Harry Potter and the Unlikely Alliances

Chapter 12: Tonks Surprise

Harry was sitting in the drawing room reading another defense against the dark arts book; he had a lot of spells he wanted to try when he got back to school. He felt something nuzzle his leg and looked down to find Ginny's kitty. "Hello there girl," he said picking her up and petting her. "Do you like my house? Caught any mice lately?" Harry thought she was her shake her head, "No mice huh, too bad, I'm sure there will be some at Hogwarts for you to chase." He watched her curl up in his lap and continued reading.

"Lightning? Are you in here girl?" Ginny asked opening the door. She smiled when she saw her kitten asleep in Harry's lap. "You know, I think she just might like you better than me." She joked to him.

"That's because she finds me as irresistible as you do." Harry teased, "So you found a name for her, Lightning does seem appropriate."

"She seemed to like it, she is very smart, I can tell she understands everything I say to her." Ginny told him sitting next to him and pulling out a book Snape had lent her on the Wolfsbane potion. "You should have seen Professor Snape when I made the potion correctly on my first try, he didn't know if he should be mad or praise his own teaching. He even told me I was the first Gryffindor who was ever any good at potions. I almost passed out; I'd never heard him compliment anyone other than the Slytherins."

"He seems different since Remus told him about how I was raised. He was even civil to me without spitting out my name like it was poisonous. But I'm sure he'll be right back to being Snape the evil git as soon as school starts up, he wouldn't want to ruin his reputation by treating me nicely." Harry said as Ron and Hermione walked in. Hermione smiled at Ginny and Harry on the couch, it was even cuter to see Ginny's cat sound asleep in his lap.

The four of them played exploding snap the rest of the night before heading to bed. Ginny winked at Harry on her way out to tell him she would see him soon. Lightning was still asleep in his lap. Neither one of them noticed that Hermione saw the wink and was going to keep a close eye on Ginny tonight. She knew there was something going on between them and she was determined to find out what.

Ginny slipped on her invisibility cloak and went to the drawing room; Hermione jumped up and followed her, also wearing an invisibility cloak. Ginny opened the door of the room to find Harry asleep on the couch, with Lightning still sound asleep on his lap. She didn't notice that the door opened and shut again, seemingly on its own. Hermione watched with a smile as Ginny leaned down and kissed Harry on the lips. She tried to suppress a giggle as Harry turned to the other side, mumbling Ginny's name. He was obviously dreaming about her. Ginny kissed him again, watching him smile as he opened his eyes to her.

"I was dreaming about you," he said yawning. Then he surprised Hermione by kissing her full on the mouth. "We were dancing in the Great Hall and Ron told me he was glad we were together."

"We'll just have to wait for a while, I'm sure my family will be ok with us being together when I'm older. They just still think of me as a little girl and don't realize that I'm old enough to fall in love." Ginny said picking her cat up off his lap.

Harry smiled and stood up to wrap her in his arms, "I love you Gin, and someday we'll be able to tell everyone." Harry turned his head; he thought he heard someone sniffling. Hermione realized too late that she was crying and that she had just sniffled, she was sure Harry would hear it. Sure enough he started walking toward her; she decided it was best to just come clean so she pulled off the cloak with a guilty look on her face.

"It's not what it looks like Hermione," Ginny said quickly, "I was just coming to find Lightning." She hoped Hermione wasn't going to tell Ron.

"It's ok Gin, I can't lie to her face," Harry said pulling her close. "We're together 'Moine, but you know how the Weasleys will react, so we are hiding our feelings."