alright sweetheart," she paused, contemplatively. "Although if you do want to help then why don't you set the table for me?"

We continued to climb the stairs and I marvelled at how oblivious Harry was to Mrs Weasley's rather obvious matchmaking. Unless he had noticed but had not thought that it was worth commenting about. When we reached the top of the stairs I turned to glance around the hall before looking at Harry.

"Something tells me that Ron is more likely to listen to you," I began. "So do you want to handle Ron and I'll go and track down the twins?"

Harry seemed to straighten up slightly at my words, his shoulders becoming more rigid. But he agreed with me reluctantly. He couldn't have been jealous, could he? No, that was ridiculous. In fact it was more likely that he was just worried about being sent to find Ron in case the twins had let it slip that he was the one that had let them into the room. That made more sense – he was just worried about Ron's possible retaliation.

Turning away from me Harry headed down the hall in the direction of Ron's room, and I turned the other way, in the direction of the twin's bedroom. Cautiously, I knocked on the twin's door having learnt from previous experience that simply barging into their room could warrant you with a prank to the face. When they made no sound to answer me I swung the door open slowly.

I peered into the room but did not leave the doorway. "You're mum said to come downstairs for dinner."

They appeared out of nowhere in front of me and a small scream was torn from my throat in response. They grinned down at me, their grins only becoming wider when I shot them an irritated look. I couldn't smother the smile that grew on my face.

"Was that really necessary?" I demanded.

"Of course it was." George said as they brushed passed me into the hallway. They waited for me to drop into the space between them and we walked downstairs. The boys filled me in on their latest product as they recounted the various bugs they were trying to fix with the canary creams.

The twins took their seats and I caught sight of the two empty spaces on the table. One was between Harry and Ron, the other between Fred and Hermione. Ginny, walking out from the kitchen, with a dish in her hands eyed the seat between Harry and Ron so I decided to walk towards the second space. Or rather I tried to until a hand took hold of my wrist and pulled me down into the empty space beside them.

I looked at Harry cautiously but he acted as if he had done nothing. Ginny, setting the dish down onto the table, was forced to sit between Fred and Hermione which happened to be the seat across from me. Harry continued with his charade of innocence as though he had completely forgotten that he was still holding my hand underneath the table.

Untangling my hand from his, I used that hand to reach for the potatoes, making a point to avoid Harry's searching eyes. Ginny cast a suspicious glance between the two of us which I promptly ignored by passing Ron potatoes when he asked for them.

Thoughts of Harry and Ginny soon left my mind when Ron began speaking enthusiastically to Fred about the latest quidditch match played by the Chudley Cannons, who according to Ron had won the match by a landslide. Fred, never missing the opportunity to tease his brother, began to question Ron on when he had formed a crush on the captain of the professional team.

Once we had all finished and helped Mrs Weasley with the dishes, she clapped her hands and announced, "Off to bed everyone. You don't want to miss the train." She shot the twins a pointed look. "That includes you two. Just because you've left Hogwarts doesn't mean that you can get out of dropping them off."

"We wouldn't dream of it." They said adopting innocent looks that Mrs Weasley could clearly see through.

She levelled them a firm look, her hands on her hips, "Don't test me boys, I mean it."

The next morning, true to her warning Mrs Weasley had woken everyone up as early as possible in order to make sure that the five of us were ready to go back to school. Heading up to the twins room, she woke them up quickly before frog marching them down to breakfast and eventually to the floo.

Fred, shooting me an overly frustrated look, threw an arm around my shoulder when we were all standing in the middle of King's Cross. "Honestly," he muttered, leaning down in order to whisper in my ear, "She treats us as if we're children."

"Which we're clearly not," George chimed in, appearing at my side as he slipped an arm around my waist. "I mean look at us – we're two very fine specimens of adult males."

"If you say so," I said grinning cheekily at them as Mrs Weasley called us over to say our final goodbyes. I ducked out of their hold and walked over to the rest of the group, the twins trailing after me.

I took my time, saying goodbye to the family as Mrs Weasley pulled me into a long hug. She shook my slightly from side to side before she pulled back and I was mildly alarmed at how tearful her eyes were when she looked over the five of us that would soon board the train. Letting go of me she walked over to her daughter and Ginny received the same treatment, shaking her head when she met my eyes over her mother's shoulder.

Finally I turned to the twins, knowing that to mimic their mother they would be overly dramatic in their farewell as if I was going away to a prison, rather than going back to somewhere that was so much like a home. They failed to disappoint.

Sweeping me into a long hug between them, they made a show of making declarations of how they'd write to me every day and would never fail to think of me. That I had to write back to them or they might just come and kidnap me from the school. Rolling my eyes I pushed at them to get them to release me. They pulled away from me and gave me a mischievous grin.

Harry, having appeared at my side at some point, cleared his throat stealing my attention away from the twins. "We should get going, we don't want to miss the train."

I looked at him strangely; the warning whistle hadn't even been blown yet. We still had longer than ten minutes until we the train would leave. Nevertheless his words rang true with Mrs Weasley who then began to usher us all onto the train, making sure that we had all of our belongings with us whilst simultaneously assuring us that anything that had been forgotten could be sent to us if we needed it.

We boarded the train as Ginny disappeared somewhere in search of Luna. Making my way down the train, I peered into each of the carriages that we passed, trying to find Hermione who had run ahead in order to save us a carriage. When I found her I stored my trunk away and sat down beside her. Watching as Ron walked into the carriage, from the corner of my eye I noticed Hermione glance briefly up at him before she lost herself once again in her book.

"Where's Harry?" I asked Ron as he settled down into the seat across from me as I simultaneously ignored the knowing look that Hermione sent in my direction.

"Missing me already are we?" Harry asked as he walked through the open carriage door, obviously having heard my words.

"Only about as much as I miss having the chicken pox," I said playfully as he rolled his eyes and sat down beside me.

"You don't need to lie to me," he said casually as he draped an arm over my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. I scoffed.

The boys began their talk about the latest possible recruits for the Gryffindor quidditch team and I zoned out, instead choosing to take a book out of my bag to read. Harry kept his arm around my shoulder and throughout the train journey he acted completely oblivious to that fact.

But really, who was I to remind him of that?

Once we had all gotten off from the Hogwarts Express we were lead to the carriages which led us to Hogwarts. I felt my eyes slowly begin to drift shut and I leaned my head against the nearest shoulder that I could find.

"Tired?" I opened my eyes to look up at Harry as he set his head to rest on top of mine.

I shut my eyes again. "Yeah, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." I didn't tell him the reason why. Hermione, Ginny and I had been sharing a room and by some sort of miracle Hermione had managed to fall asleep regardless of the fact that Ginny kept talking. She spoke eagerly about how she would use this year to get Harry to notice her as a woman rather than as a little girl. And as she kept talking, I couldn't help but shrink into myself, unable to say anything to get her to keep quiet and unable to sleep with her talking.

"Go to sleep for a little bit then," he said quietly before moving around slightly. I peered up at him from under my eyelashes when I felt him drape his school robes across my school skirt in order to cover my legs. "I'll wake you up when we get there."

"Thanks Harry," I murmured, turning my head closer to his neck.

"No problem," he murmured back.

It felt as though I had only been sleeping for a minute or two but true to his word Harry had woken me up when we had arrived at Hogwarts. Rubbing my eyes sleepily, I accepted the hand that he had outstretched in order to help me down from the carriage.

"Feeling better?" He asked as I dropped into step beside him.

"Partly," I said as we took our trunks and began to carry them towards the Gryffindor common room. "I just can't wait for the welcome feast to be over so that I can go to bed."

He narrowed his yes on me. "Why are you so tired? What did you stay up last night doing?"

"Nothing much, really." I insisted. "We just talked for ages."

After we had all put our bags into our dorms we made or way back down to the great hall for the welcome feast and the sorting of the first years. The line of first years seemed to be endless, just as it was every single year. Slowly, one by one they would walk up to the sorting hat before they were placed into the house that would become their family. I clapped whenever a first year was sorted into Gryffindor but honestly I was hungry and I just couldn't wait for the final first year to be sorted so that we could start eating.

That night I laid in my bed still in my school uniform with the curtains drawn shut around the bed. I opened the curtains slightly to peer out to see whether any of the girls were still awake and when I knew for certain that they were all asleep, I drew all of the curtains open. Easing myself carefully out of the bed so as not to wake anyone up I drew the curtains closed again around the bed. That way if any of my dorm mates awoke then they would be under the impression that I was asleep.

Making my way quietly to the door I eased it open and padded down the stairs and into the common room. It was empty and eerily quiet. No one was awake right now and they would continue to sleep unless I somehow managed to wake up the fat lady who would only then create a massive fuss about the fact that I was out of bed and would end up waking up the entire house.

But normally on the first night back that wasn't a problem. Usually on the first night back she was off visiting another portrait and lamenting to anyone that would listen about how her peace and quiet would be ruined once again.

I couldn't quite remember how or why this tradition of mine had begun. But every year, on the first night back I would sneak out of the Gryffindor common room and just when somewhere for an hour or so. I would never plan where I was going but I knew that I wouldn't go to the same place twice. It always managed to calm me down, it wiped away the stress that would begin to bubble up within me.

I stepped out of the common room, the portrait swinging shut quietly behind me. When I went to continue down the corridor, a hand was clamped suddenly around my forearm as another hand covered my mouth to muffle the scream that I was about to let out. Jabbing an arm behind me and into the chest of my capture I heard them let out a slight huff.

My hand instantly drew my wand in my pocket and pulling it out of my pocket I held it in the vague direction of my capture.

"Lumos," I muttered as a small amount of light left the end of my wand, illuminating the face of my kidnapper. Taking in his all too familiar features I let out a small sigh of relief before straightening up again. What the bloody hell was he doing here?

"Harry James Potter. What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing?" I asked in a heated whisper as I smacked his arm in return for him scaring me. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Ouch!" He glanced around the hallway before pulling me under his invisibility cloak. "I wanted to show you something."

"Can't you show me later?"

"Why?" He asked, turning to look at me. "What are you doing now?"

"Nothing," I muttered under my breath and it was the truth. I didn't have anything planned because I usually just went wherever my instinct told me to go.

"See, so you can come with me then."

He began to lead me through the castle, easily navigating the hallways until we reached a part of the castle that I don't think I had ever been in. Harry stopped in front of the door to an abandoned classroom and threw the invisibility cloak off from us. Tucking it away, he pushed the door to the classroom open and held it open for me.

Peering into the dark classroom I gave Harry a wary look. "I didn't peg you as the type of boy to take a girl to an abandoned classroom Harry."

He blushed slightly and shook his head, "No, that's not it. I really want to show you something."

"That something better not be in your trousers Mr Potter." I muttered before casting a quick lumos and heading into the room.

I shone the light around various parts of the room until something caught my attention. There was a mirror standing right in the centre of the room. Walking closer towards the mirror I noticed an inscription on the frame surrounding the mirror and I shone the light from my wand on the inscription in order to be able to read it.

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

I gave a quick glance at Harry who was watching me. "I take it that you know what it is then?" He asked me.

I nodded turning to look back at the mirror in front of me. "I've read about it before – it's the mirror of erised," I said quietly before looking around the room for anything else. But the room was completely empty save for Harry, me and the mirror. I turned to the boy behind me and raised an eyebrow. "Why did you bring me here Harry?"

"I was curious," He admitted. "I found the mirror when I was wondering around the corridor in our first year. It showed me my parents but well somehow it started to show me something else now. I guess that I wanted to know what it was that you see in the mirror." He paused, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Do you know what the mirror shows you?"

"According to the book that I read, the mirror of erised is supposed to show you your hearts deepest desires."

"And what do you see?"

For the first time since arriving in the room I contemplated actually looking into the mirror and not just at the frame holding the mirror. I had been so careful not to actually look at the mirror because I was so scared about what it would show me. I was too scared to find out what it was that my heart was craving.

Summing up my courage I looked into the mirror and paused slightly when I realised what it was that I was seeing. Sure, I knew that I wanted what I was seeing but I was hardly aware that it was my heart's deepest desire.

"What do you see?" He asked again but I didn't answer him. "Do you see Fred or George?"

"No." I felt my eyebrows raise at the absurdity of his question although my eyes did not leave the mirror. "Why would I see Fred or George?"

"I just thought – never mind." He cut himself off and I heard his voice once again from somewhere nearer to me. "So what do you see in the mirror then?"

"I see me," I began slowly, "Finally becoming the chief medi witch at St. Mungo's."

"Do you really?" He asked quietly and I nodded, unable to meet his eyes. He began to walk towards me, his voice growing more confident. "That's not what you see and you know it."

"Why would I lie about something like this?"

"I don't know," he said as he came to a stop a metre or so behind me. "Maybe it's because you also see what I see? You know, we've been friends for a long time and I know you well enough to know when you're lying to me."

"Alright, maybe I am lying," I said dismissively. "But what do you see?" I asked curiously as he came even closer towards me and stood behind me. Slowly he wrapped his arms around my waist and stepped closer towards me to eliminate any space between us. His chest was pressed to my back and he rested his chin on my shoulder.

"This," he said quietly as he pressed a tender kiss to my shoulder. "This is what I see."

"No you don't." I unwrapped his arms from around my waist and stepped away from him.

"Yes I do." He said in obvious confusion as I turned to look at him.

"No you don't!" I insisted. "If anything you should see Ginny and you, not me and you."

He let out a small laugh but it seemed strained. "It's funny how you think that someone else would know my own heart better than me. For Godric's sake, there has never been a 'me and Ginny' – no matter how much she tried to make it happen. No matter how much you tried to make it happen." He walked towards me again and took my chin in his hands. Tilting my chin up so that I was looking up at him he stared down into my eyes. "For me it's always been you. Always."

I swallowed thickly, pulling my chin out of his hold and asked quietly, "Do you want to know what I see?"

Something that looked a lot like doubt seemed to flash across his eyes as though he was scared of my answer. But he nodded anyway.

Reaching towards him, I took the tie that was slung haphazardly around his neck and pulled him towards me. Rising onto my toes I pressed my lips quickly to his. Pulling back from him I lowered my heels to the ground, looking up at him from below my eyelashes.

"That's what I see," I said quietly.