A/N: Ok, so this is my first excursion into the world of fanfics, and I would really appreciate some feedback. Hopefully you'll like it, and hopefully when I figure out where this plot is going, you'll be around to read it. 'aight, here goes…

~~~Flowers from Ashes~~~

Harry Potter groaned as his alarm clock's harsh buzzing drew him away from dreamland and back to the world of the living. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stretched, letting the memory of the scent of ginger and spice slip away. He quickly dressed himself in an old gray shirt and a comfortable pair of jeans and slipped down to see what Kreacher had prepared him for breakfast.

"Good morning Harry Potter, sir," Kreacher muttered as he placed the platter of food on the table and turned to leave.

"Kreacher, come here," Harry beckoned.

"Is something wrong, sir?"

"What? No, of course not, just sit down and eat, this is your house too." It had been difficult work trying to convince Kreacher that Harry wanted him to be a member of the family. Albeit, it was a small family, consisting of Harry, the elf, and Teddy on the weekends, but Harry was determined to have a family anyways.

Harry grabbed the paper and opened it to see a full page article by Rita Skeeter titled 'Wizarding Savior, Harry Potter…' He growled and the paper burst into flames in his clutches. He just wanted to sit back and be normal, but some people were determined to make his life hell. He had thought it would all be over once Voldemort was dead. He was completely wrong. The letters flowed in, and Kreacher had sorted them into three piles: job offers, fan mail, and death threats. None of them were opened. He sighed as his mind brought forward the faces of those he had allowed to die during the war, and he instantly needed some strong liquor. But he was supposed to be at the Weasley's for a family reunion, and as he was an "honorary Weasley", he was obliged to attend. It would be the first time he had seen them in the 2 months since the battle, and could hardly deny he was looking forward to seeing Bill, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron, and Ginny. Ginny. He wanted Ginny more than anything in the world, but after the way he had pushed her away, he didn't believe she would every take him back. He desperately needed that whiskey.

Mrs. Weasley bustled about the Burrow's kitchen, preparing furiously for the family reunion that night. Ginny watched her with mild amusement, but she had to admit she was excited to see her brothers. Bill would be back from wherever he was now; Charlie would be returning from Romania, and had hinted about bringing a dragon with him; Percy, George and Ron would take the day off from work at the joke shop, which was one of the most successful establishments in Diagon Alley ; and she, Ginny, would be, well, she would be doing the same thing she did every day. Nothing. She slumped, realizing what a depressingly boring life she led. At least Hermione was coming early, so she didn't have to be bored all day. She flopped over on the couch and decided to charm her mother's stacking dolls to dance. This entertained her for about five minutes, but then it was just boring, just like everything else in her life.

Ginny had never realized how important her brothers were to her until Fred died and the other brothers fled the house, leaving her alone with her parents and the ghoul. Unbidden, her thoughts drifted to Fred. She felt water well in her eyes, and she remembered what George had told her.

"Whenever I really start to miss him," He had said ", I imagine him and ole' Sirius pranking Jesus, and then I don't feel so bad."

She giggled at the image in her head, and got a strange look from her father, who was covered up to his elbows in grease.

"Out playing with your muggle toys again, dad?"

"They aren't toys honey, they're very important if we want to understand muggles."

"Sure, dad" She rolled her eyes and decided to go practice some Quidditch, forgetting that playing Quidditch was much less fun alone, and was on her way back to the house when she heard a soft pop near her and was nearly bowled over by a grinning Hermione Granger.

"Ginny, it's so good to see you!" she squeaked

"Yeah, you too" Ginny grinned at her friend who was smiling way too much for everything to be normal. "Okay, spill it, what happened?"

In response, Hermione held up her left hand to reveal a diamond ring.

"Omigosh, Ron finally asked you!" Ginny eyes widened. Her git of a brother had finally asked Hermione to marry him. It had taken him long enough "Did he get down on one knee and everything?" she squealed.

Hermione nodded mutely, grin stretching her face.

"This is when I wish we had a pensieve. I'm never around when exciting stuff happens," Ginny complained. She had a hard time feigning excitement for Hermione. Ron was the only one who still stopped by on a regular basis, and now that he had a fiancée, Ginny suspected that would change.

"Oh, I can't what to tell everyone. I bet Harry will flip!" Hermione had continued squealing away.

Ginny interjected ", Harry? He's coming?" She felt panic rear its ugly head.

"Of course, He always comes. You should know that."

"But… No one's seen him since the battle. Why would he come now?"

"What do you mean? He brings Teddy to visit us all the time."

Now Ginny was panicking. The boy who she had loved since god knows when, and still loved even though he had dumped her, was going to be here, at her house, in a few hours' time. "Hermione, you have to help me get ready," she blurted, panic surfacing on her face as she began hurrying towards the house.

"Ginny, what's up with you? You're acting like you're a first year again."

"I'm sorry, but I have to get him to notice me tonight, otherwise he'll go on avoiding me, and he'll go off and join the Aurors and I'll never hear from him again," Ginny poured the sentence out in one breath, and began to sob. Hermione looked compassionately on her sister-in-law, before leading her to her room.

Harry gave his new, black owl a sympathetic glance as it struggled to drag in his mail and plop it on his desk, which was now effectively useless because it was completely swamped with mail. With a resigned look, he sat down and started to go through it. He started with the death threats, because those, he figured, he deserved after he had let so many young wizards die in his quest to end Voldemort. Honestly, he was shocked that all of England wasn't knocking down his door to drag him into the streets for the dementors.

After several hours of reading and several bottles of beer, Harry set aside the last threat, and then turned his attention towards the fan mail. He reached for his bottle and delved in, throwing admissions of undying love and marriage proposals left and right, but he only made it about halfway through when a sharp knock came at the door. He glanced up at the clock and jumped, he should have been ready to go to the Weasley's almost a half-hour ago. He raced upstairs where Kreacher had laid out some clothes that were just the right amount of dressy for the occasion. He pulled on the leather jacket and a note drifted out. He could barely read Kreacher's script, but he grinned at the sentiment. He slipped it into his pocket and met Hermione and Ron at the door. When he saw the way the couple was glowing, Harry smiled knowingly to no one in particular. He then stepped out into the street, turned on the spot, and disapparated.

He reappeared in the Burrow's front yard, and stared for a moment at the red-haired, boisterous family that had taken them in. And then he saw Ginny. And he remembered what he had done to her. And then he wished he hadn't come. Matter of fact, he was about to turn and leave when Ron and Hermione flanked him and dragged him towards the house. He quickly made a decision to spend as little time near Ginny as possible. So, after the embraces and greetings, Harry turned his eyes to Arthur.

"So, Ron was telling me about that muggle motorbike you were working on, and I was wondering if there was any chance I could take a look?"

Mr. Weasley grinned ear to ear and quickly hauled Harry off to his workshop to show off the latest project. Surprisingly Harry enjoyed working on the bike, and with his experience and Mr. Weasley's enthusiasm, they made quite a bit of progress before Mrs. Weasley had hauled them in to dinner. Dinner had been the focal point of Harry's fear, but once he sat down with the only family he had ever had, his fears slipped away. He joked and teased and laughed at Charlie's pet baby Horntail, feeling, as he always did, that this was the place he truly belonged. And then, when things were settling down and Harry was planning his escape, Ron rose and cleared his throat. "So I have a, uh, announcement to make," he stuttered "Uh, me and Hermione…"

"Hermione and I!" she hissed at him

"Yeah, so we're, er, getting married." He spit the last words out in triumph, and thunderous applause rose from the seated group. The happy couple spent the next hour talking wedding plans with Mrs. Weasley while the men and Ginny tucked into their desserts.

"Ginny, quit moving! I can't do anything to your hair if you can't sit still," Hermione was complaining while she tended to Ginny's hair and make-up. She was making things way more difficult than they had to be. "He likes you, you know that. The time you dated was the happiest time of his life. I'm sure he's just as nervous as you are."

"But why hasn't he visited or wrote or, I don't know, something?"

"Have you visited him, or wrote him, or made any sort of contact at all?"

"Well, no, but…" But Hermione was giving Ginny her trademark 'I'm right and you know it' look, and Ginny knew it was time to shut up. So she began to plan how to get Harry alone.

Sensing a break in the conversation , Harry excused himself from the table early, claiming that he didn't feel well and asking to go lie down.

"Oh, of course dearie, the spare bed is still in Ron's room. You know where it is." Mrs. Weasley had looked genuinely concerned, and Harry felt terrible for lying, but he just couldn't stay in the same room as her any longer. He rushed upstairs and flopped down on the bed he had spent many a summer night in. He smiled to himself and drifted away into a blissful daydream of Quidditch in the orchard and splash fights in the river. He was jerked back to reality by a knock on the door, and he answered with a groggy "Yeah?" assuming it was just Ron coming up to get something or other. Then Ginny slipped through the door before closing it and locking it behind her. Harry gulped and then stammered out some brief, incoherent sentences. His heart was racing. But then he realized: it wasn't fear that was supercharging his heartbeat. And then she spoke.

"You've been avoiding me."

He looked down, all of the sudden feeling very guilty.

"Why?"

"I-I- I hurt you, I pushed you away. And now you hate me." He was staring at his trainers, his voice was shaking.

She sat down next to him, her warm body pressed up close. "You were trying to protect me, Harry. I understand."

"You- you do?" He was in disbelief. She didn't hate him for what he had done. He felt free, like he could fly without a broom.

"Of course," Actually, she hadn't understood at first, Hermione had told her thousands of times before she had finally believed. But the look on his face, his beautiful green eyes shining with hope, told her that, once again, Hermione was right. She couldn't help herself, she leaned in and their lips met. It was short and gentle, unlike some of their other kisses, but it was, she was sure, the best kiss she had ever had. She looked at him, and for the first time in a long time, she saw Harry smile.

"Wow," he laughed. "That was not what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

"I dunno, a bat-bogey hex probably."

And she laughed too, and to Harry, it was the most beautiful sound in the world. He couldn't control himself, his hands slipped out, one wrapping itself around her back and the other burying itself in her red hair, and he pulled her lips to his, crushing her body against him, and she responded with equal intensity, her hands burying themselves in his black hair and her lips forming to his in a way Harry had missed more than he had ever imagined. He was about to slip his hand up the back of her shirt to feel her flawless skin when the door slammed open.

"Harry, what did you lock the door f- bloody hell! Get your hands off my sister you little!"

Ron's exclamation had all five brothers pushing into Ron's room with wands drawn, ready to tear Harry apart. Ginny squeaked in fear, and clung to Harry. "Please don't hurt him," she begged in a small voice.

"He broke your heart once already, he dumped you and you cried for days- weeks even, and now you want to let him do it again!" Ron had never felt so angry in his life. "He let you go at the toughest time in your life, just because it would make life easier for him! If he really cared, he would have stayed and protected you!"

"Ron, stop!" It was Hermione's voice, but he wasn't done yet.

"You're letting him use you! He's just picking you up and putting you down at his leisure. He loves you when it suits him, and when it doesn't, he just forgets you exist!" He stopped to breathe before launching into another tirade when he felt Hermione's hand on his arm.

"Ron, stop. Breathe." She whispered soothingly. And so he took a deep breath and sat down on his bed.

Now all eyes were trained on Harry, just waiting for him to get up and hex Ron off his feet, but when he did look up, his face was streaked with tears and his voice trembled when he spoke. "G-Ginny, I-I am so s-sorry. I-I never m-meant to hurt y-you, I just t-tried to do what I-I thought was best. For both of us." He slumped into Ginny's arms, head on her shoulder, and she began to stroke his hair, comforting him.

"Damn it!" George pulled a couple Galleons out of his pockets and tossed them to Hermione "I thought for sure it was going to be a Jelly-Legs Jinx." Soon Percy, Bill and Charlie followed suit each muttering something about various hexes and curses.

"Wait!" Ginny glared at her brothers "You bet on how Harry would react when Ron chewed him out!"

George grinned "Yup. It's what Fred would have wanted. Just keepin' the memory alive."

"You pricks!" Ginny had her wand out and she mercilessly jinxed the crap out of her elder brothers.

Hermione gave her a reproachful look and set to work clearing up the mess Ginny had made.

"This is just not my day," Fred moaned, pulling another handful of Galleons from his pockets as soon as his hands were reduced to normal size.

"Who won that one?" Bill asked as soon as Hermione got rid of his donkey head.

"I did." Percy smirked from where he has sitting.

Now it was Ron's turn to be confused "Wait, so you also bet on how Ginny would… You know what, nevermind"

None of them had noticed that, in the excitement, Harry had gotten up and left.

...

A/N: You know, those reviews really inspire me to write, so if you could drop me a couple, I might have another chapter up soon.