Sunlight

by She's a Star

Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine. In case you didn't know that.

Author's Note: I felt like uploading something, so you get a mushy G/H drabble. You lucky, lucky fools. :) Many thanks to drama-princess for the challenge words.

words: sunlight, green, glass.

*

Her hair is different in the sunlight.

Inside, it's just as bright, but subdued somehow. Dulled. When they step outside - on their way to Quidditch practice, or to take a walk with Ron and Hermione at lunch - it's like fire dancing, almost.

He wonders if it's healthy, to pay this much attention to somebody's hair.

Not that that's the only thing he pays attention to about her, of course. He notices the shade of her skin - something like ivory; she burns easily in the sun - and the way her nose wrinkles a bit when she laughs, and how she always catches his eye when something funny happens, like she knows that he'll understand the humour of the situation.

She looks very pretty in green, and avoids pink at all costs. She paints her fingernails, and folds down the pages of novels instead of using bookmarks. When he finds himself in a temper, or maybe just a bit sad - he's like that a lot, lately - she always seems to know the right thing to say to make him feel better.

She's good in Charms, but always tries to find ways to hide her marks in History of Magic from her parents, and in the winter, when the lake looks like glass, she sits outside by herself. Maybe someday he'll join her. Maybe he won't. He knows what it's like, to want nothing more than to be alone for a while.

"You keep staring at my sister," Ron informs him one day in the library.

Harry shrugs. "She's more interesting than homework."

"Right," Ron says and smiles, like he knows something that Harry doesn't. Hermione kicks him under the table, and he lets out a yelp of surprise.

Harry chuckles to himself, and watches as Ginny turns the page in the book she's reading. There's sunlight streaming through the window, caught in her hair.