A/N: This is for the Flower Challenge on HPFC. I got Coral Rose.
Chasing after someone was a tiring process, especially if that someone was unreachable. Falling in love is an indefinable thing, even once experienced. It may be unrequited or it could be mutual, but no matter what, it is the single best feeling. To give your heart to another is to put your entire being in that person's charge. There will be passion and desire, happiness and even hurt. Yet, you'll never want to end it, never want to forget it.
However, with one young, red-headed girl, it was something she wished had never happened. She didn't know how it happened; all she knew is that it had. She had always had feelings for one Harry Potter until she showed up, until she ruined everything.
Ginny Weasley had always felt that she had total control over everything, especially her emotions, but now that wasn't the case. Whenever she entered the room Ginny's heart would go wild and the famous Weasley blush would color her pale face. Whenever that happened Ginny would run from the room using some obscure excuse that no one, not even herself, really heard or ever understood.
Ginny wished she could go back to loving Harry, but the harder she tried to love him the more she realized she didn't. Some nights she fell asleep to the sound of her sobs as she wished for everything to back to how it used to be. The harder she tried to be what she was expected to be, the less like herself she was. Ginny felt the change in herself and saw how her friends looked at her as she became more and more secretive.
It was holiday break when she finally gave up on being what was expected of her. Ginny decided to tell her family and Harry and Hermione during Christmas dinner. She didn't have any idea what she was going to do after she told them, she didn't even know exactly how she was going to tell them, all she knew was that she would.
With no plan, she sat at the table with fear settling in her stomach. They got through the first course with no qualms and were well into the second course before Ginny decided to speak up.
"Everyone, can I please have your attention?" Ginny announced shakily, "I have something I would like to tell everyone. I don't have any plan so I'm just going to say it, I'm gay." Ginny sat down and waited for someone to say something.
It took awhile, but finally Mrs. Weasley said "Took you long enough, I thought you'd never tell us."
Ginny blushed a bright Weasley red and then exclaimed "You knew?!"
"Yes, it was really quite obvious when you stopped liking Harry." Mrs. Weasley responded. It was now Harry's turn to blush.
"Oh." Ginny said ineloquently.
Everyone returned to their meals and nothing more was said until desert. Fred and George had been whispering silently to each other and finally turned their attention to Ginny.
"So, Gin, who do you like?" Fred and George asked with grins on their faces.
"Fred, George, I'm warning you!" Mrs. Weasley threatened as Ginny turned red, yet again, and nearly fainted from embarrassment.
"We were only curious. Come on, Gin, who is she?" they asked again.
"It really is none of your business!" Hermione snapped, trying to help her friend.
"Is it Hermione?" they asked.
"No! She's just a friend!" Ginny vehemently denied the accusation.
"Denial," they said as they looked at each other and grinned.
Just as Mrs. Weasley was about to scream, the fire turned green and everyone turned their attention to the fireplace and the woman with spiky, pink hair stepping out. Ginny turned an even brighter red and everyone looked from Ginny to Tonks and back, all of them coming to the same conclusion.
"What am I missing?" Tonks asked as she saw everyone's stares.
"Uh, just Christmas dinner." Mr. Weasley said as he cleared his throat.
"Yes, would you like some?" Mrs. Weasley asked a now suspicious Tonks.
"No thanks, I already ate. I just wanted to drop off everyone's gifts, I tried to get them earlier, but the Ministry insisted on triple checking everything before letting anyone have their gifts." Tonks said as she pulled a miniature bag out of her pocket before enlarging it. She set it on the ground, said Happy Christmas and left.
Everyone jumped at the chance to forget everything that had just happened by attacking the bag. It took a couple of minutes and a few elbows before everyone was settled with a few gifts each. They looked at each other before tearing into the gifts.
Ginny ripped open her first present from Remus and found a book on the history of the Holyhead Harpies. She carefully set the book down before looking at her next package, it was from Luna and it looked lumpy. She hesitantly opened it and found what Luna called a gurdyroot. She continued to open all her presents until she had only one left; it was elongated and unmarked. She opened the package curiously and found a single Coral Rose. That was the only thing in the package, no name, no note. She smelled the rose before going to the kitchen for one of the numerous vases the Weasley family owned. She filled the vase with water before snipping the end of the rose of and putting it in the vase. She came back in the room with it before collecting the rest of her gifts and walking up to her room with a yelled 'Happy Christmas' to everyone.
Ginny gave the rose a place of honor on her nightstand and put her other gifts away. She looked at the rose and wondered who would gift her with such a romantic present. She knew that the rose meant desire and was curious as to who desired her. She fell asleep with that thought in her head.
When Ginny woke up in the morning, she felt only apprehension at what her family might say since they never really finished the conversation last night. She dressed slowly and quietly walked down the stairs. When she entered the kitchen, she found Harry, Ron and Hermione joking around as they ate some toast and eggs.
Ginny got breakfast and sat at the opposite end of the table, she quickly stuffed herself before bundling up and going into the garden. She ended up sitting under one of the numerous weeping willows and leaned against the withered bark, reveling in the familiarity. She sat there for insurmountable time thinking about Tonks and the Coral rose before hearing her mum call for her. Ginny reluctantly left the shelter of the tree and went inside to find an owl with a letter and a coral rose.
Excited, Ginny grabbed the flower and ran up to her room to read the letter. The letter was in a plain envelope with her name spelled in careful script on the front. She ripped it open to find one word in big letters. The word was "Hope".
Ginny looked at word curiously before putting the second rose in the vase with the first one. She wanted to know who it was that sent her the flowers and she was determined to find out, but she didn't know where to start, so she decided to wait and see if she got any more roses.
The next day, Ginny woke to tapping on her window; she saw an owl with a letter and another rose. Ginny quickly opened the window and let the owl in before grabbing the letter and rose. The owl quickly took off and Ginny turned her attention back to the gift after closing the window.
Again, the letter held her name in the same script and it contained only one word, although this time it said "Desire".
The pattern repeated over Christmas break and by the end of it she had a dozen roses and twelve words. Each word represented an emotion; hope, desire, faith, love, pain, curiosity, passion, fear, enraptured, nervous, enchanted, blessed. Ginny wondered if these were all the emotions going through the person who kept sending her the roses and felt for the person.
It was the last day of break and Ginny was packing for Hogwarts. She was almost done when she heard "Wotcher, Molly!" Ginny only knew of one person who greeted like that and she blushed furiously at the thought of Tonks. She packed her last book and closed her trunk when she heard her door open. She turned to find Tonks standing in her door.
"Wotcher, Ginny!" she greeted with a huge grin.
"Hiya, Tonks!" Ginny greeted back enthusiastically.
"Will you come on a walk with me?" Tonks asked her.
"Uh, sure, let me grab my cloak." Ginny stuttered before grabbing her cloak and heading into the cold with Tonks. They walked through the woods surrounding the Burrow in silence with the crunch of snow as their only companion.
"I've wanted to tell you something, but was too afraid, until now." Tonks said as she stopped walking and looked at Ginny.
"What is it you wanted to tell me?" Ginny asked as she took a step towards Tonks.
"I wanted to say that I'm in love with you, Ginny." Tonks said, taking a step as she said each word until she was so close to Ginny that they were touching.
"I'm in love with you too, Tonks. I've been in love with you for a while now." Ginny said as Tonks leaned down and brushed her lips against Ginny's.
"I also wanted to see if you liked your roses." Tonks questioned.
"I loved them." Ginny said as she closed her eyes and Tonks pressed her lips against Ginny's. Ginny wrapped her arms around Tonks' waist and pulled her closer as she deepened the kiss. In Ginny's mind everything was right, she was with the one she loved and she was euphoric.
A/N2: Turned out differently than I had planned, but I love it just the same. I apologize for any grammatical errors as I'm not one to proof-read because I have no paitence for it. Please review. :)