Title: "It's a Man's World"

Author: Emmyjean

Classification: Vignette, Ginny POV

Summary: Ginny gets stuck in a tight spot...and contemplates her need for female companionship.

Spoilers: Through Goblet of Fire

Rating: PG

Notes: Everything belongs to Rowling.

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Ginny wrapped the towel around herself and wiped the steam off the mirror. She needed to do something with her hair before it all started to dry in tangles. Snatching up a brush, she began violently combing out her damp red hair. She brushed so hard, her towel fell off.

"Oh, bloody hell," she muttered to herself, feeling only slightly guilty for the swear word, as she bent to retrieve it. She fastened it back around her wet form and decided that she might as well get ready in her room rather than the cramped bathroom. Gathering her things together, she opened the door and prepared to run across the hall. Just as she had one foot out the door, she heard something that made her heart nearly stop.

"I swear, Harry, you look skinnier than when I last saw you!" her mother's voice came from the bottom of the stairs, "Go on and put your things away, and then come down for dinner."

Ginny stifled a squeal in her throat and quickly ducked back into the bathroom, slamming the door. She placed her ear to the wood and listened as Ron and Harry passed noisily by, talking about various things she couldn’t hear. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the cool panel...it would have been the most humiliating thing she could think of if they had seen her. Thank goodness her mother was so loud...Ginny wondered briefly if she did it on purpose.

She turned and slid down to the floor, her back facing the door, her hand clutching the towel tightly. What should she do now? She sighed and wished for the thousandth time in her life that she had a sister. Was that too much to ask? One other female in the house besides her? Her mother didn't count...she was thinking of a girl her age, or close to it. Someone she could talk to, tell her secrets to - ask to bring her a set of clothes when she was stranded, naked and dripping, in the bathroom with the boy she liked right outside the door.

The usual, Ginny thought as she rolled her eyes. She honestly didn't know how she got herself into these situations. Honestly, her mother had seven children and she had to stop right after Ginny was born? She couldn't try once more for another girl? She loved all her brothers, of course...but sometimes it seemed as though she was living a nightmare. She had to go through everything on her own. She knew they resented the fact that she didn't have to wear hand-me-downs, but it wasn't as if she got new things! As it was, she had to wear some stranger's old clothes most of the time...and that was much worse than having to wear something that had belonged to an older brother.

Pushing her wet hair back from her face once more and placing her ear against the dewy wooden door, she thought idly about the internal conflicts Harry's visits at the Burrow caused for her each year. On the one hand, she was always nearly giddy with anticipation of the moment when he would walk through their front door in all his black-haired, green-eyed glory...and in the past couple of years, the powers that be had given her even more to be excited about as well. Harry had grown almost as tall as Ron, and his years of Quidditch had certainly payed off in ways other than with sporting victory for Gryffindor.

She snorted derisively at herself for the train her thoughts had taken, but she was a sixteen year-old girl after all.

On the other hand, however, was the fact that when Harry was in the house - after the initial thrill of seeing him again wore off a bit - she was forced to give up many of her freedoms as a permanent resident of the Burrow. For starters, she couldn't feel free to do anything she wanted, as she was always worried about making a fool out of herself in front of him. Dancing as she helped her mother make breakfast, singing in the garden while she degnomed, experimenting with her insufferably wavy hair...and of course, walking from the bathroom to her bedroom in a towel were amongst these relinquished privilidges. Every summer it was the same - she just barely got through the experience without killing herself for the stress of it all.

That was another thing her brothers didn't have to deal with...being nervous or embarrased around each other's friends. After all, who cared if they saw each other with barely any clothes on?

Wincing as she stubbed her toe on the bathtub, she opened the door and peeked sheepishly out...she was afraid that if she didn't get out of this bathroom soon, she was going to start talking to herself or something. No one was visible in the hall, and she poked her head out a bit further as she looked left and then right. Perhaps she should just make a run for it...

"Anyway, you should have seen the maneuver their keeper pulled in the last few minutes of the match! It was bloody amazing!"

Ron's door opening and the sound of his voice caused Ginny to slam the door shut so hard the noise reverberated off the walls on the narrow hallway. She could hear the voices stop, and after a moment Ron called,

"Ginny, is that you in there?"
She squeezed her eyes shut...why couldn't he just go away?

"Yes...what do you want?"

There was no answer for a minute, and then Ron replied, "Hurry up, will you? Harry...er, some of us have to use the bathroom! We've been all the way from Surrey this afternoon!"

"Okay!" she snapped through the doorway, the steam trapped in the room now making her quite uncomfortable.

"We're waiting in the hall, so make it quick!"

Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth and didn't bother replying. This was too much...could things get any worse? How in Merlin's name was she supposed to get from here to her room with her dignity intact when she had no clothes on and there were two boys standing outside the door waiting to use the bathroom!?

Suddenly, someone answered her prayers.

"Hey, Hermione!" she heard Ron say through the door. Rather than the greeting she expected from Hermione, she heard her friend's voice instead say haughtily,

"Are you two going to stand here cluttering up the hall, or are you going to help me take my trunk to Ginny's room?"

"Oh, that's nice...glad to see you as well," she heard Ron mutter, but only as their footsteps thudded up the small staircase leading to the landing her room was on. Just as Ginny was cursing heaven for sending the boys to the one place she wanted them out of at all costs, she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Ginny? Are you in there?"

She opened the door a crack at Hermione's voice and peered into her friend's smiling face as the cool air from the hall flooded her damp cheeks. Hermione glanced down the hall where Ron and Harry had gone with her trunk, and then pulled a change of clothes out from under her baggy blouse.

"Your mum thought you might be needing these..."

Ginny felt her face nearly split in two with the force of her grin, and quickly leaned out and kissed Hermione on the cheek.

"You've just saved my life...or at the very least, my pride."

Hermione giggled and replied, "You're welcome. Now hurry up so you can help me unpack before dinner!"

With that, she turned and walked down the hall in the wake of her friends, and Ginny proceeded to get dressed. She smiled fondly at the thought of her mother and Hermione's concern for her, and wondered at how perceptive it seemed Mum truly was when it came to emergencies. It seemed that there were suddenly plenty of trustworthy women living within the confines of the Burrow. They were still outnumbered by the men, but it was a start.

Perhaps she wasn't as alone as she had thought.

FINIS

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