Title: How to Be – On the Outside Looking In
Summary: Ginny wonders what she and Harry look like to the outsider.
Characters: Ginny, Harry, Hermione
Pairing: Harry/-Hermione, Harry/Ginny
Rating: K+
Notes: Post Order of the Phoenix

Ginny Weasley wants to hate Hermione Granger. She really does and over the last few months, she's gotten quite good at it. But as she steps out onto the back porch at The Burrow and sees them, she can't find it in her to try any more.

In the deep, quickly descending dusk she watches their black silhouettes – though she should say silhouette since they are almost one – against the inky sky and she sighs quietly up to the horizon. There's an arm around the other but she's not sure who is hugging who in the burrowing darkness but she doesn't think it really matters.

In the house at their impromptu gathering of the Order, she'd noticed their missing presence instantly. Though not uncommon, it was rare when they were outwith the boundaries of Hogwarts. There, they were a trio. Outside of there, it was Ron and Harry, then Hermione. Ron had been the addition this evening – had been for the last couple of days, really – and Harry and Hermione had been the duo. It had started upon Harry's arrival, Hermione being the first to greet him and the last to leave his side and it had made Ginny wonder if something had happened to him that she didn't know about because Hermione certainly wasn't a hoverer. At dinner, they'd sat together despite Ron and Ginny's attempts to get their respective partners to their side of the table. It seemed unconscious on Harry and Hermione's part and she wonders if that makes it better or worse.

The second day, Ron had told her he had found Harry and Hermione already awake sharing a single cup of coffee in the kitchen and wondered if he should be worried. Ginny had brushed it off but then at lunch, when Harry hadn't eaten and Hermione had picked at her food, Ginny had wondered at the conversation between them:

"You should eat," said Harry as he eyed her almost full plate.

Hermione turned to him, meeting his eyes for a moment before motioning to his plate, too. "So should you."

It wasn't entirely out of place but when Harry had made to move from the table a few minutes later, Hermione had gripped his wrist before he could push away and Harry had hesitated a moment before sitting back down and picking at the sandwich on the plate in front of him.

Now, in the back garden, she can hear the quiet murmurings of whispered conversation and she knows that as soon as she makes her presence known the conversation will cease. And she hates that knowledge; that there is something Harry won't share with her. That there's a part of him that only Hermione knows.

A bitter thought passes her mind and she can't seem to shift it quickly enough.

Because Hermione doesn't have enough of Harry as it is.

Moments pass and the thought lingers and she's slow to brush it aside because she knows it to be true. After everything the two have been through together, it's no wonder she knows him more than Ginny. But Ginny doesn't have to like it.

"Hermione..." Harry says, his voice low and thick and Ginny recognises the well of emotion in the voice. She wishes it was her name he spoke in that way. The arm around the waist moves and she realises it's Harry's; she feels a pang at that.

Ginny steps forward then, not sure what it is she is going to say. When she steps around them, they turn to her quickly, their heads snapping away from the others vicinity but Ginny daren't think on that. She watches as Hermione tries to draw her hand from Harry's grip – their fingers interlaced on his lap – but Harry doesn't relent. Ginny can't hate Hermione for that.

"I just..." She begins but trails off and looks around the grounds of The Burrow quickly before she looks back to them. "I just came to see where you were."

Harry nods but doesn't say anything and it's more awkward than she remembers it being between the three for a long time. Hermione looks uncomfortable as she refuses to meet Ginny's gaze and she wonders once again what it is she has interrupted but doesn't dwell on it. Doesn't think she could, even if she wanted to.

"We should go in," Hermione says and Harry nods though it takes him a few long seconds before he stands, his hand still connected with hers. He smiles to Hermione in a way that Ginny knows he has never smiled at her and she feels a pang in her chest but pushes it away. She's seen all of this before. She's acclimatised.

Or so she likes to tell herself.

Hermione smiles and nods her answer to an unasked question and Ginny doesn't fight to push it away this time. She simply watches the exchange, smiling tightly when Hermione does the same to her. She watches Hermione leave, sliding quietly back into the house and Harry steps up to Ginny, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

She leans into him, because it's expected and she can't help but wonder if this intimacy is forced. She wonders what they look like to others; if she's the only one to compare Harry and Hermione to Harry and Ginny.

She wonders what she and Harry look like to someone on the outside looking in, like she has been with Harry and Hermione.

She wants to hate Hermione Granger for making her question Harry.

But because she's there for Harry when Ginny can't be, she doesn't.