Harry returned her smile, though it was somewhat forced. The fact that HemioneHermione could forget what Umbridge had done to him the year before really bothered him. That wasn't something he would soon forget. Flying was one of the few things in life that could truly bring him a sense of peace. Anyone who had spent any time around in him in the last five years would know that. He didn't understand how she could pass it off so lightly. And to top it all off the one time he would have liked to talk about something that was bothering him, something Hermione was always after him to do, she wandered off like it wasn't really all that big a deal.
He was beginning to realize just how far he was growing apart from Ron and Hermione. They used to be solid, joined at the hip, nearly inseparable, at least that's how he'd always thought of them. But he knew that that wasn't entirely true. They had encountered their problems over the years. Ron had dealt with jealousy issues in fourth year. Ron and Hermione were at each other's throats most of third year. And he had spent a lot of time angry at Hermione third year over his Firebolt.
Last year had been tense for all of them as well. Although most of that was probably his fault, he was willing to admit. He still thought of them as his best friends, but he couldn't help but feel the distance building between them. But luckily, where some bridges seemed to be lengthening, others were shortening. He was closer to Neville than he'd ever been. He made a point of talking to Luna occasionally; he still owed her for talking to him last year while everyone else was at the leaving feast. And Ginny, well she was a godsend. She was quickly becoming his best friend.
He was actually somewhat amazed at the whole thing. He had gone into the term expecting to be somewhat lonely, keeping everything from all of his friends, training in secret without anyone knowing. Then Ginny caught him red-handed and turned out to be just what he needed: someone he could talk to that he could trust not to tell anybody or do anything about what he told her without his approval. He didn't have to worry about what he told her like he often did with most everyone else. She was unassuming and trusted him completely, which made it easy to trust her in turn.
Ron and Hermione would never have just let him go on Halloween night the way she did. They would either have insisted on coming with or threatened to tell a professor what he was planning in order to keep him in the castle, most likely with Ron pushing for the former and Hermione the latter.
But Ginny wasn't like that. Sure she was reluctant to let him go, and she was worried about him. He had seen that quite clearly that night when she broke down on him on the couch. But he couldn't really blame her for that. After all, he used to worry about Sirius before he was confined to Grimmauld Place, afraid he'd be caught by either the ministry or Death Eaters. And even now he worried about what Remus might be doing for the Order. He could understand that.
But the point was that she'd trusted him, and she'd let him go. She had trusted his judgment and took him at his word when he'd promised he would come back in one piece. And even after that, she didn't really demand anything from him. She had a few questions, sure, but nothing too probing. There was plenty more she could have asked, but she didn't. She was always careful not to push him for more than he was ready to give, and for that he was eternally grateful.
His musings were once again interrupted as a figure pulled an ottoman in front of his chair and plunked down in front of him. He was only mildly surprised to find the object of his thoughts sitting before him with a slightly worried expression on her face. "You alright, Harry? You look like you've got something on your mind."
Harry smiled at her a little sadly but appreciatively. "Yeah, I'll be fine, but I'm fairly sure I just got kicked off the Quidditch team."
"You what?" Ginny shrieked.
Several heads shot their way at hearing Ginny's loud exclamation. "Could you draw a little more attention please? I don't think Ron was loud enough earlier," He snapped.
Ginny cringed. "Sorry," she said contritely.
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you," Harry told her, looking earnestly into her eyes.
"It's alright. So what happened?" she asked anxiously.
Harry sighed into his hands as he rubbed them down his face. "Well I came in here after my lesson with Dumbledore, and Ron said that he scheduled some additional Quidditch practices. One of those is for this Sunday at 10."
....
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