Title:
"Seeking Ginny"
Author: Casca
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Through
Goblet
Classification:
Post-Hogwarts H/G
Summary: Ginny Weasley has tried for years to bring to an
end to her feelings for Harry Potter… she's even uprooted her life… but what
happens when it's time to come face to face with him again? A post-Hogwarts
tale revolving around Ginny's discovery of herself…while coming to terms with
her feelings for Harry.…
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and
situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but
not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and
Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark
infringement is intended.
Author's Note: I hope that this chapter does not
disappoint you. It introduces and focuses on several themes that will be a big
part of the story and has more "action" as you've begged for. I'd just like to take this opportunity to
point out that this fic doesn't have
a lot of action—it's mainly an internal study of Ginny's character
and how she and Harry can find each other after their lives have lead them down
different roads. I believe that slow, detailed build-up makes the actual
"love story" all the more gratifying, even though it's frustrating to
read (and write, believe me). So forgive me for that and for the long length of
this chapter! Thanks and I'll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts on
it!
On another note, I'd like to thank Splatt for the fastest
beta of the longest chapter yet and Emmyjean for the very detailed one—all done
so that this chapter could be uploaded in time for Halloween. I am shocked to
be able to update with a Halloween chapter on Halloween! Hope yours was a spooky one!
This
chapter has been updated as of March 2006
~Chapter
Nine~
Though she didn't have a real job, Ginny felt as though
she had even less time to herself than she'd had when she'd been living in
Ginny had been the one with the big idea and she had to
admit that it had turned out to be extremely successful, though Fred and George
would probably take credit for it. In
reality, however, it was Sarah who
had made it all possible - though Sarah, always modest, would credit
Ginny. In any event, unlikely group that
they were, Ginny, Sarah, Fred and George combined their creativity in a small
business venture that had surprised all of them with it's
immediate success.
The idea had come to Ginny while working a busy day at the
Hogsmeade joke shop, assisting in providing young boys with tools that would
eventually wreak havoc on the lives of their families, when she noticed
something about Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' patrons for the second time. Very few
customers of the female variety actually bought anything, but there were many
young girls in there, waiting for their friends or brothers. They huddled around the doors or roamed the
shop carefully, constantly looking over their shoulders in case something were
to explode, and occasionally being brave enough to pick up a product with the
very tips of their fingers.
Ginny decided to target the girls and see if there were
any products they might be interested in.
She quickly found that, though she'd always been fascinated with Wild-Fire Whiz-Bangs and
Ginny had immediately thought of Sarah's "lab"
and mentioned featuring her stuff in the joke shop to the twins. It hadn’t been something that she'd
necessarily thought out, and when she brought it up to them,
she hadn’t expected them to downright refuse.
Perhaps it had been a good thing that they did because it brought out
the old defensiveness in her.
"Are you mad?"
George had said, while Fred and Charlie, who had stopped by earlier, laughed.
"No, I'm not mad," she'd said, feeling furious
that they weren't taking her seriously.
"You have no products that target girls. It's all about
turning humans into animals and playing with fire and girls just aren’t
interested in that sort of thing."
"You were."
Ginny waved her hand.
"Only because I wanted to impress you lot, and don’t ask me why.
Look, I think it would be a very smart business move for you."
"We're a joke shop, Ginny, not a salon," Fred
had said, finally coming up for air from his laughing bout. "I mean,
lotion…?" He'd looked like he was
about to start up again but Charlie had interupted.
"Hang on a minute… she does have a point. Have you even tried that lotion?"
At this point, Fred had sent him a suspicious look. "Have you tried that
lotion?"
Charlie didn’t look the slightest ashamed. "Yeah, it's
brilliant. Emma has some."
Ginny looked surprised.
"Where did Emma get hold of a bottle?"
"Her mum – she's friends with Angelina Johnson's mum,
and –"
"Is everyone friends with Angelina Johnson's
mum?" Ginny had mused.
It had taken more than Charlie's endorsement to convince the
twins. The final verdict had remained a huge 'no' until a few days
later, when Ginny went in for an afternoon shift and, out of the blue, Fred had
pointed to her and said, "Fine. Tell Sarah she's on."
Ginny hadn’t needed telling twice—she had no idea what had
changed their minds, but that wasn't important.
The only problem left had been to break it to Sarah.
Sarah had not been as firm as the twins, but she was just
as unsure about it. Her main concern had
been that the lotion would be a huge failure and that Fred and George would
hate her forever as a result. Ginny had assured Sarah that if the lotion did
become a huge failure, they wouldn’t blame Sarah at all. It would only
be added to the long list of things they already held over Ginny’s head, none
of which Ginny cared about in the least.
And anyway, it wouldn’t be a failure - it was already an enormous
success just from word of mouth, and Ginny could only imagine what would happen
once it was properly marketed. Sarah, unable to provide a valid reason that
Ginny couldn’t argue against, had reluctantly agreed.
And so, after a brief discussion about financing and one
week of Sarah frantically making enough to fill the display Fred and George had
ordered, the product hit the shelves—and the jars flew off of them as if people
were summoning them from their houses.
Not that the display the twins had supplied was exactly a
success – in fact, Ginny had accused her brothers of sabotage the moment she’d
seen it. The huge photograph of Sarah
that they’d chosen to market the product was probably the worst one that they
could find, and it wasn’t even recent – it had probably been taken in third or
fourth year. Poor Sarah was staring
straight at the camera, her eyes wide and her mouth open in dumb shock.
Ginny had been outraged. Sarah had been close to tears.
Fred and George argued about originality and focal points, things Ginny and
Sarah refused to try and understand. In the end, it was too late to change it
and the product sold anyway. Ginny
supposed that she had to hand it to Fred and George – they certainly knew how
to get people's attention.
Whatever the reason, the products spoke for themselves.
They sold with huge success, causing Sarah to go into full-blown creative-mode,
spending hours in her lab brewing products and inventing new things.
"I always wanted to try out new ideas but I always
felt guilty for indulging so much time in a hobby," she explained from
behind a cloud of orange smoke one afternoon when Ginny stopped by to see how
she was doing. "But if it's benefiting others, then I don’t feel guilty at
all!" This was punctuated by a loud
explosion as the orange smoke turned green and they threw their arms over their
heads for cover.
After several weeks of Sarah's products selling like mad,
Ginny sat at her kitchen table sporting wrinkled nightclothes and a messy knot of hair, carefully magicking hand lotion
into bottles for Fred's afternoon pickup.
Since her charm work had been suffering lately due to her impatience to
get things done quickly, (evidenced by the unsuccessful Waking Charm that had
caused her to sleep late this morning) Ginny took careful time to make sure the
jars were filled properly. It was a rather time-consuming process so when a
knock on the door revealed Brian in rather spiffy navy business robes and vest,
her eyes lit up.
"You've come to help! Grab a jar and fill!"
Brian stared at the huge mess on the kitchen table, which
included four bubbling cauldrons and a large carton of jars with Sarah's
acne-covered face staring up from each of them. Wincing, he muttered,
"Never mind, I'll use my lunch hour somewhere
else."
"Wait!" she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside. "Fred is going to be here any minute and I'm not even close to being done. Here, have a seat…take a carton…thank you," she smiled brilliantly at him as she sat down again.
Reluctantly, Brian complied. Before starting, he sniffed a jar full of
lavender lotion and made a face.
"Right, so I've been meaning to ask you," he said, setting the
jar back down and reaching for an empty one. "When are we going to start
looking for flats?"
Ginny nearly choked as she gulped her hot tea. "Brian," she said, her eyes
watering, "Shall I paint the picture of my life for you?"
He rolled his eyes.
"You don’t have to paint anything.
I understand that you want to have a proper job first. But Ginny, I can pay your half of the rent
until you find something."
"I don’t want you to pay for anything. I'm not going to move in with you and make
you support me."
"You're doing it to your parents."
She laughed. "That's different. My parents are used
to children who never leave home. Look at Ron."
"Yes, but Ron's getting married and moving out."
"I don’t plan to live here forever!" she
exclaimed, laughing. "It's just…my
finances are a bit…non-existent right now. Look, can’t you just find some nice
girl to settle down with and leave me alone?"
Brian leaned across the table and pointed a finger at
her. "If you ever think that I'm
heading in that direction, I want you to snap me out of it. Do we understand each other?"
"If you ever think of
heading in that direction, I'll start planning the wedding myself."
"You only say that because you know it's safe."
She sighed. "I
wish it weren't. You'd make some girl
very… miserable," she decided, shaking her head in defeat.
"I know.
That's why I'm not doing it—out of the goodness of my heart."
Ginny stood and walked towards the pantry to get another
tea bag. "You never do anything out
of the goodness of your heart."
"Ginny, that's a horrible thing to say," said
Molly, stepping into the kitchen,
holding a basket of gardening tools.
"Hello, Brian."
"Hi, Mrs. Weasley. Do you need help with that?"
"Oh, no, I'm fine, thank you. I'm off to try my hand at this tree-growing
business. Anyway, mind you talk in low voices, Julian is napping
upstairs." With that, she went off to garden.
"Anyway, just hurry up with that, won’t you?"
Brian said. "You're my only
prospect for a flatmate right now and besides, I miss finding your bras and
things in my washing."
Ginny had just shaken her head at that when the back door
closed again. Thinking that her mother
had forgotten something and that she'd overheard Brian's comment, she whirled
around. However, it wasn't her mother
who had come inside. Standing in the doorway were Fred, Ron and Bill, brows
lifted, looking like some sort of guard.
Ginny snorted. "What are you lot doing home?"
"You know why I'm here, Ginny,"
Fred said menacingly. "And it
doesn't look like you've finished."
The others trailed in and Bill, being the
only decent one among them, stopped to introduce himself to Brian.
"Just about,
look!" Ginny exclaimed. "Most are
filled. Here, you can take what's finished and—"
"No, you can take them back
with me. I've got plenty for myself to
do, Ginny, I can’t be stocking shelves; we're in development for those Rooster
Eggs I was telling you about. Also, I forgot to tell you, we're getting
requests at the Diagon Alley shop for the lotion, so let Sarah know she'll have
to make double."
"Double! But she can't, she's—"
"She has to, Ginny, we can't sell them at one shop and not the
other."
"But Fred, this
wasn't supposed to be—I mean, I thought they would be just for the girls in
Hogsmeade—"
"There are girls
in Diagon Alley too, Ginny!"
"Yes, but—"
"We need the
product. Sarah should have thought of this before. If she wasn't going to have the time—"
"It's not Sarah's
fault," Ginny insisted. "Don’t
blame her for being successful."
Fred looked as though he
wanted to say something else but Ginny shook her head. "Look, forget it, alright? You'll get
your supply for Diagon Alley. You just have to give us a little time."
"Right, let's go. We have to be there before the
after-lunch rush, it's almost one o'clock—"
"One o'clock!?" Ginny
shrieked. "I have to meet Hermione
for wedding stuff—oh, damn it all to hell!" she exclaimed to which her
mother replied, "Ginny," as she stepped back inside the house.
"I have to meet her in five minutes, Mum, and I'm not
even dressed!"
"I'm going to go," Brian said, standing. "My break is almost over – I'll see you
tonight?" he asked Ginny, who stared at him distractedly until he said,
"Dinner with my mum? She owled you yesterday?"
"Oh, yes, yes," Ginny remembered. "Six o'clock – I'll be there. I want show her some of Sarah's new foot
cream."
After Brian said farewell to everyone, Ginny dashed
upstairs, feeling badly that she hadn't been able to settle things with him. She vowed to spend the entire evening with
him and his mum tonight. She dressed in
record speed and when she thudded down the stairs, saw a very terse Fred
leaning against the worktop, lifting a brow at her.
"I'm sorry," she said breathlessly,
"Hermione's waiting, Fred, I'll have to stock the shelves later."
"Ginny, you made a commitment to us—"
"I know, I know,
and I promise to be there as soon as Hermione and I are finished."
"Never mind," Fred sighed, "I'll do it this
time, but next time it's on you."
"Agreed," Ginny said and couldn’t resist
punching his shoulder affectionately before Disapparating.
She went straight to Hogsmeade, Apparating right on a
small street called
She groaned when she looked at her watch and saw that it
was half past one – half of Hermione's lunch hour was gone. Apparating back into her bedroom, she began
to anxiously leaf through the papers on her desk, trying to find Hermione's
letter; when she couldn't, she whistled for Maurice to send a fast note of
apology off to her, but remembered that he was out delivering letters to
Christian and Aurelie.
"Pig!" she called, racing up the stairs into
Ron's room. But Pig's cage was
empty. "Damn!" she cried, then shook her head.
She wasn't mistaken.
That address had said
Once again, she Apparated, but this time to the very start
of the street and began slowly walking down, looking at all the shop names
carefully. She'd been in such a hurry
that she'd probably walked right past it, though that didn’t explain why none
of the shop owners knew anything about it.
By the time Ginny had gone halfway down
Her attention was drawn to the one in front of which she
happened to be standing. It was a tall
building made of bright sapphire bricks and looking to be almost three floors,
complete with a small balcony overflowing with potted plants. What was mostly different about it from all
the others was that it had an outdoor tiled patio of sorts, which was fenced
off with a pretty fence. Ginny glanced at the lopsided sign over the doors
reading "Sarah's Sews – For all your sewing and knitting needs."
Ginny decided to try one last shop to see if they knew
anything about the boutique she was searching for and then she would stop at
the post office and write to Hermione.
The inside of the sewing shop was just as intriguing as
the outside, with a round tiled fountain directly in the middle of the floor
and baskets and baskets of brightly colored sewing supplies. Ginny had the urge to take up sewing just so
she could frequent this shop.
"What can I do for you?" asked a voice from
behind a counter; Ginny noticed that the countertop was tiled with the same
blue patterned tiles that the made up the fountain.
"Sorry," Ginny said to the woman. She had piles and piles of white hair which
were pulled and twisted into several knots on top of her head and was smiling
despite a fatigued look in her eyes.
Ginny inquired about Hermione's wedding robe shop, knowing that it was
hopeless and sure enough the lady looked confused.
"I've never heard of that before. But then, if it's new I've probably not heard
of it."
"Oh, well, thank you. You have a beautiful shop
yourself," Ginny said.
Her smile disappeared.
"Thank you. It’s…not mine anymore, though."
Ginny looked at her interestedly. "It’s been sold?" She was suddenly
excited that this adorable place may become something else, something she might
enjoy.
"No, not yet. I've got to sell, though, sales are
down. Nobody sews properly anymore, no
time – new charms are always being discovered for that sort of thing. But there's no art in that, that's what I
say. Learning the art by hand, it's so
much more rewarding!"
Ginny nodded, feeling rather sorry for her, but still
anxious to know what sort of company would buy the place. She made a mental note to stop by in a few
weeks to inquire about it as she headed toward the exit and smiled at a young
girl in her teens standing at the doorway. She had her arms crossed and looked
rather impatient as her mother shopped in the fabric aisle. The site made Ginny
think of all the impatient girls at the joke shop, waiting for the boys to
finish indulging in creating mischief.
Ginny paused, her hand frozen on the door handle. A very
tiny thought entered her head and suddenly all the blood in her body rushed to
her face. It was a heady feeling that
made her dizzy, and it was all due to one tiny, passing thought. Going with instinct, Ginny whirled around,
unaware of the impatient look being thrown at her by the teen in the doorway,
and marched straight up the white haired woman behind the counter.
"What's your
asking price?"
~*~
For as long as she lived, Ginny would remember the week following
her discovery of the pretty sewing shop on Wellington Avenue as a complete blur
of numbers, questions, prayers and a permanent feeling of anxiety. She would remember rushing home after talking
to the white haired lady for nearly an hour and owling Bill with a shaking
hand, asking him to meet her after work and how her anxiety only increased when
he couldn’t answer any of her questions. She would also remember that her
excitement on the matter tripling when he told her that if anyone could pull it
off she could and what was she doing talking to him of all people when her
other two brothers would have all the answers she needed?
She would remember dreading that she would have to plead
with Gringotts for them to lend her the gold this would need and anxiously
brushing up on her Gobbledygook to impress the goblins. And finally, she would
remember the day that it all came together when the twin brothers that she'd
cursed and fought with and idolized her entire life became her heroes and that
she'd vowed to spend the rest of her life indebted to them for so much more
than the piles of gold they basically gave her on good faith.
"Invested," they called it – to be paid back in
time along with a small percentage of profit which Ginny knew was more than
fair since there wouldn't be a great deal of profit for awhile. She suddenly didn't care about galleon
amounts or her pride or anything that would prevent her from taking what Fred
and George offered, which she would always deem a gift no matter what terms they
used. Ginny was prepared to put it all
aside and be grateful to the point of worship for the rest of her life.
It didn’t matter that Ginny and Sarah were just two girls,
one with a university degree in linguistics of all things, one with basic
bookkeeping skills, neither with any shop owning
experience at all. It didn’t matter that
they would probably have to put their blood and sweat into this for many years
to come to make it work and that the chances of it failing were big no matter
how good a feeling Ginny had about it.
Nothing mattered. Ginny had never felt this inspired before about
anything. Those feelings of
restlessness had suddenly come alive inside her and
she was actually excited, rather than unsure, about the months to come.
Sarah, on the other hand, was completely terrified. It had taken Ginny, Fred, and George
to convince her that this was an opportunity that she couldn't pass up. Ginny has
laid everything out very clearly for her.
She, Ginny, would take complete control of remodeling the shop. Fred and George, as the investors, would
provide the funds. Ginny would hire one
or two or as many assistants as Sarah needed to actually brew the products. The only thing Sarah had to worry about was
inventing formulas and since she already had two basic products and a horde of
others in the works, there would be no reason for her to have to quit her
job.
It had taken four hours, three pots of tea, and basically
shooting down every 'but' Sarah could muster before Sarah finally said,
"Okay…what do we do first?"
Fred and George grinned. Chills raced down Ginny's spine
and she leapt from the table and danced exuberantly around the kitchen. "I
promise you, Sarah! I'm going make this as easy on you as I can!" she
declared, pulling her friend from the chair and twirling her around.
"Now, wait, don't say that," Sarah said,
laughing. Ginny felt a thrill at the sparkle in Sarah's eyes. "I'm prepared to do my share of the
work. If we're to be partners then I'll
make the commitment, same as you."
It wasn't until a week later, when Ginny was sitting at
the kitchen table of the Burrow with the title to the shop laying on the
surface in front of her that she began to feel afraid.
All the paper work had been completed. She and Sarah
officially owned the little shop on
Nevertheless, it was frightening seeing her name on such
an official document. Property Owner, it
said. She was the owner of a property,
soon to become a business. A thrill raced through her. She thought of the little shop, of Sarah's
Sew, that was now taking shape in her mind as the place that was going to sell
lotions and hand creams and things that Ginny had never particularly cared too
much about. It was the place that she
was going to actually own, along with Sarah, her oldest friend in the world,
now linked together in business as well.
Suddenly, a host of "what if's" began to seep
their way into her mind. And just as she
was starting to panic, there was a tiny knock at the back door and Sarah
stepped in cautiously.
"Ginny?"
"Oh, come on in, Sarah," Ginny said brightly,
aware that she couldn't vent to Sarah about her worries because it was all she
needed for Sarah to start panicking as well.
"I quit my job," Sarah said as she pulled up a
chair.
It took Ginny several seconds to comprehend what she had
said. "You…you what?!"
Sarah shook her head as if it were obvious. "It's not going to work, Ginny. I'm
never going to be able to give the shop my full attention if I have to
constantly be worrying about my other job—"
"But, Sarah…it's your job!"
"Yes, and my parents completely support me in the
decision – they think I have a great talent and they're really excited. They encouraged
me to quit!"
"But…Sarah, how will you manage?”
To Ginny's surprise, Sarah rolled her eyes. "I don’t spend any gold, Ginny. I never have. That's why I have plenty
saved."
"Sarah, we don’t know how long it will be before we
actually make a profit—"
"I'm willing to take the risk, just like you,"
Sarah insisted, leaning across the table in earnest. "The truth is, I should have had this idea. Only I would never
have had an idea like this. I'm never willing to take any chances
because I'm always so worried about things going wrong. But this time, it's not
going to go wrong. I feel it, Ginny. Especially with
the two of us as partners."
Ginny looked at Sarah's brilliant, eager smile, knowing that
her friend was speaking from her heart. Above anything Ginny would remember
later as she looked back on the whole thing, she knew that she would remember
this as the moment she felt the most scared and the most excited. The two seemed somehow intertwined.
~*~
Sarah of Sarah's Sew and her business
were scheduled to move out two weeks after they had signed all the papers,
which meant that Ginny and Sarah had two weeks to plan everything before they
were actually able to move in. They
agreed to keep the fountain in the middle of the shop and Sarah had the idea to
make the water scented with a different scent every day.
Sarah's creativity seemed to flourish, as did the lab in
her attic which would eventually move to the basement of the shop. She had
thought up several new products and now their inventory consisted of an array
of lotions and creams in many different scents and functions, as well as
specialty items such as self-massaging foot cream and easy-styling hair
solution. Sarah was also credited with
the idea of the "Feel-Good Bar" which was a tentative title that
Ginny loved and Sarah, Fred and George hated.
It would be a counter in the shop where Sarah would offer an array of
botanical oils, bottled charms and many, many scents for the customers to
create their own personalized products.
The scents ranged from eucalyptus to chocolate cake to Mrs. Scower's
Magical Mess Remover and the charms and effects were endless.
The only decision that remained was the name of the
shop. It was a point of conversation
every hour of the day. No matter where Ginny was, someone would look up and
blurt things from out of the blue. "The Essential Body?" or "
The title they used for practice had been a nickname that
Fred and George had taken to calling Sarah.
Every time Sarah walked into the Burrow, one of them would shout out,
"It's the Lotion Lady!" In
order to put something on a label or sign, they used "Lotion Lady"
for the time being. It had been funny at
first, but soon became a huge source of pressure every time they saw it. Ginny
decided not to think about it and trusted that inspiration would hit randomly,
just as it had for virtually every other decision so far.
As autumn arrived, plans for the shop began to
finalize. The first Hogsmeade weekend
for Hogwarts students occurred during the second week of October and Ginny
watched hoards of young girls gather round the front of the shop, talking
excitedly and pointing to the "Coming Soon" signs which listed some
of the products. Ginny then had the idea
to advertise by offering a sampling of the products, so Sarah forced her cousin
Rosemary to stand outside the shop giving out samples of Idea-Inspiring Body
Cream, designed to inspire intelligence and sharpen the senses. Sarah thought it would be the perfect thing
for students having a difficult time getting back into the swing of school
again. Ginny suggested she and Sarah use it to help inspire them with a name
for the shop.
Their goal was to open the doors for the next Hogsmeade
visit, during November, which would require a great deal of haste. However,
they already had several faithful customers who'd returned all weekend to pick
up more free samples for their friends, so it seemed a reasonable goal.
On Saturday morning, Ginny shopped for supplies while
Sarah had locked herself in the attic, brewing products. By lunchtime, however,
Ginny was due elsewhere and she had just enough time to drop off the supplies
she'd purchased at the shop before Apparating to a little restaurant where
Hermione had chosen to meet for yet another wedding discussion.
When she entered the restaurant, Ginny did a scan of the
crowd for Ron's red hair, but all she found was a table of hags in the corner
and a blonde woman at the bar. Marveling
that she was the first to arrive when Hermione was always early for everything,
Ginny found a table with four chairs and sat down to wait. It never entered her
mind that she would be sitting for more than twenty minutes before anyone
arrived, and when she finally saw Hermione wave to her from across the bar,
Ginny waved back, feeling only slightly put out. Hermione also had a lot to do these days,
what with the wedding and the big projects at St. Mungos.
"Is everything okay?" Ginny asked when Hermione
stared at the table in confusion.
"Where's Harry?" she demanded.
Startled, Ginny looked at the clock over the bar. "Late, I suppose. Why?"
"I told him one o'clock," she said impatiently.
Ginny quirked a brow and smirked.
"Yes...well, you only just arrived yourself and it's twenty
past."
Hermione heaved a huge sigh. "Well…"
"Where's Ron?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, he couldn’t make it – he had something to do for
work."
Ginny had work to do as well, but
she'd made time to be here. "What the hell is he doing? Shouldn't he be
here to actually, oh, I dunno – be the groom?"
Hermione waved a hand.
"He insisted that we go ahead and quite frankly, Ginny, I'm rather
glad of it. He'll only complain about everything, you know how he is. Thanks for being here, by the way. I know
that you're really busy with the shop—how is that going?"
"Hi," came a male voice
and they both turned in surprise to see that Harry had arrived and was whipping
off his cloak. "I
know, I'm late. Sorry."
"So was Hermione," Ginny piped up before
Hermione could scold him.
Harry glanced at Ginny, who grinned.
Hermione replied impatiently, "It doesn't matter.
Let's just get started.”
"What about Ron?"
"Ron’s not coming, we'll do
just fine without him."
"Why do I have to be here, then?" Harry
asked with a bit of a whine in his voice.
"Because I need you to help me figure out
which day is best to have the wedding since your job is the biggest
obstacle we have."
Ginny sighed inwardly. Must she goad him?
Sure enough, when Ginny chanced a glance at Harry, he was
sending a very narrowed look at the bar, but she couldn’t
focus on that when there was a bit of a confusing thought presenting itself.
"Hang on," she said,
looking at Hermione, "You're setting the date for the wedding, and the
groom’s not even here? That's a bit of a big decision, isn't it?"
"Ron doesn’t care. This sort of decision doesn't
matter to him. His job will give him the time off when he needs it. Your dad is his boss, for heavens sake!"
Ginny nodded, deciding to bite her tongue. Harry himself was sitting back in his chair,
arms crossed, looking as though someone had just told him to sod off.
"Now I really wanted to clear it up with you, as
well, Ginny, since you'll be having your shop and everything and I'll need to
know when a good time would be for you to take a few days off. Because we'll have a lot going on during the days beforehand -
having fittings for our dresses, that sort of thing."
"Well, I'm not really sure how it's going to
go," Ginny said slowly. "I
mean, we haven’t even opened yet, but I'll just do what's necessary on the days
you'll need me."
This was not the answer Hermione seemed to want. Rather than say more to Ginny, however, she
turned to Harry. "What about
you?"
"What about me?" he asked with a bit of temper
in his voice.
Hermione, ignoring his tone, continued, "When would be a good time for
you to take some days off?"
Harry shook his head as if all of this was too much
information. "How
many days off?"
"Two or three… perhaps?"
Harry stared at the table, still shaking his head in
disbelief as though Hermione had asked him to fly all the way to
At last, Harry raised a brow, lifted a hand off the table
and replied, "I don't know."
"You don’t know?" demanded a deadly
voice.
"Okay," Ginny interrupted Hermione before
something terrible happened. "Harry, is there a certain time of year when
aurors perhaps aren't as busy as usual?"
"No," Harry said bluntly, looking at Hermione,
"I have no idea when I'll have a case or when I'll get called away. You know this, Hermione."
"So, that's it then.
You just won’t be there if you happen to be working on a case.”
Harry lifted his hand in a gesture that plainly said that
he couldn’t deny it. Ginny closed her
eyes, feeling Hermione's frustration and she was about to interject when a fourth
voice interupted the silence.
"Mr. Potter?"
They all jumped in surprise. A barman stood in front of them, offering
Harry a letter, the Ministry of Magic seal glimmering in the candlelight.
"This came for you by Express Owl," said the
barman importantly before walking off.
Harry opened the envelope, then
shook his head with a humorless smile. "I have to go," he announced,
stuffing the letter inside the envelope and yanking the cloak from the back of
his chair, obviously aware of the irony as he declared, "I'm needed somewhere."
With that, he was gone. Ginny glanced at Hermione, who was
staring at the table miserably. Though her heart went out to
Hermione, Ginny felt like she was overreacting just a bit to Harry's temper
tantrum, when it had been Hermione's comment about his job that started it all.
Come to think of it, Ginny couldn’t help but wonder how Hermione of all people
could be so angry that Harry was devoted to his work. Ginny reckoned that Hermione ought to be
proud that he'd become serious about his job.
"Hermione, don't…let it upset you," Ginny said,
wanting to voice her opinion, but deciding against it. She didn’t want to hurt Hermione's feelings
any more than they already were.
"Harry's not going to miss your wedding."
Hermione laughed somewhat sadly. "He'll miss it just to prove a
point."
"Hermione, Harry would not—"
"Yes, he would," Hermione said rashly. "You
haven’t been around lately, Ginny. He's different."
Ginny paused before saying, "He wouldn’t miss your wedding,
though, Hermione."
Hermione shook her head and began to gather her handbag
and cloak. "You don't
understand. Anyway, you're right. I should wait for Ron to do this," she
said, rapidly pulling her things towards her.
"But waiting for Ron to do anything is like waiting for a—"
"Hermione." Ginny placed a hand on her arm to stop
her. "Stop for a
just a minute. You need to take a deep breath and relax. You're going to drive yourself mad."
"I can't help it," she cried, letting go of
everything so that it slumped in her lap. "It's all on my shoulders,
Ginny. Ron doesn't know anything
about weddings and let's face it, he doesn't care what
sort of flowers I hold or what the color of the ribbons on the champagne
goblets should be or whether the guests throw moon dust or unicorn powder at us
after the ceremony. It's all up to me, and I thought with you and Harry
involved, we could make it a group project, just like the old days and it would
make Ron want to be involved, but Harry… BLOODY Harry—" Ginny's eyes popped open. "—He can never come through
anymore. It’s like he’s not
capable. Who was I kidding, thinking things
could be like the old days? It just can't, it just can't—"
"Deep breath!" Ginny exclaimed,
interrupting Hermione's rant and grabbing her hand.
At last Hermione stopped talking. "I'm sorry," she said quietly,
after a minute of silence. "I'm very stressed."
"I can see that," Ginny laughed and squeezed her
hand. "Hermione… Ron's
stupid."
For a moment, Hermione simply looked at Ginny, then they
both started to laugh—Ginny hadn't meant to be funny, but it was a rather
amusing way to change the subject.
"Not with everything," Hermione said, giggling a
much-needed giggle, "Just…at this sort of thing. And other things too, but—"
"Yes, and that's the reason I don’t understand why
you had any expectations at all about him! You knew he would be useless, didn’t
you?"
Hermione sighed again.
"Well, I sort of… had a bit
of hope."
Ginny lifted a brow.
"Well…when you’re married, hope is all you’ll have to cling
to."
"Hey," Hermione said, visibly trying not to
laugh. "Don't talk like that about
him. I like him."
"At least you finally admit it. Seriously, Hermione,
you can’t let yourself go mad over this wedding! It's one day."
"It's not just the wedding," Hermione admitted, "It's this
project at work that takes so much of my concentration, and then—" she
hesitated, then broke off.
"What?" Ginny prompted.
Hermione looked up at her.
"It's Harry, too. I don’t
know what to do anymore. Ron's no help,
he's told me not to stick my nose in Harry's business, that he'll snap out of
whatever's bothering him—" Hermione shook her head and Ginny felt her
guard raise suddenly. This was something that she had no desire to hear.
"Ron thinks he knows Harry better and that I'm just trying to create a
problem for him because I want to nag or something, but… I'm really, really
worried and I don’t know what to do. There's something really wrong, I know it,
and nobody believes me."
Ginny cleared her throat. "Erm…have you brought it up
to Harry?"
"Of course. But it's
complicated. You know how he is, if he doesn't think that someone can relate to
him he thinks he can’t talk to them, he thinks they won't understand and… actually…well…"
She looked at Ginny nervously for a moment.
"I…I was actually thinking that…well, perhaps, you
could…"
Hermione trailed off, and Ginny leaned forward. "What?"
"Well… talk to him.
You two used to be so close…"
Ginny's mouth went dry. "Hermione… we're not
anymore."
"But at Hogwarts—"
"At Hogwarts," Ginny interrupted, then shook her
head, not even knowing what she'd been about to say. "I…that was a long
time ago. We grew apart,
Hermione. I moved away and…it…it's just
different now. I can't help him."
"You won’t know unless you try," Hermione said
quietly.
Ginny opened her mouth several times before finally
saying, "I don't even know him anymore. How can I help him?"
"Because … you’ve helped him before and it made all the
difference."
Ginny shook her head.
She was trying to ignore the feelings that were building up inside of
her, familiar feelings, bitter feelings and she didn’t think it was fair
to have to feel them right now.
"Look, just… think about it, okay?" Hermione
said after they both sat in a few seconds' silence.
Ginny nodded, just to appease Hermione, but she feared
that it wasn't going to end there.
~*~
October rolled to a close with a bit of bang and though
Ginny had technically been responsible for what Fred and George called
the best Halloween bash since the 1967 poltergeist revolt, (though they hadn't
been alive to experience the revolt, Hermione pointed out, so they couldn’t
actually compare) the thing had taken on a life of it's own.
The sulking and the huffing of late had caused Ginny to
think how unbelievably uptight everyone was acting lately. A very quick, jumbled idea had formed in her
head and before she knew it, the idea had been born. Halloween was only a few
days away, on Friday – why not get together that night and have a bit of a
party? They could use the shop, it was coming along quite well and was more
spacious than Ginny had initially realized. Ron had agreed instantly and
Hermione had warmed to it. Later, she'd mentioned it to the rest of her brothers,
Sarah, and Brian. They all seemed to think it was a good idea, and that had
been the extent of the official invitations from Ginny herself.
A day later, Ron told Ginny that he'd run into Seamus
Finnegan and mentioned that he should come to the party with Lavender. She thought it would be good to see them
again, so she agreed. Sarah then
mentioned that she'd spotted Dennis Creevey one morning and he'd yelled that he
would see her on Friday, and that Colin couldn't wait either. Sarah had spilled her tea in her haste to
relay the message to Ginny. It wasn't
until Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks commented on the big Halloween bash
that she was hearing so much about did Ginny throw up her arms in defeat. She was already going to be spending the
entire day before the party making refreshments with her mother. Now she had to seek out help from Sarah's mum
as well.
But even though she hadn't planned on it, Ginny was
excited about seeing all of her old friends in one place again. It would be
like the old days Hermione kept talking about.
"The place looks fantastic!" exclaimed Hermione
on Friday evening when she and Ron arrived, a few minutes early.
"Doesn't it?" Ginny said, doing a little twirl
in the middle of the room. The entire
place was covered in cobwebs, eerie lights, and every trick from the new
Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Halloween Collection.
This included Pearly-white Dancing Ghosts waltzing through tables, Sweet
Spitting Jack-O-Lanterns that spit some of the most popular WWW sweets and The
Bat Chase that, earlier, had found Sarah running around the room screaming as a
fake bat pursued her.
"And you look fantastic as well," Hermione
grinned and played with the sleeve of Ginny's dress. Ginny had reckoned that
since she was the hostess, she should fit in with the Halloween theme. Her
dress was long and black, like some sort of old-fashioned widow's gown with a
high neck and long sleeves.
"Well, hello!" called a cheery voice from the
doorway. Ginny was glad to see that she wasn't the only one to dress up a bit
as Lavender Brown stepped inside the room, clad in a black dress that was
similar to Ginny's. However, Ginny's eyes bulged slightly when she saw the
drooped neckline on Lavender's.
"Where's Seamus, Lavender?" Hermione asked,
smoothly shouldering Ron to the side when his eyes took the same tour Ginny's
had.
Lavender shrugged vaguely. "Oooh, free stuff?"
she exclaimed and walked off towards the basket of lotion and cream samples
Sarah had put together.
Ginny saw Hermione and Ron exchange a look but before
Ginny could wonder about it, the door opened and Fred and George sauntered in,
wearing bright orange robes with matching top hats.
"You two look ridiculous," Hermione said,
choking on a laugh.
Ginny giggled.
"Where did you get the hats?
They're wild."
Fred and George exchanged a grin and before anyone knew
it, they had whipped out their wands, tapped the rim of their hats and a gush
of green goo poured from the inside, covering their faces. Hermione shrieked and jumped out of the way,
and Ginny burst into laughter.
"They remind me of my bogey hexing days," she
said with nostalgia.
"They should," Fred commented from under the
goo, tapping the hat once more so that the green slime vanished into a puff of
purple smoke. "We used a good portion of your hex."
"Then I should get a good portion of the
profit," Ginny said sarcastically.
"You are, you are," George assured her,
"It's still in the testing stage. Once it hits the shelves, we'll
talk."
"Good, because I can use it towards
my debt. This way I'll be
able to pay you back faster—"
"Oh, please," groaned Ron. "Can we not talk
about bloody work and gold and product testing?
I'm going to eat." With
that, he walked off.
Ginny and the group had been so interested in the bogey
hats that they hadn’t noticed more guests arriving, but sure enough the place
was slowly filling up with people. Most
of the faces were familiar, so Ginny took her time mingling with everyone. There were people she hadn't seen since
before she'd gone to Paris, people that she had run into once or twice since
coming back, and ones that she saw often.
It was fun to actually see them all in one place for a change.
She chatted with Brian and his date (whose outfit made
Lavender's dress look modest), and laughed at Dean Thomas who had come alone
and was pursuing Katie Bell for a dance. ("…if it's the last thing I do,
Ginny, honestly, I've been in love with her since THIRD YEAR!"). Ginny
herself accepted a dance with Dennis Creevey, who blushed furiously and told
her he liked her dress. She giggled at Neville who watched Luna Lovegood with a
perplexed look on his face as she flicked the cherries off her slice of cake
and listened with half an ear as Bill and Brian became engaged in a rather
intense discussion on the political structure of the Ministry. She spotted Lavender standing in a corner and
began to move closer so that she could ask her if she was having a good time,
but froze once she actually saw her face.
If looks could kill, whomever Lavender was gracing with
narrowed eyes and deep frown would be as dead as the imitation ghost that
waltzed near her.
"The turnout is pretty good!" Hermione exclaimed
to Ginny, appearing from inside the crowd.
"Yeah… hey, Hermione, what's wrong with Lavender?"
Ginny asked, pointing to him. "If
looks could kill…"
"Oh, dear," Hermione said, peering over the heads
of some people, trying to follow Lavender's gaze. "Oh, not again."
"What?"
"Look," she said, guiding Ginny's gaze to where
Seamus Finnegan was standing with some witch Ginny didn’t know.
"Who is that?"
"Who knows?" Hermione asked impatiently. "The two of them must be at it, I tell
you, every gathering we have, if they're not trying to get the other jealous,
they're all over each other. Look,
see?"
Ginny looked. Seamus
had a huge grin on his face and leaned closer to the girl he was talking to,
who suddenly burst into hysterical laughter, clutching his shoulder. When Ginny looked back at Lavender, she saw
her stalk off towards the refreshments table and grabbed a bottle of something,
pouring a hefty drink.
"Now she'll get pissed and snog someone and there will
be a huge row between Seamus and whichever poor sod she decides to single
out," Hermione said matter-of-factly, sipping her butterbeer daintily. "This is really good butterbeer! Is it a new brand?"
Ginny tried to get her mind around the fact that Hermione
was telling her there would be a huge row at her Halloween party, when
something about Hermione's butterbeer statement made her freeze. "Wait a
minute. The butterbeer tastes different?"
Hermione's eyes widened as they met Ginny's and they both
had the same thought at the same time.
"Don’t drink any more of it," Ginny said automatically,
grabbing the bottle from her and stalking off.
"What did you do to the butterbeer?" she demanded
of Fred, walking up to him as he danced a slow, sloppy dance with
Angelina.
"Huh?" he asked, looking at Ginny with glazed
eyes.
"Try to focus, Fred, what did you do to the butterbeer?
What's in it?"
To Ginny's surprise, he didn’t try to deny it, but buried
his wickedly grinning face on Angelina's shoulder and said nothing.
"Oh, this is just great, Fred, it's the only
non-alcoholic drink out there!"
"I don’t bloody believe it," Angelina snapped,
lifting her shoulder so that it jammed into his face.
"OW!" he exclaimed, clutching his jaw. "What
the—"
"Fred, WHAT is in it?" Ginny demanded.
"It's not even real alcohol, it's a product that we're testing,
a feel-good type thing, gives the effects of being pissed, without
actually—"
"A product you're testing?" Ginny said,
through her teeth. "TESTING?!"
"He knows it's dangerous, Ginny, he's just too much of
a child to actually act responsibly," Angelina said, pushing past him and
storming away.
"Wait!" Fred called out to her. "Thanks a
"Oh, shut up," Ginny spat, dragging him by the arm
to the back room where they were keeping the extra food and drink. "Is all of this tainted?" she asked,
pointing to the crates of bottles.
"No, just the bottles that we put
out.
I'm not lying!" he exclaimed from the look on her face.
"People want to know what they're drinking, Fred, there
are plenty of real drinks out there for the ones who want to—"
"I'M NOT LYING!" he shouted.
"What did you do to Angelina now?" asked George,
poking his head through.
"She's still here?" Fred asked, pushing Ginny out
of the way.
Having nearly been knocked over by Fred, Ginny looked to
George. "You—get the spoiled bottles of butterbeer off the table out there
and then put these out. I have to go round to everyone who has a bottle and
tell them they've been tainted. And if
you don’t do it, so help me, George, I'll sue you for using my bogey hex on
your product and you'll be in debt to ME for the rest of your life."
"All right, all right," George said, looking
harassed that she was taking away his fun.
They both emerged from the back room and just as Ginny was
about to scan the crowd for people drinking butterbeer, Sarah hurried up to her
looking panicked. "Ginny, your
friend is about to get into a fight."
"My friend?" Ginny asked in
alarm.
"Yeah, that Brian, he's...well look—"
Through the sea of heads and faces, Ginny could see Brian
standing very close to a blonde witch, whispering something in her ear—Ginny
couldn’t see the girl's face because Brian's was blocking it from view, but she
had on a black dress with a plunging neckline.
Ginny gasped. "Oh, no. Where's
Seamus?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Sarah
moaned, turning Ginny in the direction of Seamus, who was watching Brian and
Lavender with a clenched jaw. Sure enough, Seamus drained his goblet, smacked
it on the nearest table and began stalking across the room towards them. Sarah gasped weakly.
"Oh, no," Ginny cried. "I'll handle it. Take away everyone's
butterbeer, Sarah."
"What? Why?"
Sarah asked in confusion but Ginny didn’t have time to answer. She shoved her
way through the crowd and when she reached Brian, she took his arm. "Brian, I need you."
Brian took his time tearing his gaze from Lavender's face
and Ginny's heart sank when he fixed her with a lopsided grin and bloodshot
eyes. He was as far gone as the
twins. "Gin," he croaked
throatily, glancing at Lavender as if he was embarrassed of Ginny's
interruption. "I'm busy."
Ginny could see Seamus from the corner of his eye trying to
get past a very talkative Hermione, who must have noticed the problem as well
and was trying to distract him. "I
know, but it's very important. Please. Now."
"Okay, okay," Brian said and turned to
Lavender. "I'll be right back,
love, don't—" He
didn't have the time to finish his sentence because Ginny yanked him away just
as Seamus managed to shrug off Hermione.
"What is so important that you had to interrupt me
when—" Ginny tugged Brian into the back room with her and a light appeared
in his eyes as Ginny slammed the door closed so that it was just the two of
them. "Well, it's about time we got things started!"
"Brian, compose yourself,"
Ginny said sharply. "That witch you
were flirting with is off limits, okay?"
"Ginny," Brian said, shaking his head and trying
to look at her fondly with his glazed eyes.
"Nobody can take your place, especially not some blonde
floozy."
Ginny sighed. "She's
not a floozy, Brian, she's just … taken. She's taken, okay? Anyway, what happen to that other witch you
were with?"
Brian looked confused.
"Who? Oh, her. She liked your brother Bill instead. She was a floozy, that one."
Ginny's lips quirked. "Really? I couldn’t tell."
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head as if it was
such a shame. "So you didn’t bring me in here to snog?"
Ginny couldn’t help but giggle. "No, sorry," she patted his
arm. "I'm sure you can find some
nice girl out there to snog."
Ginny had barely finished her sentence before they were
suddenly bathed in light from the door opening.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn’t
mean to interrupt!" exclaimed a girl from Hogwarts that Ginny couldn’t
quite place. "They wanted me to tell you that there's no butterbeer left,
I'm so sorry, though—"
"No, you didn't interrupt anything—" Ginny started
to say but the girl sauntered off and the door swung closed behind her.
Brian started to snicker.
"She thought we were snogging."
Ginny sent him a narrow look. "Yes, I know what she thought and it's
all because of you and—hang on." Ginny whirled
around; there, on the floor, were the crates of butterbeer that she'd told
George to swap with the tainted ones.
"That's it. I'm owling a
solicitor first thing in the morning and taking them for everything they
have."
"Solicitor?" Brian asked in
alarm.
"Help me with this, won't you?"
After a frantic few minutes of refilling the table with
butterbeer and the rest of the sweets, Ginny turned to Brian to ask him something,
but instead found a confused Sarah holding two bottles of butterbeer.
"I've managed to get them away from Colin and Dean, but
nobody else wanted to give them up."
Ginny stared at Sarah and felt an insane urge to hug
her. "You're the only one who takes
me seriously, Sarah, and that's why I
love you."
"Ginny," said a very dramatic voice, by
someone who grabbed her arm. Ginny found
herself looking at Parvati Patil for the first time since her sixth year of
Hogwarts. "Lavender wanted me to
tell you how sorry she is—she didn't know that you and that … gorgeous
wizard were together otherwise she never would have carried on like
that. And I have to tell you that I am very impressed! Well done!"
"Parvati, Brian and I aren't—"
"Oh, Ginny, don’t worry, I wont
tell any of your brothers that you two were in the back room! Imagine what they would do!" she exclaimed with wide eyes and before Ginny could say
anything, Parvati disappeared into the dancing crowd.
Ginny stared after her, an ironic expression on her face.
“Think this is funny?" she tossed at Sarah, who was trying not to
laugh. "Try living with it for five
years. Well, I should have known this would happen eventually."
Sarah patted Ginny's
arm. "Don’t worry. Anyone who
really knows you won't believe that, Ginny."
"Honestly, I don’t even care. You know, I've had to use the loo for an hour
now, can you keep an eye on things while I'm gone?"
"Okay," Sarah said nervously. "I think I'll ask Hermione to help
me."
Ginny had to bite her lip on a smile. Sarah had been perpetually worried since the
first day Ginny had met her and remained so to this day… but she couldn't say
that she blamed the girl for acting so just now.
The bathroom was situated at the top of a dark stairway that
lead to an attic, which was not accessible due to heavy boards and large crates
that blocked the entrance. The entrance
to the loo was perfect accessible though. Ginny had thought about putting some
candles out for the guests but instead left it dark and had the idea to put some
crackling spider webs in the stairway to give it a spooky feeling. She regretted it, however, when she started
climbing the stairs in utter blackness, clinging to the railing for dear life. She had just cursed herself for sending her
party guests into a deathtrap just to use the loo when her shins came into
contact with what was unmistakably a very solid human being. The scream caught
in her throat and all she could do was stand there
gripping the railing as though it would save her from whoever was there.
The person she'd almost tripped over swore in a voice that
Ginny recognized and she felt a wave of relief come over there.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
"It's me," she gasped, clutching her heart. "Harry, you scared me."
"Oh… sorry, Ginny."
"What … are you doing in here…?"
"I'm waiting for the loo."
"Oh. " She wanted to ask
him why he was sitting on a dark, rickety staircase rather than out in the
party where there was light, but she was still catching her breath and besides,
it didn’t seem strange, really, for Harry to be alone in a dark stairway while
there was a party going on. Perhaps it
was something about his character.
Two fake dancing ghosts floated through the wall, lighting
things up a little and for a moment, Ginny and Harry looked up and watched them
twirl together near the ceiling.
Ginny didn’t know what made her sit down. She was well aware
that she could wait for the loo outside in the party but it seemed oddly
peaceful in here where there were no people smashing into her and no party
problems coming up every few minutes.
"Aren't you having a good time?" she asked him,
sinking down onto a step and adjusting the hem of her dress.
"Oh… yeah, it's great. That's not why I'm in
here," he rushed to say.
Ginny smiled. "I
know. I never expected things to get out
of hand like that—well, not that they're out of hand, but you know. I thought it would be just us."
By the light of the ghosts, Ginny saw Harry shrug a
shoulder. "It's good to see
everyone."
"Yeah, it is."
She heard a creak coming from upstairs and she straightened, thinking
that someone was going to come out. When nobody did, she twisted around to look
at Harry and inquire who was up there, but the smirk on his face made her
smile. "What's funny?"
He shook his head.
Another sound came from upstairs, this one sounding a bit like a
crash.
Ginny twisted further around to try and see up the
staircase. "Do you think whoever's
up there is all right?"
"Yeah," he said quickly.
She looked at him.
"Who's in there, do you know?"
His smirk became a grin, but he said nothing and the ghosts
floated out of the room so that they were submersed in darkness again.
"Well, who is it?" Ginny asked, wanting to laugh
at his secrecy.
He cleared his throat.
"There's … two people in there…" he
said with much difficulty.
"Two…" Ginny trailed off, and the light came on in
her head. "Oh… ohhh."
Yet another noise punctuated Harry and Ginny's silence then
and Ginny felt a bout of hilarity build up inside of her. "How do you know?" she asked in a
hushed voice, trying to keep from laughing.
"I heard their voices."
"Who is it?" she demanded, grinning wickedly.
She could feel Harry hesitate. "Er…well…"
While he stuttered it out, Ginny thought for a moment, then
her eyes widened. "Not Ron and
Hermione, is it?" she blurted.
"Urgh, no!" he exclaimed, sounding disgusted.
"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed.
"Sorry won't get the vision out of my head." Harry
shuddered and Ginny had to admit that she was having the same vision herself
and it wasn't pretty.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry… well, who is it then? Oh, don't
tell me… it's Brian isn't it?"
"Brian?" he asked in confusion. "Who—oh, your friend? No, it's not him."
"Mmm…" she tried to think of the other
couples. "Is it one of my
brothers?" she asked cautiously.
This seemed to amuse him.
"You'd think it would be, wouldn’t you?"
"It's not?"
"No. It's Seamus and Lavender."
"Oh," Ginny said, oddly disappointed. "They were just fighting, though, are
you sure?"
"Yeah… it's pretty common for them."
"That's what Hermione said. Yuck."
Harry snickered.
"How much longer do you think we'll have to wait?"
Ginny asked him.
"Not …too much longer," Harry said. "It's
been a few years already."
Ginny made a face. "Well… shouldn’t we do
something? What if someone else needs to
use the loo?"
"Do you want to interrupt?" he asked dryly.
"Good point," Ginny said gravely. "Well, what I mean to say is, they have
to know there are people waiting, it's a shock nobody else is."
"Everyone knows they're up there, Ginny," Harry
said in a laughing voice. "People
are just Apparating home and back if they need to use the loo."
"I feel horrible then!
This is my party, I should… do something about it."
"Go on then," Harry said prompted.
Ginny suddenly twisted around to look at him again but she
could barely see his outline in the darkness.
"You're very amused by this aren't you?"
Harry said nothing, but Ginny could tell he was
grinning. Giggling, she turned back so
that she could lean against the wooden rail and it occurred to her rather
abruptly that Harry didn't seem at all distant right now. The conversation that she'd had with Hermione
the other day played in her head for a bit and Ginny couldn’t help but wonder
whether Ron was right and Hermione herself was Harry's problem.
Ginny didn't have time to reflect on it because at that
moment, the door to the party opened and heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs
heading straight for the two of them.
"Wait!" Ginny cried, just as Harry, blinking in
the sudden light, said, "Who's there?"
"What the—Ginny? Harry?" growled a familiar voice and
Ginny shook her head in annoyance.
"Ron, do you always climb the stairs like you're in a
stampede?"
"What are you two doing in here? Don't tell me you're waiting for the
loo."
"What else?" Harry grumbled.
"Well, bloody hell!" Ron exploded. "How long does it take to—"
"Seamus and Lavender are up there, Ron," Ginny
told him meaningfully.
"And?" Ron asked
impatiently.
Ginny could actually feel Harry roll his eyes. "Well,
they're… well…" she said vaguely.
"Oh," Ron said, finally getting the
drift. And with that, he stomped up the
stairs, shoving past Ginny and from Harry's yelp, stepping on Harry's foot as
he went.
"Ron, don't!" Ginny exclaimed, but before anything
could be done, Ron pounded on the door with such gusto that Ginny was sure the
party guests would hear it over the music. The same could be said for
Lavender's shrieks a moment later.
"Take it somewhere else, will you?" Ron shouted.
"There are people waiting like bloody gits out here."
"How rude, Ron!" snapped Lavender as the door
opened. Ginny and Harry barely had enough time to leap to their feet and smash
themselves against the wall as a sulking Lavender and a silent Seamus, tripping
over his feet, piled down the stairs and out into the party.
Upstairs, they heard the lock click which mean that Ron had
disregarded the fact that Ginny and Harry had been waiting before him, and went
in to use it first. This seemed to be the last straw for Harry.
"I'm tired of waiting.
See you, Ginny." And to Ginny's surprise, she heard the
unmistakable Apparition crack and was very much alone in the stairway. A ghost couple floated in, this one doing a
hearty rendition of the jitterbug. Heaving a huge sigh, Ginny leaned back
against the railing and watched them dance, wishing she could stay there for
the rest of the night.
The door leading to the party opened yet again, and Ginny
had to squint her eyes at the light, now that they were
getting adjusted to the dark.
"Ginny?" called Hermione.
"I'm up here, Hermione.
I'm waiting for the loo—is anything wrong out
there?"
"No, Sarah said you came in here a while ago so I
wanted to check on you."
"Everything's fine. Ron's in there now." Ginny
explained.
"Oh, all right," Hermione said, taking a seat on
the stair herself. "This has been a
fun evening! I'm glad you had the idea,
it was a great way to lighten things up, you know? We've all been so stressed lately."
"Yeah," Ginny said, though the only place she'd
really felt relaxed was inside this staircase, "Thanks for trying to
distract Seamus – it would have been ugly."
"Brian doesn’t seem like the type that would turn the
other cheek."
Ginny laughed and shook her head. "No, he certainly would not. It's the
Irish temper in him."
"Well, Seamus' Irish temper is enough for one
party."
Ginny gasped. "I
didn’t even think of that! They would
have killed each other. Oh, thank
goodness it all got sorted out."
"Yeah… well, it's been quite an eventful evening. I wish Harry had come," she said, her
voice taking on a bit of a distant tone, "But I didn’t expect him to
anyway."
"He was here," Ginny said, looking at Hermione in
surprise. "He was in here waiting
for the loo with me. He left when Ron
budged in front of us."
Though it was dark, there was just enough light from the
ghosts that still twirled on the ceiling to see Hermione frown. "Why
didn't he say hello?"
Ginny hesitated.
"Hermione… are you two… I mean, well… it just seems like the two of
you just don't… see eye to eye lately."
"Lately," Hermione said on a dry laugh. "Have we ever? That's not the problem,
Ginny. Look, I know what you're
thinking," Hermione twisted around to look at Ginny. "You're thinking
that I should lay off him. I know it must look as though I'm just… causing
problems with my constantly nagging him, but … you weren't here to see this
begin and you have no idea how long it's been progressing like this."
Ginny bit her lip. It was the third time Hermione had
remarked about Ginny not being home to see Harry's troubles and though Hermione
was probably only saying it to stress her point, Ginny felt as though she was
indirectly accusing Ginny of something.
Saying nothing, Ginny tried to think of a polite way to close the subject.
"It's only that I won’t stand back and watch his
depression and do nothing about it," Hermione said matter-of-factly, as if
defending herself from Ginny's silence.
"Ron thinks that doing nothing is what Harry needs, but it's
not."
Constant nagging isn't what he needs either, Ginny found
herself thinking.
"And when I tell him my expectations from him, I always
assume he'll come around just because he feels obligated to, but it's doing
just the opposite, it's driving him away and…" Hermione broke off.
Ginny remained silent.
She was aware that Hermione expected her to respond to all of this, but
Ginny did not think that she should be discussing Harry like this – it wasn't
her place.
"That's why I wanted you to talk to him,
Ginny," Hermione continued eagerly as if she was reading Ginny's
thoughts. "You used to know how to get through to him. If you talked to him, or
just… I don’t know, spent time with him...perhaps you could help him out
of this. Perhaps…"
She went on listing reasons why Ginny should do this and
what she might accomplish, giving example after
example of all the times Ginny had made a difference in Harry's life in the
past. Ginny had the feeling that Hermione was waiting for Ginny to interrupt
her with some brilliant argument why she shouldn’t and wasn't about to give her
the opportunity.
"…because you always did seem to know what he needed so
much better than any of us. It used to
surprise me, Ginny, how you could get through to him with just a comment or something—you
always knew what to say and—"
"Hermione," Ginny finally interrupted. She tried not to let her anger at the
situation be evident in her voice. "I can't do that," she said
firmly. "I'm not going to talk to
Harry because it's not the same as it used to be. Things have changed."
"But it could be," Hermione insisted. "If you make the effort—"
"I'm not going to make the effort," Ginny said and
winced at her sharp tone. She hated
acting like this, but it was angering her far more than she was letting on that
Hermione could play with her life like this, having all of these expectations
for her and not even hearing what Ginny was trying to say. "Things changed between Harry and I long ago, Hermione.
It wasn't anything either of us did wrong, but it's never going to go
back to the way things were."
"But if you just—"
"I can’t do anything, Hermione. I told you how it was in
"But—"
"No, Hermione," she said quietly. "I'm sorry." She didn’t add that she thought it was
incredibly unfair that she was asking this considering Ginny's history with
Harry. Though Hermione didn’t know
everything, she had to know enough to realize that this would be awkward for Ginny.
There was silence in the staircase then and Ginny, in
between feeling guilty and resentful about this entire thing, wondered what in
hell Ron was doing up there in the loo and couldn’t he ever barge in at the
right times? She had just mentally cursed
him when the door up there creaked open and Ron stumbled out, missing a step.
"I bloody fell asleep!" he barked at them. "Didn’t you worry that I'd been up there
so long?"
Ginny didn't respond.
She stood and climbed the stairs towards the loo with a very heavy
feeling in her stomach.
Eventually she made her way back to the party. As she descended the steps, she wondered what
more could possibly go wrong. Nothing
would have prepared her for what did
meet her when she opened the door. She
didn’t see it at first, but the minute she stepped back into the party, she
went hurling forward and smashed her hip into the refreshment table. She looked down and saw that the floor was
covered in a green, goopy substance that looked suspiciously like—
"They're not real bogeys, Sarah," George
was assuring her as Sarah clutched the table, her feet sliding under her as if
she was trying to walk on a slippery sheet of ice.
"I don't care if it's real or not, just make it go
away!" Sarah cried. The chaos that
Ginny hadn’t noticed at first came into focus. People were falling all over the place, some
covered in the goo from head to toe, some trying desperately to get up from the
floor, some still trying to dance and converse, albeit with difficulty.
"What happened?" Ginny yelled, trying to glide
over to George and Sarah.
George opened his mouth to explain, but Sarah cut him
off. "Their hats exploded, that's what happened! Trying to show off and look at
it!" She tried to get closer to Ginny, still clinging to the table,
"And the counter curse isn’t working!"
Ginny reached out when Sarah got near enough and the two
grasped at each other's arms, trying not to slip.
"What do you mean the counter curse isn't
working?" Ginny asked in a deadly voice as Colin Creevey went careening
past them, slamming into the brick wall on the other side of the room.
"No charms are working, nothing can clean it, it has to be—"
"GEORGE WEASLEY IF YOU'VE DAMAGED MY SHOP IN ANY
WAY—!" Ginny yelled.
"I'm going, love," Brian said, appearing at her
side, wrapping his arms around her in a sloppy hug, almost knocking Sarah onto
her arse. He reeked of liquor and, regardless of the fact that he was on a
goo-covered floor, could barely stand.
Ginny managed to keep her balance as an overwhelmed Sarah tried to
disentangle the arm that was smashed between Ginny and Brian, whimpering as she
tried to avoid Brian's shoulder from hitting her in the face.
"Okay, Brian," Ginny said loudly patting him on
the back, trying to push him away, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Brian pulled back and Ginny was just about to release
Sarah's twisted arm before everything fell apart. She felt someone collide against her back. If
Sarah hadn’t been yanking her arm away and Brian hadn’t gripped her shoulder
for support things might have been different. But the impact of everything had
Ginny tumbling forward on the slippery tile, taking Sarah, Brian and a
red-faced Colin Creevey to the floor with her in one great heap.
"Hey, everyone— ON THE FLOOR!" shouted Fred from
nowhere. He grabbed two people who were
near him and before anyone knew what was happening, the entire party was on the
floor, laughing, screaming and swimming in the bogey-like goo that still gushed
from two orange top hats, floating along the stream.
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