Right, so long time reader, long time writer, first time poster, so be gentle please! :)

Disclaimer: I of COURSE own nothing. All characters and settings belong to the queen herself, J.K. Rowling.

Guardian Angel

Ginny Weasly loved flying. It was really the only thing in her life she was sure about. Well, that, and her pathetic love for Harry Potter, but she'd never change the way he felt about her - strongly, but strictly platonic - so that was hopeless. But flying...flying was something she could have full control of. She held the reins when she darted around the sky on her hand-me-down broom, the moon shining hauntingly above her. She loved night-flying most of all, the feeling of complete freedom.

She loved to sneak out at night to think when no one else was around. She had so much on her mind...though it was almost always the same topic. Harry. She loved him. She had come to this conclusion sometime around the middle of last year. Sure, she had claimed to love him since she was 8, but this, this was real. When she was younger and foolish, she loved the idea of the mysterious magical boy - strong, handsome, powerful, perfect - named Harry Potter. But when she was 14, she realized what love really was. Firstly, love was knowing someone. And over her 5 years at Hogwarts, she had gotten to know Harry so well, he often said she knew him better than he knew himself. That made Ginny smile, knowing she was that important, but slightly sad, as no matter how important she was in Harry's life, it would never be in the way she wanted to be. She was completely, head-over-heels in love with Harry Potter. And not the Boy Who Lived, but Harry. Just Harry. And he'd never know it, much less feel the same way. She let out a roar of frustration, and sped to the other side of the Quiddtich Pitch.

In a sudden rush, she stretched her arms out at her sides, and as she did so, a huge gust of wind picked up, sending her off balance. She toppled off her broom, tumbling towards the ground. It was then that she realized just how high she had flown. She kept falling, too quickly and too terrified to even scream. She shut her eyes. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die... She mentally cursed herself for her stupidity, leaving her wand on the ground. What kind of Weasly was she? Didn't matter now anyway. They'd all be planning her funeral. I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE... This was it. Her last moment...She made contact.

Mmm...death smelled a lot better than she'd imagined.

"Ginny. Ginny!"

That's odd...she must already be in heaven. That sounded suspiciously similar to Harry's voice.

"GINNY! Oh come on Gin! Open your eyes! Please!"

His voice was heartbreakingly upset. Don't cry beautiful boy. She sighed. Angel with the pretty Harry-voice wants me to wake up. Ginny opened her eyes. Oh. She wasn't dead.

"Oh thank MERLIN Ginny! I was so worried. So, so worried..."

Harry trailed off, holding her tighter. Oh. She was in Harry's arms. Hmm. Nice. Falling off a broom sure agrees with me well. Almost worth the near-death panic.

Harry pressed his face into the top of her head, murmuring something about absolute his heart nearly stopping. He was holding her bridal-style. Rather tightly. Not that Ginny minded in the slightest. She could feel his heartbeat, pounding double-time. Suddenly, Ginny realized that Harry had just saved her life! She flung her arms around his neck, squeezing tightly and burying her face into his chest catching him off guard. Only for a moment though, as he proceeded to wrap his arms even tighter, face back in her hair, and was it her imagination, or did she feel him deeply inhaling?

"Thank you," Ginny mumbled, a lump forming in her throat as the situation replayed in her head.

"Of course," Harry whispered back, his lips moving against her hair. "You have no idea how terrified I was." His voice broke, and she felt tears escape onto her head. At his emotion, Ginny felt tears rise to her eyes, brimming and threatening to spill over. She pressed her face into his shirt in an irrational attempt to try and push them back in. This wasn't very well thought out.

Ginny Weasly doesn't cry! she thought to herself. Don't be ridiculous. She most certainly should when the man of her dreams rescues her from a certain death, a small, rather annoyingly blunt part of her brain scolded.

"Shh, Ginny it's ok..." Harry murmured, lips moving against my hair.

"I'm so, so sorry!" she sniffed, looking up, wiping the traitor drops of water from her face.

"Gin that's ridiculous. If there was ever a reason to cry, it would be now," a shadow of a sheepish smile floated across his face, as he too wiped his eyes. She gave a small grin back.

"But aside from the obvious, are you ok?" Harry questioned softly, his voice laced with concern. Ginny's heart melted at his tone.

"Of course I am. Thanks to you," she gazed into his emerald eyes, losing herself momentarily. She realized with a start that Harry was still holding her. As if he just noticed as well, he blushed, an adorable red coloring his cheeks.

"I'll just...er...right...sorry..." he muttered, placing her gently on her feet. Then it all came crashing down on her. Harry had saved her life, this was true. But their relationship had not changed. They were still friends, the one-sided yearning still tearing a hole in her heart. She loosened her grip around his neck, arms releasing slightly. Harry's face flashed with confusion, then what seemed like disappointment, though that didn't make any sense, then his features returned to normal, his usual unreadable expression.

She sighed in frustration. "Harry, how did you know I was out here?" Ginny continued their soft muttering, quite enjoying the huskiness that laid in Harry's voice at the low volume.

"You come out her every night," he whispered. "I've known for a while. You come out here to think, I assume. I do the same thing, though since the skies are taken, I stick to the ground." He grinned. "It's lucky I do too..." He finished softly, his eyes never tearing from hers. Ginny smiled and hugged him tightly again, never loving him more than right now. He pulled away, her heart shattering as he did. She was seconds away from crying for the second time that night. She chanced a look at Harry's face. His eyes now locked on a spot in the grass, he appeared to be thinking very hard about something, as if fighting an internal battle. Realizing sadly and somewhat bitterly that he was somewhere else in his mind, Ginny turned towards the castle.

"Well thanks again Harry," she whispered, using everything she had not to cry. As she turned, she felt a tug as Harry, eyes still not moving from the ground, pulled gently on her t-shirt. She stopped and turned back, and he slid his fingers around her forearm and pulled her back in front of him.

"Ginny, I have something I need to say," he began cautiously, continuing to keep his voice low. "And I want you to let me finish before you say anything. Do you promise? Because I really need to get this off my chest." Mmm, his chest. Wait. No. Bad Ginny. She nodded slowly, utterly confused.

"Gin, over the past year, we've become great friends, I think. I hope," he began huskily, running his fingers distractedly up and down her arm, making it nearly impossible to focus on what he was saying. "We've learned a lot about each other. I think at times, you understand me better than I do," he chuckled briefly. "We spend a lot of time together, but Ginny, recently, every time I'm around you...it hurts." He still refused to look at her. Ginny's heart sped up, and a tear escaped her eye. It actually pained him to be around her. Of course he'd never want to see her now. I closed my eyes tightly.

"And, well, I've been trying to ignore it for a long time, but I don't think I can do that anymore..." Ginny let out a heartbreaking sob, stopping Harry abruptly, his eyes snapping up to her face in confusion and concern.

"Just stop Harry! I get it, alright? You don't need to drag it on any longer, I'll just leave you to it then," and she turned to leave.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled, not letting go, but pulling her even closer to him.

"No, Harry, you can't keep doing this! Playing with my emotions like this, it's just not fair! I don't know how much more of this I can take and I mmmmpphh, mmmmmppphh.

And his lips delicately pressed onto her stunned ones. For a few seconds, she couldn't move, let alone respond, but as she felt him begin to pull away, Ginny woke up and kissed him back with as much feeling as she could muster. He continued with so much emotion, it almost made her cry. All his anguish, sorrow, heartbreak, all poured in the kiss. But mixed in somewhere, Ginny felt something she herself had been feeling for years. Love. It was the best first kiss she could have ever imagined, sweet and perfect. He pulled back slightly, just enough to look her in the eye.

"If you'll let me finish like you'd promised..." He gazed with slight amusement, but it quickly vanished as he jumped right back into his speech.

"Anyway Gin, our time does hurt me, but it hurts my heart. It hurts that we can be so close physically, yet so far away emotionally. You can't imagine what it feels like to know someone will never feel the same way about you. I get now why it's called a heartache..." He glanced down to Ginny's face, her eyes full of encouragement. She wanted to hear everything. "I nearly made myself sick, and your brother too, actually. Too much Ginny on the brain makes some of it overflow out my mouth, I'm afraid. I'm surprised Ron hasn't killed me by this point, really. Anyway. I truly can't get you out of my mind. I wanted to hold you, touch you, just see you so much, and I'd willingly inflict pain on my heart by doing so. It scared me, the emotion I felt for you. I'm sixteen, and I think I've met the love of my life," He looked anxiously at Ginny, waiting for her response. But to be completely honest, she had none. She couldn't believe what he'd just confessed. She just stood there dumbly, unable to react at all. After a few seconds, Harry dropped his hands from her arms and went to leave. This woke Ginny up. She grabbed his perfectly toned Quidditch bicep, her heart speeding up slightly and she emitted a small gasp as she did. He slowly turned his head, looking up from the ground sadly. His heartbreak was too much for Ginny. She crashed her lips onto his.

This kiss was very different than their first. As soon as their lips made contact, what felt like an electric shock shot through both of them, and surged, sending both into a frenzy of passion. Harry responded to her mouth immediately, smoothly moving his lips against hers, but after a few seconds, the pressure became rougher as he attacked her mouth. He kissed her desperately, kneading her mouth. Slowly, his tongue pressed lightly on her bottom lip, then dragged across, willing her mouth to open. Though nearly collapsed on the ground, being held up mostly by Harry's arm which had wound it's way around her waist, the other tangled in her long fiery hair, Ginny couldn't possibly object and eagerly parted her lips, hesitantly and daintily meeting his tongue with the tip of hers. Upon contact, Harry let out a rumble from low in his throat, and Ginny's attempt to hold back a whimper failed in response.

Finally, with much reluctancy and a need for air, they both pulled away, breathing heavily. Resting his forehead against hers, Harry looked into Ginny's eyes, thoroughly confused, searching for an explanation. Ginny, honestly coming up short on her side as well, shrugged. Eyes twinkling, she smirked. "I fell for you?"

Hate it? Love it? The majority of you who don't have an opinion either way? Whichever, I'd really appreciate feedback on this one! So, err…reviews? :)