Chambers, chapter 3
CHAMBERS (chapter 3)
Summary:
In the winter after the war, Ginny navigates not only her own recurring nightmares, but also the demands of Quidditch captaincy, the weirdness of double-dating with one's brother and the surprisingly difficult path back to Harry, along with Hermione's obsession with inter-house unity, Neville's retreat into his books, Luna's lonely family life and a gaping hole in Ginny's family where her middle brother used to be.
In the winter after the war, Ginny starts putting the pieces back together, with a little help from her friends.
Characters: Ginny, with Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ron and all the Weasleys!
Chapters: 5
Story:
CHAPTER THREE
Hermione stayed like that for days, not outright angry, but…chilly. Ginny found herself gaining a bit of sympathy for Ron, though Ginny generally sided with Hermione when the pair of them squabbled because everyone knew Ron was a dolt about emotional things.
It was funny how Hermione had grown on her over the years. Ginny remembered finding Hermione swotty and annoying when Hermione first started hanging round. Ginny at that age couldn't understand why her hero Harry Potter didn't have more interesting friends than some bookworm and, well, Ginny's hopelessly uncool brother.
But with time, it was impossible to avoid seeing what a good heart Hermione had. And as Hermione had become an increasingly frequent presence at the Burrow, Ginny had had to admit to herself that it was nice to have another girl around once in a while. By the time Ron and Harry and Hermione had left on their quest, Ginny could honestly count Hermione among her closest friends.
Hermione's cold shoulder wasn't all that fun, though.
But Ginny waited it out, spending a bit more time than usual with Neville or with the other girls in her year, while she waited for Hermione to thaw.
It wasn't until quite a few days later that Hermione, staring down at her breakfast plate, said, "I'm going to start a club."
It took Ginny a moment to realise Hermione was talking to her. "Oh," she said. "What kind of club?"
"That's the problem, I don't know yet!" Hermione looked up and gave Ginny an anxious look, then looked away again. "I need your help to think of something."
Ginny shifted her plate of half-eaten toast away and turned her attention to Hermione. "Uh…okay. Can you give me an idea what kind of club we're talking about?"
"Something to bring people from the different houses together," Hermione said, biting her lip. "I was thinking maybe it could be something where you can only join if you bring a partner who's from a different house."
"That sounds nice," Ginny said carefully.
Hermione glanced at her again, anxious. "But what would be something everybody would actually want to join? Ravenclaws like bookish things, Gryffindors always want to do sport, Slytherins aren't going to turn up for anything they think Gryffindors are running…"
"Whoa, breathe, Hermione," Ginny said.
"I need you to help me think of something popular everybody would want to do."
Ginny was glad Hermione was talking to her again, but she was a little overwhelmed by the turn this conversation had taken. "I'm not sure I'm the expert on this," she warned.
"Just say the first thing that pops into your mind," Hermione urged. "What's something everybody would want?"
"A leg up on the N.E.W.T.s," Ginny answered. She'd been thinking about this, lately.
Hermione looked at her in surprise. "Ooh. That's good, actually."
"Is it?"
"Yeah…some kind of study club, maybe? Would people come to a study club?"
"If it covered the subjects we haven't had enough of," Ginny said. "We must have had the patchiest education ever at Hogwarts, these last couple years."
"Guest lecturers," Hermione breathed. "We could bring in people who are experts in their fields to give us practical lessons and make up some of the things we missed out on. Defence would be the obvious one…maybe Muggle Studies, too, since everyone studying that missed out on an entire year." She winced.
Ginny found Hermione's crazy idea growing on her. "I could ask Andromeda if she would give a guest History lecture," she suggested. "She knows so much, it's unbelievable. And Dad would do something for Muggle Studies, you know he would. You'll probably have to Petrify him just to get him to stop."
Hermione's eyes were shining. "And for Defence…I'm sure Minister Shacklebolt is too busy to come here himself, but maybe he could recommend someone from the Auror Department…and someone from St Mungo's could come and do a practical demonstration for Potions…" Her expression clouded. "Would the professors be okay with this? Would it seem like an insult, like we're saying they didn't prepare us well enough? Oh! I know! If they don't want us to do it here, we could arrange it for Hogsmeade weekends! It would be totally voluntary, and we'd be meeting away from the castle, so it wouldn't even be a Hogwarts thing."
"But not at the Hog's Head," Ginny said, and Hermione stifled a giggle despite herself.
"I'm going to ask Professor McGonagall what she thinks," Hermione said. "It might actually work. But - how do I work in bringing a partner from a different house?"
"They're hands-on, practical lessons, so everyone needs a partner. And the different houses have different strengths that complement each other," Ginny said promptly.
Hermione gave Ginny an appraising look. "That's really good. Are you sure you don't want to be a politician?"
"Yes," Ginny said. "Absolutely sure."
Ginny still thought Hermione might be a bit mad, but she also figured that if this actually worked, she would take part. Ginny was a little worried about her marks in History and Potions, truth be told.
Hermione got her approval from Professor McGonagall that same afternoon, and for the rest of the week she could be seen in the common room feverishly composing letters, then dashing up to the Owlery to send them off. Then there was nothing for her to do but wait for replies.
November rolled into December, and flurries and gusts turned to true winter, but the Gryffindor Quidditch team kept up its practice schedule. Ginny already had her eye on their Hufflepuff match, even if it wasn't until February.
Most days they practised indoors. Ginny had wrangled permission from Professor McGonagall to use the Great Hall sometimes in the afternoons between meals, or to use classrooms when the Hall wasn't free. They were forbidden in no uncertain terms from flying indoors, but the Hall was still large enough for endurance training, and running and throwing drills. Ginny was surprised to see how effective ground training could be for a flying sport, and wondered why more people didn't do it.
One day in mid-December, Ginny decided to have the team practise falling. She got the idea from remembering D.A. practices in the Room of Requirement, where Harry had always had piles of cushions around for when they practised Stunning each other. Quidditch players often got knocked off their brooms, so Ginny figured, why not at least learn to do it right and fall safely?
The team grumbled good-naturedly when Ginny told them the plan, but she thought they seemed intrigued. They were in an unused classroom on the third floor, and Ginny had spent the previous hour Conjuring cushions. She supposed she could have just held practice in the Room of Requirement, which would have provided cushions without any effort on her part, but using the Room for anything less than battle felt wrong now.
First, she just had the team practice falling backwards onto the cushions. Then she had them pair up, one partner holding a broom while the other tried to catch it again as he or she fell. Ginny was pleased to see the progress the team made just over the course of an hour.
At the end of practice, before sending them to dinner, Ginny thanked the team for their patience with all her odd schemes. "You're by far the best team flying at Hogwarts right now," she said, "and I can't wait to see Hufflepuff try to handle you."
She got grins back in response, and felt satisfied as she set about Vanishing the cushions again, as the rest of the team filed out of the classroom laughing and chatting.
A minute or two later, Ginny looked up to find that not all of the team had left. Ritchie Coote was still there, Vanishing cushions and not doing a bad job of it either.
"All right, cap'n?" he asked with his usual grin.
"Hey, thanks for helping," she said. "I didn't see you there."
Ritchie shrugged, and they were nearly finished before he asked, "Going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"Definitely," Ginny said. "You?"
"I dunno. Probably."
There was a lull in the conversation again, but Ginny's focus was on removing a last, recalcitrant cushion that had only gone translucent instead of disappearing.
Then Ritchie asked, a little too casually, "Who're you going with?"
"I guess I'll walk over with Hermione, that's what we usually do," Ginny said, still not getting it. "We generally meet up with Ron and Harry in the village."
She looked up just in time to see Ritchie's face fall. "Oh, right," he said, as he turned to the door. "Anyway, see you at dinner."
Ginny stood staring after him. Did he just…?
She shook her head, then made her way down to the Great Hall and slid onto the bench next to Hermione, who'd saved her a seat and was poring over a letter.
"Minister Shacklebolt says he'll ask someone in the Auror Department!" Hermione announced.
"That's good," Ginny replied absently, and Hermione looked up from her letter.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I think Ritchie Coote just tried to ask me out," Ginny said, still stunned. "Why would he try to ask me out?"
"Oh, Ginny," Hermione sighed. "Seriously? You haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what?"
"That half the boys in the school fancy you."
"I - what?" Ginny spluttered.
Hermione listed it out as if she were reciting the ingredients for a potion. "You're one of the best-looking girls at Hogwarts, which honestly is probably enough for most of them. But also you're clever, and everybody knows you're a good duellist and you've fought in real battles, and now on top of that, you're clearly well on your way to leading Gryffindor to a brilliant Quidditch Cup win. Do you need more reasons?"
"But -" Ginny protested. "But haven't they noticed I'm with Harry?"
Hermione shrugged. "He's not here. You are. Look around and you'll see."
So over the next few days, Ginny looked around.
What she saw, to her surprise, was Gryffindor boys who tried to sit near her at meals and looked put out when Neville got there first, and boys from other houses whose gaze followed her as she passed by in the halls.
For a couple days, noticing all the attention made Ginny uncomfortable, but then she learned to ignore it again. It wasn't like she was a stranger to public scrutiny - being rescued from the Chamber of Secrets by the Boy Who Lived would do that. So would twenty-four hours chained up in the courtyard on the orders of Alecto Carrow.
By Friday, Ginny had dismissed any lingering thoughts on the strangeness of Hogwarts boys. Instead, she found she had something almost akin to butterflies in her stomach when she thought about the Hogsmeade outing the next day.
Then that night, well before morning, she woke up from another bad dream.
Ginny sat straight up in bed, heart pounding in the quiet of the dormitory. Already, the dream was fading and all she could remember was that Tom Riddle had tried to kiss her, in the Chamber of Secrets, his scaly lips against hers…
Yes, of course she would have a nightmare on a night when she was actually looking forward to the next day, when she was excited about this rare sliver of time with Harry. And of course she couldn't seem to fall back asleep, which made her angry, which made her even less able to sleep.
Ginny lay there, seething over Voldemort and everything wrong with the world, well into the morning hours. She finally slipped into a last hour or so of fitful sleep, then woke to Hermione shaking her shoulder and saying, "Come on, we're going to be late! It's almost half past nine!"
Harry and Ron had the whole day free, so they'd planned to meet in Hogsmeade earlier than usual, and Ginny had been glad they could get an early start. Now, she couldn't help feeing a little less enthusiastic.
"You look tired," Hermione commented, as the two of them started down the road to Hogsmeade at a fast march. "Are you still having nightmares?"
"No," Ginny replied automatically. She didn't know why she was lying to Hermione, but she didn't feel like talking about it. The sensation of Tom Riddle kissing her was still far too real, and she kept catching herself wanting to wipe her hand over her lips to get rid of the feeling.
It was too early to go into the Three Broomsticks for lunch, so Ron and Harry were waiting for them in front of the pub instead, stomping their feet in the cold.
"Hey," Harry said to Ginny, more subdued than usual, when she and Hermione reached him and Ron. He looked about as tired as Ginny felt.
As the two of them wandered out of town, Ginny filled Harry in on her indoor Quidditch practices, which he found intriguing.
"And how's training?" she asked, as they passed the last houses that marked the edge of the village.
"Fine," Harry shrugged. "Just, it turns out becoming an Auror is hard work - who knew, right?"
"Who knew," Ginny agreed.
They kept walking, but a moment later, Harry burst out, "Kingsley keeps suggesting he could promote me and Ron to full Aurors at the end of this year. Instead of after three years of training."
"But that's great," Ginny said, stopping to look at him.
"No, it's not!" Harry fairly shouted. "Why would he do that?"
"Because he knows you can handle it?"
"We're already having to prove all the time that we actually got into training by merit and not just riding on fame. And Kingsley would be going right over the head of my direct supervisor, which is not exactly going to make me any more popular. He shouldn't be giving us special treatment."
"But why spend three years in training when you've already done more than a lot of fully-trained Aurors have done?"
"Could you be on my side here?" Harry snapped.
Ginny stared at him. "Fine," she snapped back, and started walking again. "Sorry for having faith in your abilities."
Harry hesitated a moment, then caught up with her. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"It's fine," Ginny said.
But the rest of their walk, they couldn't seem to find the ease they'd had with each other the last time, and Ginny had to admit she was glad when it was time to go back and meet Ron and Hermione for lunch.
But there, too, things felt off. Ron was moody, Harry distracted, and Ginny could feel the base of her skull starting to throb from lack of sleep. Only Hermione seemed normal, valiantly trying to make up for their silence.
Even after lunch, when they were on their own again and wandering up the High Street looking in the shop windows, Ginny could hardly get Harry to keep up a conversation.
Finally she asked, "What's up with Ron?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, feigning interest in the display at Scrivenshaft's.
"You know what I mean. He was being weird at lunch."
"He's just tired, I guess."
"Tired from what?"
Harry sighed. "He's putting in full days at Auror training, then he goes and does evening shifts at the joke shop."
"Why? George has got assistants."
"The assistants aren't the problem."
"Are you going to tell me what is?"
"It's just … George doesn't seem to be putting much effort in. We're worried about him."
Ginny did realise, afterward, that she ought to have taken this comment in the spirit of kind concern in which it was certainly meant. But at the time, the thought that Harry would start telling her about her own brother, as if he knew him better than she did (together with the unwelcome thought that probably he did know George better at this point) rankled.
"You're worried?" she said. "He's my brother."
Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then he demanded, "What's got into you today?"
"What's got into me? You're the one who's been moping all day."
"I am not moping."
"Oh, yes, you are. I can hardly get proper sentences out of you. And if I try to be supportive, you snap at me."
"Supportive? You mean before, when I was trying to tell you about training? You were hardly listening to me."
"Oh, that's rich, when I've been trying all day to get you to say anything at all."
"I have a lot on my mind right now."
"And I don't?"
"Yeah - but - it's different."
Ginny stopped dead on the pavement, so he was forced to turn and look at her. "You did not just say that," she said.
"I didn't mean -"
"Yes, you did. That's exactly what you think, isn't it? That you and Ron are out there doing real, important things, while we're just having fun here, playing school." Ginny stepped up close to Harry and poked a finger in his chest. "You think it was brave and all for me and Neville and everyone else to try to stand up to the Carrows last year, but of course it wasn't really at the level of what you three were doing. You never ask me anything about that year, because it couldn't possibly be as thrilling a story as hunting Horcruxes, could it?"
Harry gaped at her before finding his voice, but when he did, it was furious. "Where are you getting any of this? I've never said anything I did was more important than anything you did. I haven't asked you about last year because you've made it pretty clear you don't like talking about it. So don't you try to make it sound like I don't care or don't respect you or something."
"You just have no idea what it was like!" Ginny shouted back at him. "You weren't here, that's the thing. You just weren't here."
"Well, I'm so sorry I can't invent some new, more powerful Time-Turner to take me back to the beginning of last year, so I could be here instead of, you know, finding the Horcruxes."
"See, that is exactly what I mean."
"So now I'm supposed to apologise that there were things I had to do that couldn't wait?"
And that was the thing, you could just never argue with that.
"I can't believe I'm spending my Hogsmeade day on this," she said instead.
"If you've got somewhere else you'd rather be, be my guest," Harry retorted. "It's not like there aren't about a hundred things I needed to be doing today too."
Ginny stared at him. Did he really not care that this was the first day they'd had together in over a month? "Then I'm so sorry to be wasting your time," she snapped.
"I didn't say you were wasting my time, but if you think I'm wasting yours, then please tell me, because I could definitely do with a couple hours to get all my paperwork done."
"Then maybe you'd better go do your paperwork."
"Maybe I will."
They were standing toe to toe now on the pavement. Ginny saw Harry's breath coming fast, but he determinedly stared her down, and she did the same. She wasn't going to let him win this one, because she already felt like an idiot for having been so naïvely excited to see him, and then instead of it being wonderful, Harry was sullen and they rowed and now he was acting like he didn't even care if he stayed or went.
So Ginny pulled out the serious hexes. "Do you know how many blokes wanted to ask me out this weekend?" she demanded.
"Many, I assume."
"And I ignored them all, do you know why?"
"I'm sure you're regretting the choice now."
"Oh, never mind," Ginny fumed. "Go back to London if you want to."
"Have fun here," Harry said sourly.
Then he turned on his heel and Disapparated.
Ginny stared open-mouthed at where he'd been. Then she snapped her jaw shut and stomped all the way back to the castle, in her mind finding inventive new curses for the Carrows and the way they'd prevented anyone under their watch from learning to Apparate.
Hermione came and found her, of course. Ginny had tried to lie low all afternoon by avoiding the dormitory and the common room and the Great Hall, but she'd ended up hiding out at a table in a back corner of the library, and it turned out the library was not a particularly brilliant place to try to hide from Hermione Granger.
Hermione plonked herself down on a chair across from Ginny and fixed her with a stare worthy of Professor McGonagall. "All right, Ginny," she said. "What's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Ginny tried, though not with much conviction.
"I mean that Harry left Hogsmeade hours earlier than planned, and several people saw you storming back here alone. I sent Ron after Harry -"
"You're all talking about me?" Ginny groaned.
"Yes, because we care about you," Hermione ploughed on. "And Ron couldn't get any sense out of Harry beyond that apparently you'd rather go to Hogsmeade with someone else."
Ginny goggled at Hermione. "Seriously? Out of the entire row, that's the only thing Harry took away, that I could have gone to Hogsmeade with someone else? That's not even what it was about."
"What was it about, then?"
"It was about…about…just how far apart we are. He doesn't know what it's like here and I hardly know anything about what he's doing and I'm afraid we're going to lose track of each other completely."
"And are you going to tell him that?"
"No! At least, not until he owls me first."
Hermione heaved a martyred sigh. "Do you realise how foolish that sounds?"
"I don't care."
Hermione stared at Ginny, if possible, even more intently. "Okay, let me get this straight: You're worried you and Harry are too far apart, so you pushed him further away."
"I - no. Well, I guess, in a way."
"By trying to make him jealous."
"No!"
"Not even a little?"
"I didn't mean it to go that way. He was acting like he didn't even care he was there, and I'd been looking forward to it so much… I've made a mess of it, haven't I?"
"No," Hermione said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "It's a mess on its own, and we're all just trying to make the best of it."
"But it's so easy for you and Ron," Ginny sighed.
Hermione looked at her askance. "Are we talking about the same Ron?"
"You just - you're always so happy and easy with each other!"
"Except for the rest of the time, when he makes me want to hex him."
"Well, yeah, it's Ron. Of course he does."
Hermione looked like she didn't know whether or not she should laugh, but in the end, she did. "Promise me one thing, Ginny?"
"Yeah?"
"Just send off a quick letter to Harry. You don't have to apologise, you don't have to say it was your fault, but write him something." Hermione paused to consider. "Though I suppose maybe you should also try not to imply that everything was his fault. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Ginny grumbled.
"Do you have a quill or do you want to borrow mine?"
"I'm not going to write to him right here in front of you!" Ginny protested. "I'll do it tonight."
Hermione grudgingly agreed, "Okay."
That night, Ginny did sit down in the common room with a quill and parchment.
Hi Harry, she wrote. I'm glad I got to see you today. I'm sorry things didn't go how we wanted, and now I won't even see you again till the holidays. Hope you're not too cross with me.
She looked at that for a bit, then added, Yes, Hermione made me write to you. But no, she's not standing over my shoulder telling me what I should write.
Not exactly eloquent, but it would have to do. She signed it, Ginny, and headed off to find a school owl.
Pigwidgeon sailed into the Great Hall at breakfast the next morning with Harry's reply. Ginny was as fond of Ron's silly little owl as ever, but seeing him on loan bringing Harry's post always made her sad, a reminder of Hedwig. Ginny sometimes wondered if Harry would ever give in and get another owl.
Hi Ginny, she read, while Pigwidgeon nibbled on a corner of her toast. I reckon it was my fault as much as yours. Shouldn't have had my head so wrapped up in my work. But really - and then there was a bit that had been scratched out so firmly that Ginny couldn't make out a word of what had been there - Well, anyway, it's stupid to try to discuss it by post, right? I'm looking forward to seeing you at the holidays. Harry
"Non-answer," Ginny growled, and tossed Harry's letter down beside her plate. Pigwidgeon, startled, fell into the jam pot and Ginny had to fish him out again.
"What was the question?" Neville asked, and now Ginny was the one startled, since she hadn't noticed him sit down next to her.
"I guess I didn't really ask one," Ginny admitted. "Maybe that's the problem."
Neville, polite as ever, nodded as though this made sense, then shook out a handkerchief from his pocket and started dabbing at the jam-covered owl far more patiently than Ginny had been doing.
Watching him, Ginny said, "This is going to sound like a stupid question, but did you ever think, last year, that coming back to normal life would be so hard?"
Neville shrugged. "I always assumed I would die in the war, so I guess I didn't think about it either way."
Ginny stared at him. "You what?"
"I just didn't think about it much."
"No, I mean, you really thought -?"
"It seemed like that for a while there, didn't it? Fugitives in our own school. Knowing some kind of big battle was coming, and we were going to be right in the middle of it. When Harry found me and told me to get rid of the snake, I thought, good, at least I can do something really useful when I go."
"Oh, Neville."
He looked up from the owl to Ginny. "What?"
"You're so…good that it's almost scary."
Predictably, Neville blushed. "Nah."
"And I miss last-year Neville," Ginny admitted. "Confident and ordering people around. What happened to that?"
"Well, it's easy to be bold when you think it's the last thing you'll get to do."
"And now?"
"And now," Neville said earnestly, "it turns out we've got our entire lives. And I want to do something worthwhile with that." He hesitated before continuing shyly, "I've been thinking…I want to study more, after Hogwarts. That's why I wanted to come back and do this year properly. Professor Sprout's been talking to me about some of the options. There are research institutes, you know, that develop new spells and potions, and discover magical species, things like that. Or there's teaching - I think I could be good at that, even."
Neville stopped there, looking embarrassed, and leaned forward to check on Pigwidgeon, though the owl was now jam-free and hopping happily between the breakfast dishes.
"Good for you," Ginny told him, thinking suddenly that Quidditch seemed a silly thing to want to devote her life to. "I just hate to see you not having much fun, is all."
"Oh, don't worry about me, Ginny," Neville said, and there was a strange little note of contentment in his voice she hadn't heard before. But Ginny didn't get a chance to investigate it further, because just then a food fight erupted between several younger students at the Ravenclaw table, and everyone within range had to duck and cover.
There were some ways Hogwarts would always be Hogwarts.
( continue to CHAPTER 4)
Summary:
In the winter after the war, Ginny navigates not only her own recurring nightmares, but also the demands of Quidditch captaincy, the weirdness of double-dating with one's brother and the surprisingly difficult path back to Harry, along with Hermione's obsession with inter-house unity, Neville's retreat into his books, Luna's lonely family life and a gaping hole in Ginny's family where her middle brother used to be.
In the winter after the war, Ginny starts putting the pieces back together, with a little help from her friends.
Characters: Ginny, with Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ron and all the Weasleys!
Chapters: 5
Story:
CHAPTER THREE
Hermione stayed like that for days, not outright angry, but…chilly. Ginny found herself gaining a bit of sympathy for Ron, though Ginny generally sided with Hermione when the pair of them squabbled because everyone knew Ron was a dolt about emotional things.
It was funny how Hermione had grown on her over the years. Ginny remembered finding Hermione swotty and annoying when Hermione first started hanging round. Ginny at that age couldn't understand why her hero Harry Potter didn't have more interesting friends than some bookworm and, well, Ginny's hopelessly uncool brother.
But with time, it was impossible to avoid seeing what a good heart Hermione had. And as Hermione had become an increasingly frequent presence at the Burrow, Ginny had had to admit to herself that it was nice to have another girl around once in a while. By the time Ron and Harry and Hermione had left on their quest, Ginny could honestly count Hermione among her closest friends.
Hermione's cold shoulder wasn't all that fun, though.
But Ginny waited it out, spending a bit more time than usual with Neville or with the other girls in her year, while she waited for Hermione to thaw.
It wasn't until quite a few days later that Hermione, staring down at her breakfast plate, said, "I'm going to start a club."
It took Ginny a moment to realise Hermione was talking to her. "Oh," she said. "What kind of club?"
"That's the problem, I don't know yet!" Hermione looked up and gave Ginny an anxious look, then looked away again. "I need your help to think of something."
Ginny shifted her plate of half-eaten toast away and turned her attention to Hermione. "Uh…okay. Can you give me an idea what kind of club we're talking about?"
"Something to bring people from the different houses together," Hermione said, biting her lip. "I was thinking maybe it could be something where you can only join if you bring a partner who's from a different house."
"That sounds nice," Ginny said carefully.
Hermione glanced at her again, anxious. "But what would be something everybody would actually want to join? Ravenclaws like bookish things, Gryffindors always want to do sport, Slytherins aren't going to turn up for anything they think Gryffindors are running…"
"Whoa, breathe, Hermione," Ginny said.
"I need you to help me think of something popular everybody would want to do."
Ginny was glad Hermione was talking to her again, but she was a little overwhelmed by the turn this conversation had taken. "I'm not sure I'm the expert on this," she warned.
"Just say the first thing that pops into your mind," Hermione urged. "What's something everybody would want?"
"A leg up on the N.E.W.T.s," Ginny answered. She'd been thinking about this, lately.
Hermione looked at her in surprise. "Ooh. That's good, actually."
"Is it?"
"Yeah…some kind of study club, maybe? Would people come to a study club?"
"If it covered the subjects we haven't had enough of," Ginny said. "We must have had the patchiest education ever at Hogwarts, these last couple years."
"Guest lecturers," Hermione breathed. "We could bring in people who are experts in their fields to give us practical lessons and make up some of the things we missed out on. Defence would be the obvious one…maybe Muggle Studies, too, since everyone studying that missed out on an entire year." She winced.
Ginny found Hermione's crazy idea growing on her. "I could ask Andromeda if she would give a guest History lecture," she suggested. "She knows so much, it's unbelievable. And Dad would do something for Muggle Studies, you know he would. You'll probably have to Petrify him just to get him to stop."
Hermione's eyes were shining. "And for Defence…I'm sure Minister Shacklebolt is too busy to come here himself, but maybe he could recommend someone from the Auror Department…and someone from St Mungo's could come and do a practical demonstration for Potions…" Her expression clouded. "Would the professors be okay with this? Would it seem like an insult, like we're saying they didn't prepare us well enough? Oh! I know! If they don't want us to do it here, we could arrange it for Hogsmeade weekends! It would be totally voluntary, and we'd be meeting away from the castle, so it wouldn't even be a Hogwarts thing."
"But not at the Hog's Head," Ginny said, and Hermione stifled a giggle despite herself.
"I'm going to ask Professor McGonagall what she thinks," Hermione said. "It might actually work. But - how do I work in bringing a partner from a different house?"
"They're hands-on, practical lessons, so everyone needs a partner. And the different houses have different strengths that complement each other," Ginny said promptly.
Hermione gave Ginny an appraising look. "That's really good. Are you sure you don't want to be a politician?"
"Yes," Ginny said. "Absolutely sure."
Ginny still thought Hermione might be a bit mad, but she also figured that if this actually worked, she would take part. Ginny was a little worried about her marks in History and Potions, truth be told.
Hermione got her approval from Professor McGonagall that same afternoon, and for the rest of the week she could be seen in the common room feverishly composing letters, then dashing up to the Owlery to send them off. Then there was nothing for her to do but wait for replies.
November rolled into December, and flurries and gusts turned to true winter, but the Gryffindor Quidditch team kept up its practice schedule. Ginny already had her eye on their Hufflepuff match, even if it wasn't until February.
Most days they practised indoors. Ginny had wrangled permission from Professor McGonagall to use the Great Hall sometimes in the afternoons between meals, or to use classrooms when the Hall wasn't free. They were forbidden in no uncertain terms from flying indoors, but the Hall was still large enough for endurance training, and running and throwing drills. Ginny was surprised to see how effective ground training could be for a flying sport, and wondered why more people didn't do it.
One day in mid-December, Ginny decided to have the team practise falling. She got the idea from remembering D.A. practices in the Room of Requirement, where Harry had always had piles of cushions around for when they practised Stunning each other. Quidditch players often got knocked off their brooms, so Ginny figured, why not at least learn to do it right and fall safely?
The team grumbled good-naturedly when Ginny told them the plan, but she thought they seemed intrigued. They were in an unused classroom on the third floor, and Ginny had spent the previous hour Conjuring cushions. She supposed she could have just held practice in the Room of Requirement, which would have provided cushions without any effort on her part, but using the Room for anything less than battle felt wrong now.
First, she just had the team practice falling backwards onto the cushions. Then she had them pair up, one partner holding a broom while the other tried to catch it again as he or she fell. Ginny was pleased to see the progress the team made just over the course of an hour.
At the end of practice, before sending them to dinner, Ginny thanked the team for their patience with all her odd schemes. "You're by far the best team flying at Hogwarts right now," she said, "and I can't wait to see Hufflepuff try to handle you."
She got grins back in response, and felt satisfied as she set about Vanishing the cushions again, as the rest of the team filed out of the classroom laughing and chatting.
A minute or two later, Ginny looked up to find that not all of the team had left. Ritchie Coote was still there, Vanishing cushions and not doing a bad job of it either.
"All right, cap'n?" he asked with his usual grin.
"Hey, thanks for helping," she said. "I didn't see you there."
Ritchie shrugged, and they were nearly finished before he asked, "Going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"Definitely," Ginny said. "You?"
"I dunno. Probably."
There was a lull in the conversation again, but Ginny's focus was on removing a last, recalcitrant cushion that had only gone translucent instead of disappearing.
Then Ritchie asked, a little too casually, "Who're you going with?"
"I guess I'll walk over with Hermione, that's what we usually do," Ginny said, still not getting it. "We generally meet up with Ron and Harry in the village."
She looked up just in time to see Ritchie's face fall. "Oh, right," he said, as he turned to the door. "Anyway, see you at dinner."
Ginny stood staring after him. Did he just…?
She shook her head, then made her way down to the Great Hall and slid onto the bench next to Hermione, who'd saved her a seat and was poring over a letter.
"Minister Shacklebolt says he'll ask someone in the Auror Department!" Hermione announced.
"That's good," Ginny replied absently, and Hermione looked up from her letter.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I think Ritchie Coote just tried to ask me out," Ginny said, still stunned. "Why would he try to ask me out?"
"Oh, Ginny," Hermione sighed. "Seriously? You haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what?"
"That half the boys in the school fancy you."
"I - what?" Ginny spluttered.
Hermione listed it out as if she were reciting the ingredients for a potion. "You're one of the best-looking girls at Hogwarts, which honestly is probably enough for most of them. But also you're clever, and everybody knows you're a good duellist and you've fought in real battles, and now on top of that, you're clearly well on your way to leading Gryffindor to a brilliant Quidditch Cup win. Do you need more reasons?"
"But -" Ginny protested. "But haven't they noticed I'm with Harry?"
Hermione shrugged. "He's not here. You are. Look around and you'll see."
So over the next few days, Ginny looked around.
What she saw, to her surprise, was Gryffindor boys who tried to sit near her at meals and looked put out when Neville got there first, and boys from other houses whose gaze followed her as she passed by in the halls.
For a couple days, noticing all the attention made Ginny uncomfortable, but then she learned to ignore it again. It wasn't like she was a stranger to public scrutiny - being rescued from the Chamber of Secrets by the Boy Who Lived would do that. So would twenty-four hours chained up in the courtyard on the orders of Alecto Carrow.
By Friday, Ginny had dismissed any lingering thoughts on the strangeness of Hogwarts boys. Instead, she found she had something almost akin to butterflies in her stomach when she thought about the Hogsmeade outing the next day.
Then that night, well before morning, she woke up from another bad dream.
Ginny sat straight up in bed, heart pounding in the quiet of the dormitory. Already, the dream was fading and all she could remember was that Tom Riddle had tried to kiss her, in the Chamber of Secrets, his scaly lips against hers…
Yes, of course she would have a nightmare on a night when she was actually looking forward to the next day, when she was excited about this rare sliver of time with Harry. And of course she couldn't seem to fall back asleep, which made her angry, which made her even less able to sleep.
Ginny lay there, seething over Voldemort and everything wrong with the world, well into the morning hours. She finally slipped into a last hour or so of fitful sleep, then woke to Hermione shaking her shoulder and saying, "Come on, we're going to be late! It's almost half past nine!"
Harry and Ron had the whole day free, so they'd planned to meet in Hogsmeade earlier than usual, and Ginny had been glad they could get an early start. Now, she couldn't help feeing a little less enthusiastic.
"You look tired," Hermione commented, as the two of them started down the road to Hogsmeade at a fast march. "Are you still having nightmares?"
"No," Ginny replied automatically. She didn't know why she was lying to Hermione, but she didn't feel like talking about it. The sensation of Tom Riddle kissing her was still far too real, and she kept catching herself wanting to wipe her hand over her lips to get rid of the feeling.
It was too early to go into the Three Broomsticks for lunch, so Ron and Harry were waiting for them in front of the pub instead, stomping their feet in the cold.
"Hey," Harry said to Ginny, more subdued than usual, when she and Hermione reached him and Ron. He looked about as tired as Ginny felt.
As the two of them wandered out of town, Ginny filled Harry in on her indoor Quidditch practices, which he found intriguing.
"And how's training?" she asked, as they passed the last houses that marked the edge of the village.
"Fine," Harry shrugged. "Just, it turns out becoming an Auror is hard work - who knew, right?"
"Who knew," Ginny agreed.
They kept walking, but a moment later, Harry burst out, "Kingsley keeps suggesting he could promote me and Ron to full Aurors at the end of this year. Instead of after three years of training."
"But that's great," Ginny said, stopping to look at him.
"No, it's not!" Harry fairly shouted. "Why would he do that?"
"Because he knows you can handle it?"
"We're already having to prove all the time that we actually got into training by merit and not just riding on fame. And Kingsley would be going right over the head of my direct supervisor, which is not exactly going to make me any more popular. He shouldn't be giving us special treatment."
"But why spend three years in training when you've already done more than a lot of fully-trained Aurors have done?"
"Could you be on my side here?" Harry snapped.
Ginny stared at him. "Fine," she snapped back, and started walking again. "Sorry for having faith in your abilities."
Harry hesitated a moment, then caught up with her. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"It's fine," Ginny said.
But the rest of their walk, they couldn't seem to find the ease they'd had with each other the last time, and Ginny had to admit she was glad when it was time to go back and meet Ron and Hermione for lunch.
But there, too, things felt off. Ron was moody, Harry distracted, and Ginny could feel the base of her skull starting to throb from lack of sleep. Only Hermione seemed normal, valiantly trying to make up for their silence.
Even after lunch, when they were on their own again and wandering up the High Street looking in the shop windows, Ginny could hardly get Harry to keep up a conversation.
Finally she asked, "What's up with Ron?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, feigning interest in the display at Scrivenshaft's.
"You know what I mean. He was being weird at lunch."
"He's just tired, I guess."
"Tired from what?"
Harry sighed. "He's putting in full days at Auror training, then he goes and does evening shifts at the joke shop."
"Why? George has got assistants."
"The assistants aren't the problem."
"Are you going to tell me what is?"
"It's just … George doesn't seem to be putting much effort in. We're worried about him."
Ginny did realise, afterward, that she ought to have taken this comment in the spirit of kind concern in which it was certainly meant. But at the time, the thought that Harry would start telling her about her own brother, as if he knew him better than she did (together with the unwelcome thought that probably he did know George better at this point) rankled.
"You're worried?" she said. "He's my brother."
Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then he demanded, "What's got into you today?"
"What's got into me? You're the one who's been moping all day."
"I am not moping."
"Oh, yes, you are. I can hardly get proper sentences out of you. And if I try to be supportive, you snap at me."
"Supportive? You mean before, when I was trying to tell you about training? You were hardly listening to me."
"Oh, that's rich, when I've been trying all day to get you to say anything at all."
"I have a lot on my mind right now."
"And I don't?"
"Yeah - but - it's different."
Ginny stopped dead on the pavement, so he was forced to turn and look at her. "You did not just say that," she said.
"I didn't mean -"
"Yes, you did. That's exactly what you think, isn't it? That you and Ron are out there doing real, important things, while we're just having fun here, playing school." Ginny stepped up close to Harry and poked a finger in his chest. "You think it was brave and all for me and Neville and everyone else to try to stand up to the Carrows last year, but of course it wasn't really at the level of what you three were doing. You never ask me anything about that year, because it couldn't possibly be as thrilling a story as hunting Horcruxes, could it?"
Harry gaped at her before finding his voice, but when he did, it was furious. "Where are you getting any of this? I've never said anything I did was more important than anything you did. I haven't asked you about last year because you've made it pretty clear you don't like talking about it. So don't you try to make it sound like I don't care or don't respect you or something."
"You just have no idea what it was like!" Ginny shouted back at him. "You weren't here, that's the thing. You just weren't here."
"Well, I'm so sorry I can't invent some new, more powerful Time-Turner to take me back to the beginning of last year, so I could be here instead of, you know, finding the Horcruxes."
"See, that is exactly what I mean."
"So now I'm supposed to apologise that there were things I had to do that couldn't wait?"
And that was the thing, you could just never argue with that.
"I can't believe I'm spending my Hogsmeade day on this," she said instead.
"If you've got somewhere else you'd rather be, be my guest," Harry retorted. "It's not like there aren't about a hundred things I needed to be doing today too."
Ginny stared at him. Did he really not care that this was the first day they'd had together in over a month? "Then I'm so sorry to be wasting your time," she snapped.
"I didn't say you were wasting my time, but if you think I'm wasting yours, then please tell me, because I could definitely do with a couple hours to get all my paperwork done."
"Then maybe you'd better go do your paperwork."
"Maybe I will."
They were standing toe to toe now on the pavement. Ginny saw Harry's breath coming fast, but he determinedly stared her down, and she did the same. She wasn't going to let him win this one, because she already felt like an idiot for having been so naïvely excited to see him, and then instead of it being wonderful, Harry was sullen and they rowed and now he was acting like he didn't even care if he stayed or went.
So Ginny pulled out the serious hexes. "Do you know how many blokes wanted to ask me out this weekend?" she demanded.
"Many, I assume."
"And I ignored them all, do you know why?"
"I'm sure you're regretting the choice now."
"Oh, never mind," Ginny fumed. "Go back to London if you want to."
"Have fun here," Harry said sourly.
Then he turned on his heel and Disapparated.
Ginny stared open-mouthed at where he'd been. Then she snapped her jaw shut and stomped all the way back to the castle, in her mind finding inventive new curses for the Carrows and the way they'd prevented anyone under their watch from learning to Apparate.
Hermione came and found her, of course. Ginny had tried to lie low all afternoon by avoiding the dormitory and the common room and the Great Hall, but she'd ended up hiding out at a table in a back corner of the library, and it turned out the library was not a particularly brilliant place to try to hide from Hermione Granger.
Hermione plonked herself down on a chair across from Ginny and fixed her with a stare worthy of Professor McGonagall. "All right, Ginny," she said. "What's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Ginny tried, though not with much conviction.
"I mean that Harry left Hogsmeade hours earlier than planned, and several people saw you storming back here alone. I sent Ron after Harry -"
"You're all talking about me?" Ginny groaned.
"Yes, because we care about you," Hermione ploughed on. "And Ron couldn't get any sense out of Harry beyond that apparently you'd rather go to Hogsmeade with someone else."
Ginny goggled at Hermione. "Seriously? Out of the entire row, that's the only thing Harry took away, that I could have gone to Hogsmeade with someone else? That's not even what it was about."
"What was it about, then?"
"It was about…about…just how far apart we are. He doesn't know what it's like here and I hardly know anything about what he's doing and I'm afraid we're going to lose track of each other completely."
"And are you going to tell him that?"
"No! At least, not until he owls me first."
Hermione heaved a martyred sigh. "Do you realise how foolish that sounds?"
"I don't care."
Hermione stared at Ginny, if possible, even more intently. "Okay, let me get this straight: You're worried you and Harry are too far apart, so you pushed him further away."
"I - no. Well, I guess, in a way."
"By trying to make him jealous."
"No!"
"Not even a little?"
"I didn't mean it to go that way. He was acting like he didn't even care he was there, and I'd been looking forward to it so much… I've made a mess of it, haven't I?"
"No," Hermione said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "It's a mess on its own, and we're all just trying to make the best of it."
"But it's so easy for you and Ron," Ginny sighed.
Hermione looked at her askance. "Are we talking about the same Ron?"
"You just - you're always so happy and easy with each other!"
"Except for the rest of the time, when he makes me want to hex him."
"Well, yeah, it's Ron. Of course he does."
Hermione looked like she didn't know whether or not she should laugh, but in the end, she did. "Promise me one thing, Ginny?"
"Yeah?"
"Just send off a quick letter to Harry. You don't have to apologise, you don't have to say it was your fault, but write him something." Hermione paused to consider. "Though I suppose maybe you should also try not to imply that everything was his fault. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Ginny grumbled.
"Do you have a quill or do you want to borrow mine?"
"I'm not going to write to him right here in front of you!" Ginny protested. "I'll do it tonight."
Hermione grudgingly agreed, "Okay."
That night, Ginny did sit down in the common room with a quill and parchment.
Hi Harry, she wrote. I'm glad I got to see you today. I'm sorry things didn't go how we wanted, and now I won't even see you again till the holidays. Hope you're not too cross with me.
She looked at that for a bit, then added, Yes, Hermione made me write to you. But no, she's not standing over my shoulder telling me what I should write.
Not exactly eloquent, but it would have to do. She signed it, Ginny, and headed off to find a school owl.
Pigwidgeon sailed into the Great Hall at breakfast the next morning with Harry's reply. Ginny was as fond of Ron's silly little owl as ever, but seeing him on loan bringing Harry's post always made her sad, a reminder of Hedwig. Ginny sometimes wondered if Harry would ever give in and get another owl.
Hi Ginny, she read, while Pigwidgeon nibbled on a corner of her toast. I reckon it was my fault as much as yours. Shouldn't have had my head so wrapped up in my work. But really - and then there was a bit that had been scratched out so firmly that Ginny couldn't make out a word of what had been there - Well, anyway, it's stupid to try to discuss it by post, right? I'm looking forward to seeing you at the holidays. Harry
"Non-answer," Ginny growled, and tossed Harry's letter down beside her plate. Pigwidgeon, startled, fell into the jam pot and Ginny had to fish him out again.
"What was the question?" Neville asked, and now Ginny was the one startled, since she hadn't noticed him sit down next to her.
"I guess I didn't really ask one," Ginny admitted. "Maybe that's the problem."
Neville, polite as ever, nodded as though this made sense, then shook out a handkerchief from his pocket and started dabbing at the jam-covered owl far more patiently than Ginny had been doing.
Watching him, Ginny said, "This is going to sound like a stupid question, but did you ever think, last year, that coming back to normal life would be so hard?"
Neville shrugged. "I always assumed I would die in the war, so I guess I didn't think about it either way."
Ginny stared at him. "You what?"
"I just didn't think about it much."
"No, I mean, you really thought -?"
"It seemed like that for a while there, didn't it? Fugitives in our own school. Knowing some kind of big battle was coming, and we were going to be right in the middle of it. When Harry found me and told me to get rid of the snake, I thought, good, at least I can do something really useful when I go."
"Oh, Neville."
He looked up from the owl to Ginny. "What?"
"You're so…good that it's almost scary."
Predictably, Neville blushed. "Nah."
"And I miss last-year Neville," Ginny admitted. "Confident and ordering people around. What happened to that?"
"Well, it's easy to be bold when you think it's the last thing you'll get to do."
"And now?"
"And now," Neville said earnestly, "it turns out we've got our entire lives. And I want to do something worthwhile with that." He hesitated before continuing shyly, "I've been thinking…I want to study more, after Hogwarts. That's why I wanted to come back and do this year properly. Professor Sprout's been talking to me about some of the options. There are research institutes, you know, that develop new spells and potions, and discover magical species, things like that. Or there's teaching - I think I could be good at that, even."
Neville stopped there, looking embarrassed, and leaned forward to check on Pigwidgeon, though the owl was now jam-free and hopping happily between the breakfast dishes.
"Good for you," Ginny told him, thinking suddenly that Quidditch seemed a silly thing to want to devote her life to. "I just hate to see you not having much fun, is all."
"Oh, don't worry about me, Ginny," Neville said, and there was a strange little note of contentment in his voice she hadn't heard before. But Ginny didn't get a chance to investigate it further, because just then a food fight erupted between several younger students at the Ravenclaw table, and everyone within range had to duck and cover.
There were some ways Hogwarts would always be Hogwarts.
( continue to CHAPTER 4)