I've never written anything like this before… it's my first fem-slash, but hopefully I'll do an okay job. I mean, hey, I really have no excuse NOT to do a good job, right? *Wink*
Anyway, I hope this is OK. The first chapter is mighty long, and it's got a lot of backstory, but it's kind of important. If you can suffer through it, you might just find that you like it. It's going to get better a little further on, I swear! This is mostly set up.
One more note before we get to the good stuff: don't worry about Zuri, she's not a Mary sue, nor is she the stereotypical bad guy. And she won't turn into the main character. I promise.
Well, enjoy. This is the ultimate test run. I hope you like.
-Nymphean
Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd keep them all to myself.
I Wish I Danced Like You
Chapter 1
Ginny remembered the sorting in her first year. I was one of her most poignant memories, the first time she'd walked through the doors of the school which was to be her home away from home for seven years. She'd been scared, terrified, even, that she hadn't found her brothers. Fred and George were off with their friends, making trouble as usual, and Ron was nowhere to be found. And yet as soon as she'd walked through the doors of the school she now knew so well, she'd instinctively known that everything would work out. It was one of her favorite memories because of this, but more importantly, because that had been the moment when she'd met one of her best (and only) friends. At that point she'd seemed so much bigger, so much more important than Ginny. The moment she introduced herself, Ginny knew they would be friends someday. Of course, she knew who Hermione was, and Hermione knew about her, but this was Ginny's first memory of Hermione, and it stuck in her mind like glue.
It was with this memory in her mind that Ginny arrived on the doorstep of her brothers' shop. It was eleven o' clock in the afternoon, and she was an hour early for Fred and George's annual Gryffindor reunion. Each year, the brothers Weasley would hold a get-together for as many Gryffindor alumni as they could possibly find, an event which had become the highlight of many people's summer. Ginny loved the reunions, and she hadn't missed a single one since her graduation.
At twenty-one, Ginny Weasley hardly even resembled the shy, mousy eleven-year-old who had shyly stepped into the school on that day ten years ago. While still shorter than most people of her age, Ginny had grown into herself so that she was no longer quite as awkward as before. Ginny attributed her attractive appearance and demeanor to her current state of relative contentment. She was doing what she wanted with her life now, no longer under the thumb of her parents and brothers, and there was almost always a wide smile on her lightly freckled face. Ron teasingly described her as 'all teeth and dimples', which, Ginny reflected, was pretty much accurate. Her red hair, once the bane of her existence, was now one of her most attractive features, falling in shiny flame-red curls down her back. Ginny knew she was far from beautiful, but she could admit that she was attractive in a cute sort of way. After Hogwarts, and after the war which the side of the light had finally won, Ginny had continued in her studies of magical creatures, and was now in her first year in private practice as a magical veterinarian. Her practice took up most of her time, and she hardly ever got to see her family and friends except on the rare occasions when someone had business to conduct with her. The reunion was a welcome break for Ginny, as well as an excuse to ditch work and socialize for a change.
All day, Ginny had been thinking of her old friends and how much she was looking forward to seeing them. Especially Hermione, who she hadn't seen for over two and a half years. After graduation, Hermione had started training to become a teacher, and three years ago she'd moved to South Africa to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Towenaar Academy, a very exclusive school of witchcraft and wizardry. Fred and George had shown her the list of people who'd said they'd be coming to the reunion, and Ginny had seen 'Hermione Granger and Guest' on the list. She wondered what Hermione must be like now, after being in South Africa so long, and she also wondered who this mysterious guest of Hermione's was. A small part of her was hurt that Hermione hadn't kept in touch with her, but Ginny knew she wasn't entirely faultless in that matter.
Ginny stepped into the shop, peering around the door to make sure she wasn't about to be ambushed. "Fred? George?" She called, seeing no one. She heard a loud crash from the storage room.
"Just a second Gin! We're just trying—"
"--To move this stupid table!"
Ginny smiled to herself and then started towards the back counter, waiting for her brothers to emerge, which they did shortly, carrying a huge table between them. Ginny raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't have just levitated it?"
"We left our wands up here," said Fred.
"And we were too lazy to come back up for them," George finished. The twins put down the table and moved to embrace their little sister. "How's it going?" George asked. Ginny shrugged.
"It's fine. Busy, but good." She looked around at the empty shop. "Where's Ron? Wasn't he supposed to be here early?" Out of all her brothers, Ron and the twins were really the only ones Ginny kept in close contact with, and Ron had told her the other day that he intended to be there early to help with the set-up.
"He went out to pick up some beverages… we were running a little short." Fred gave her a look. "So where's Harry?" He asked wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Ginny sighed dramatically.
"Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you that there's nothing going on between us before you believe me?" George snorted loudly from behind the counter, and Ginny rolled her eyes as she began to spread out a tablecloth. "Fine, whatever. He should be here any moment, he was just getting dressed when I left."
"Getting dressed?" George raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, getting dressed."
"And why, pray tell, did he have to get dressed?"
Ginny threw her hands up in frustration. "Because that's what he usually does after I untie his wrists and ankles from the bedposts, okay?" She shook her head. "Honestly, you two." Ginny sometimes got sick of her family's constant badgering over her relationship with Harry. The two had moved in together the year after Ginny's graduation, having become very close friends over the last few years of their schooling at Hogwarts. Ginny had long since gotten over her childhood obsession with Harry, and they were now best friends, nothing more. Ginny wished she could tell her brothers that she saw in Harry nothing but another hairy, smelly boy just like them, but she knew they'd never buy it anyway.
It was then that Ron walked through the door. Ginny breathed a small sigh of relief. Out of all her brothers, Ron was the only one who didn't ruthlessly tease her about Harry. Even at twenty-two years old Ron and Harry were still best friends, and told each other practically everything. Ginny was glad that at least one person in her family wasn't still trying desperately to set her up with one of her best friends. Ron gave a sympathetic grin.
"They bugging you again?" Ginny nodded morosely, and Ron put an arm around her. "'s OK Gin, I'll take care of them for you."
Fred rolled his eyes. "Like you even could," He said, punching his brother's skinny arm. Ron shot him a glare and rubbed the spot where he'd been hit.
"Ow, okay, point made." Ginny had to laugh at her brothers' antics.
"Okay, boys, let's break it up. We've got less than an hour to get ready here."
*****
Ginny stood by the punch bowl and reflected that this reunion was just like being at school. Even though there was no dancing and everyone was dressed casually, Ginny still felt like a wallflower. The only difference was that this time around, she had company. Beside her, Harry and Ron stood watching the crowds as well, commenting occasionally on how great (or, in some cases, awful) different people looked. A little further down the table was Remus Lupin, who stood warily eyeing Sirius Black, prepared to stop his fellow marauder from picking on innocent bystanders. Sirius' name had been cleared after Voldemort had been killed and Peter Pettigrew, ashamed of his betrayal, did the only courageous thing he'd ever done in his whole life and turned himself in. Harry rolled his eyes as his godfather slipped something into the punch, and Remus, with a sigh, got off the wall and started towards his old friend. Ginny managed a half-smile before the bored expression returned to her face.
"Is it just me," She asked Ron and Harry, "Or is this party lacking something?"
"It's not just you," Harry replied before adding, "Whoa…"
"Oh my god, is that…" Ron drifted off, and Ginny followed their gazes to the front door. Her breath caught in her throat. There, standing in the doorway, was Hermione. But it wasn't the Hermione that Ginny remembered, the modest, bushy-haired Hermione of ten years ago. This Hermione had perfectly wavy, sun-lightened hair that fell most of the way down her back, bare, shapely legs that peeked out from beneath the hem of a very short sundress, and the most voluptuous figure Ginny had seen since Marilyn Monroe. Maybe it was the muggle clothing, or maybe they were feeding her differently in South Africa, but Ginny didn't remember Hermione looking like that before. Hogwarts robes hid a lot.
"Um, Ron?" Ginny poked her brother in the arm, and he turned to her while still keeping his eyes on the door.
"Huh?"
Ginny eyed her childhood friend again. "Did she used to be shaped like that?" Ron narrowed his eyes.
"Somewhat. But I don't ever remember her ever… showing it quite so much." Ginny frowned and looked back towards the door. As she watched, Hermione turned and said something to a girl who was standing beside her. Ginny noticed the other girl for the first time. She was tall, at least a half a foot taller than Hermione, and had the longest legs Ginny had ever seen. Her skin was the shade of milky coffee and she had dark curly hair that was cropped unbelievably close to her scalp. As Ginny looked on, the stranger replied to whatever Hermione had said with a wide grin, and lay a hand on Hermione's arm. Ginny wondered who this beautiful stranger was.
It was then that Hermione spied Ginny, Harry and Ron in the corner. Her eyes lit up and she started towards them, and for a second Ginny saw the old Hermione. She was gone almost as quickly, however, and Ginny felt very puzzled and perplexed.
"Guys!" Hermione said, stopping in front of them. "Oh my God, it's been forever." She embraced Ron first, both of them grinning like maniacs. After they'd dated for a few weeks in their seventh year, they both decided they were better off as friends, but Ginny sometimes suspected that Ron still held a tiny candle for Hermione. Harry came next, and Hermione commented on his hair, which he'd finally managed to tame, and his lack of glasses. Finally, Hermione stopped in front of Ginny.
"Gin?" She said incredulously, eyes
wide. Then, she grinned hugely and opened her arms to her.
"It's been so long," she said, and Ginny couldn't help
but smile. She could see the old Hermione again. "You look
fantastic." Ginny blushed.
"Um, Likewise. I mean, wow," she said, gesturing.
Hermione laughed, seeming pleased yet slightly embarrassed. Then, suddenly remembering, she turned to the strange girl and said, "I'd like you three to meet a friend of mine from Towenaar. This is Zuri Oudendaal. Zuri, these are my best friends from Hogwarts, Ron, Harry and Ginny."
"Nice to meet you," the tall girl said, extending her hand to each one of the in turn. Ginny noted that the girl had a thick accent that made her very difficult to understand. She only heard South African accents before in muggle movies, and Zuri Oudendaal's accent seemed strange even in comparison to them. Ginny felt wary as the taller girl took her hand and met her eyes with an almost threatening gaze. She had to look away, so she turned her eyes back to Hermione, who was positively glowing with excitement. She was going on about something to do with their trip, and how amazing it was to apparate over such a long distance. Ron and Harry looked bewildered, and Ginny was afraid that she must look slightly worried at this enormous change in her old friend.
"So what do you teach at Towenaar?" Harry was asking Zuri, apparently trying to break to ice.
"I'm the Potions Master," she replied, and Ginny narrowed her eyes reflexively. She didn't like Potions masters. "I also teach native arts."
"Zuri's part Swahili," Hermione piped in. "Her mother was a medicine woman, one of the best. They're from an ancient magical bloodline." Zuri rolled her eyes.
"It's really not that big of a deal." Hermione shrugged and grabbed Zuri's arm.
"Come on, we've got tons of people to meet." Ginny watched them walk away, feeling rather confused. There was something strange about this new girl, and she couldn't quite figure it out. In the back of her mind, she registered that Harry and Ron were talking, but she didn't really start listening until something Ron said caught her attention.
"That must be the new girlfriend." Ginny whipped around to face her brother.
"Huh?" Ginny had only ever heard Ron use the word 'girlfriend' in one context, and his statement was confusing her.
"This Zuri. Hermione wrote to me a while back, and she mentioned a new girlfriend. I guess that's her." Now Ginny was very confused. Ron was looking at her funny.
"Gin? What's up? You look funny."
Ginny was still working it through in her head. "Hermione has a girlfriend?" She said out loud. "But I thought…"
Ron took his little sister by the shoulders. "Gin, you do know why Hermione and I broke up, don't you?" Ginny's eyes widened, and Ron nodded.
"But… wouldn't she have told me?" Ron shrugged.
"Maybe she was afraid. When you think about it, she kind of owed it to me." Ron kept talking, but Ginny got so lost in thought that she stopped listening. Why hadn't Hermione told her about this? They were supposed to have been best friends. Shouldn't best friends tell each other things like that? Ginny felt her cheeks grow hot in embarassement. How many other people knew before her? Was it just her stupidity that made her not notice, or had Hermione purposely hid this from her?
You have secrets too, a little voice in the back of her mind whispered. Ginny pushed the thought away. She'd never told anyone her secrets.
*****
Ginny apparated to her apartment around midnight, exhausted and confused. She was still thinking about Hermione, and she didn't feel any less betrayed yet. She tossed off her shoes and was about to head to her bedroom when she heard laughter coming from Harry's room. The sound was muffled by the closed door, but Ginny could still hear it. Great. Just what she needed tonight. She couldn't remember the last time Harry had brought a girl home, but then again, maybe she'd blocked it from her memory. Feeling malicious, she banged loudly on the door and yelled, "Keep it down!"
There was a loud thump, followed by a short silence, and then more laughter. Ginny rolled her eyes and angrily started towards her bedroom again when the door was opened and Harry peered out at her.
"Come on in, Gin, join the party!" Ginny looked at him like he'd sprouted a second nose.
"Are you mad?"
Just then, Hermione's head appeared in the doorway, and Ginny began to understand. She looked from Harry to Hermione to the half-drunken bottle of wine in Hermione's hand and shrugged.
"Ah, why not," She said, throwing up her hands and walking into the room. The three of them crowded onto Harry's bed.
"We were just reminiscing about our Hogwarts days," Harry said. Ginny gave him a smile, and then she turned a perplexed gaze on Hermione.
"Hey, where's Zuri?"
Hermione smiled and quickly said, "She had to go back to Towenaar." Before changing the subject. Ginny wondered why.
After several more hours of talking and laughing about their school days, Ginny got up and apologetically retired to her bedroom. She lay in the dark for about an hour, thinking over the events of the day. Just as she was about to fall asleep she heard her door open, and soft footsteps coming towards her bed.
"Harry?" she whispered.
"No Gin, it's me," came the reply in Hermione's voice. Ginny hadn't realized until that point that Hermione had developed an oh-so-slight South African accent. She felt the Hermione's weight shift the mattress as she sat down by Ginny's back.
"What's up?" Ginny said worriedly, turning around to face her old friend. Hermione sighed.
"Nothing, it's just…" In the darkness, Ginny could barely see Hermione's worried expression. "Do you remember my thing with strange places?" Ginny mentally slapped herself. Of course she remembered. The summer before her sixth year and Hermione's seventh, Voldemort's attacks began to hit closer to home. Every muggle-born witch or wizard had been tortured and had to be relocated, along with their family, to a secret location, including Hermione and her parents. Voldemort had wanted to make a point, and Dumbledore's protection of the 'mudbloods' and their muggle families enraged him further. He'd decided to take action by seizing muggle-born students and disposing of them, very publicly and very brutally. Trina Smithe had been first, and then Walter Yates. As the list grew, Hermione became increasingly distressed. Dumbledore's hiding spots were failing, people were still getting captured. Hermione and her family decided that the best way to hide was to keep moving, and so they changed locations nightly, never sleeping in the same place twice. The attacks died down mid-August, Voldemort having felt other areas required more of his time, namely his plots to kill Harry, and the remaining Muggle-borns could finally return home with their families. And so it was that Hermione returned to school with a fear of sleeping in strange places. It just so happened that she's been made Head Girl that year, and thus was made to leave her old, comfortable dormitory to sleep in the Head girl room, which was beautifully furnished and amazingly luxurious, but nonetheless a strange place. The first night back, Ginny had woken up to the sound of soft crying behind her, and found that Hermione had crawled into bed with her. The whole story came out, and Ginny, horrified at her friend's suffering, had told her she could come stay in her bed whenever she liked. After that, it just became a habit for Hermione to crawl in with Ginny halfway through the night.
Ginny looked up and Hermione in the darkness. "Of course I remember." She frowned. "You still have that?"
"A little." Hermione's voice was quiet and childlike. Ginny had once thought she was the only person to have seen this vulnerable side of Hermione. Now she supposed that probably wasn't true. She shifted over to one side of the bed, making room for Hermione.
"C'mon, lie down then." Hermione smiled gratefully and slid beneath the covers. They lay in silence for a while before Hermione spoke up.
"Gin?"
"Hm?"
"You know you're still my best friend, right?"
A sigh. "Yeah."
A pause. "Okay good."
There was another round of silence, then, "'Mio?"
"Yeah?"
"How come you never told me you like girls."
A sigh. "I was afraid, I guess."
A pause. "You told Ron."
Hermione was silent for a good stretch after this. "I owed it to him."
"That's what he said."
Another long silence. Ginny worried away at her lower lip while Hermione pushed at her cuticles, nervous habits they'd both had forever. Finally, Hermione spoke up.
"Gin?"
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
*****
Harry Potter was not a stupid man. Nor was he naïve. He saw things the way they were. Harry knew very well he was a perceptive individual, and he prided himself on his observations on humanity. Now that the war was over, he was thinking of becoming a psychiatrist. He figured he could help wizards and witches who'd been traumatized by the war, a war which he felt to be largely his fault. Harry had always been this perceptive, so it was no surprised to him when Ron made his proclamation about Hermione. He'd known since before his two best friends had dated that Hermione had no interest in men. In fact, he was the one who'd convinced Hermione to break things off with Ron because he'd seen how unhappy lying to him made her.
Harry had since then been one of Hermione's only real confidants. He hadn't told Ginny because he knew how much it would hurt her to think that Hermione trusted Harry more than her. Harry knew that Ginny still clung viciously to her friendship with Hermione, a friendship that had all but disappeared. Harry felt awful for his two best female friends, knowing the exact reason for the deterioration of this friendship even while they remained oblivious. Hermione had dropped hints when they were still in school, and Harry had, of course, picked up on them. Hermione made the mistake of always thinking herself the most observant person in the room, and Harry had used that to his advantage in figuring out the complicated emotions of his confused friend. Hermione was guarded, but would sometimes say things that she assumed could only be picked up her someone who already knew what was going on inside her head. Ginny, on the other hand, was an open book. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and although she tried to hide her emotions, they always came pouring out loud and clear to Harry. He could read what she was feeling with just a glance. Ginny was a vulnerable person, much less resilient than Hermione, and unable to take some of the harsher realities of life. Part of the reason Harry was living with Ginny rather than Ron was because he knew that Ginny wasn't yet ready to be alone. Over the years, once her ridiculous hero-worship of him had died down, Ginny and Harry had become the best of friends, and Harry truly loved her as if she were his own sister. Harry stayed with her to protect her until she was ready to protect herself. The walls around Ginny's heart were made of crepe paper, and Harry was afraid that, if not carefully protected, they would be torn down within an instant. Harry was very careful to protect the people he loved.
Which made it all the more confusing to him when he woke up in the morning to find Hermione and Ginny in bed together. How did she manage to slip by me? Harry thought sullenly as he stood in Ginny's doorway, his eye narrowly observing the two sleeping women.
This is the start of something very bad…
*****
Will continue… maybe. By the by, in case you were wondering, 'Towenaar' means Magician in Afrikaans, and Zuri is Swahili for Beautiful. Man, I love South Africa.
-N