The Sunrise of My Heart

As soon as I got to the Burrow, I started having second thoughts about leaving my mom alone this summer. Despite her brave front, I couldn't help but think she'd be unbearably lonely. Having Acer, Minny, and Jaime wouldn't be the same as having family around, and I knew she would miss me. I made a mental note to write her lots of letters so she would at least have those to look forward to.

"Riley! About time you got here." I looked up from my reveries to see Fred and George, and I grinned, running over to them.

"Hey, guys! What are you two up to?" They looked at each other, sharing devious smirks, and then each grabbed me by an arm and walked me into the house and up to their room.

"What you're about to hear is confidential," Fred said.

"And we'll have to kill you if word gets out," George finished.

"Ooh, intriguing," I said with a laugh. "Is this the part where you guys take advantage of a poor, defenseless girl like myself?"

"Defenseless?" George asked.

"You?" Fred agreed.

"Okay, okay, you have a point there. So, what's this super top secret thing you have to show me?"

"Well, we're starting our own joke shop. We think it'll be great," George told me.

"Wow, that's awesome! You guys are gonna get so much business with your stuff!" I said excitedly.

For awhile, I sat in their room with them, talking about the joke shop, bouncing around ideas, just generally having a good time, until Ginny opened their door and came in.

"If you've finished hogging my friend, I'm going to take her away from you two now."

"Oh, but we were just about to start having some real fun," George said with a wicked smirk.

"The kind we don't want our kid sister to see, so you'd better leave," Fred added, placing his hands on my hips and winking at me.

"Now, boys, keep it in your pants. I did come here to be with Ginny this summer. But maybe once she falls asleep I'll come back up." I grinned at them, barely fighting back a laugh, and then left with Ginny, going out into her room.

"You know they fancy you," Ginny said once we were settled down in her room. "They pretend like it's all a big joke, but I know they both really like you."

"I--What? Wow. Are you sure?" She nodded, and I sighed softly. "I feel bad then. I mean they're great, and I'd probably actually go for one of them, but..." But I have a boyfriend, even if he and I are the only ones who know we're still dating, I thought.

"But you still have feelings for Draco, don't you?" Ginny guessed.

"Yeah, I do. Sometimes it would be easier if I didn't, but I do." I only knew too well how easy things would be if I didn't like Draco. No secret romances, no hidden relationships, no crazy families trying to separate us. But I liked him, of all people.

"Can I ask you something?" she said.

"Ask away," I answered.

"Why do you like him? I just don't get it."

I smiled softly. "Yeah, neither does anyone but Pansy. Harry actually asked me the same thing." I saw her expression darken slightly, so I hastily added, "Not because he likes me and was jealous. He just didn't understand either."

"Well, I mean there are quite a few guys at Hogwarts who like you, and you don't even notice any of them. You've got eyes only for Draco."

"Wait, really? Who likes me? I know it's not important, but now I'm curious." Apparently, I really was oblivious.

"Well, Fred and George do. Seamus kind of does, Terry Boot finds you attractive, Eddie Carmichael does, and Roger Davies does. Those are all the ones I know about, there may be more," she listed off.

"Wow. But why? I mean, what's so special about me that makes them all like me?"

"Well, for one, you're pretty," Ginny said.

"But so are you!" I protested, not even sure why I was protesting.

"I'm thirteen," she pointed out before continuing. "And besides, you're American, so you're sort of the oddball amongst a school of oddballs. Has its appeal. Plus, you're really fun to be around, and you've got a lot of spunk and personality. I don't know, I'm not a guy!"

"Wow. I never knew they liked me."

"So why, out of all of them, did you pick Draco?"

"It's kind of hard to explain. You see, Draco is a whole other person around me. Around you guys, he's who he's expected to be. He's the Slytherin prince, a pure-blood from a rich family, and is automatically expected to be an ass. And that is kind of how he really is. But deep down, there's a part of him that just wants to be a wizard that just wants to enjoy life without worrying about appearances and money and status, and he's like that with me. It's like when he's with me, he's not afraid to truly be himself, and I just love that. Plus, I find the whole bad-boy thing totally hot. Just saying."

"Wow. Who'd have thought that Draco Malfoy has a secret nice side?" she asked.

"Pretend you don't know that. He'd kill me if he knew anyone else knew," I said quickly.

"Well, it's not like either of us talk to him anyways, so he's not likely to find out," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah... About that, I have to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone. I'm still dating him. Our break-up was totally fake. We made it all up and planned it out," I told her.

"Why?"

"Well, his father didn't like the fact that we were dating, so he told Draco he had to dump me or he would move Draco to a new school and we 'd never see each other again. So we faked our break-up to stay together."

"But how did you keep the relationship up? I mean you avoided each other in public."

"We would meet in the middle of the night and in private and stuff." When she raised her eyebrows at that, us meeting in private in the middle of the night, I blushed and shook my head vigorously.

"No! Nothing like that happened! We would just talk and snog mostly."

"Alright..." Ginny did not, however, look convinced.

"Look, I'm serious! All we do is talk and kiss, and sometimes we'll just lay there, and he'll be holding me, and it'll be quiet and peaceful and so nice. To just be in his arms, to feel safe in his hug, it's one of the best feelings in the world." In my head, I was remembering it, being held in his arms like that. My mind, the evil thing that is is, decided to be mean to me, though, and began slowly switching out the image of Draco with someone else. I slammed the image away, angry at myself for thinking it.

"Wow. If you weren't talking about Draco, that would be nice," Ginny agreed.

"It is nice. It's wonderful..." In my mind, I could picture his icy blue/gray eyes, burning with a cold fire that sent chills through me. But slowly, they began to change. They became less blue and cold, and got deeper, more sad. I shook my head to clear it, going insane from the thoughts in my head.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just keep thinking about him... Anyways, let's go get some food. I'm starved!" This wasn't actually true, but I knew it would get the attention off of me, which I really wanted at that point. I needed a chance to be alone with my thoughts for awhile. So we went downstairs, where Mrs. Weasley grinned, hugged me, and gave us food, and I talked with Ron for awhile. But deep down inside, I was thinking about a boy with deep, sad, entrancing gray eyes that always seemed to have hidden depths within them.