Wasted Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Ginny Weasley or Harry Potter or anyone else you'll recognise in this story.

A/N: I hope you like this fic, it's a pretty short story about Ginny's night at the Yule Ball. Please tell me if you liked it in a review. And Paula, if you read this I just want to say that my email isn't working so don't bother emailing me.

There I was, trying to make myself look good on the night of the Yule ball. My hair looked no different than usual, vividly red and completely unruly. My brown eyes felt big and stupid as I surveyed myself in the mirror. And of course, the freckles scattered across my face remained the same. I was wearing second hand dress robes that looked like a rather disgusting mouldy violet dress. I scowled at myself in distaste.

I looked over to the girl on my left who shared my dormitory with three other girls and me. Her name was Tabitha, her long dead-straight blonde hair remained unnaturally perfect although I had never seen her brush it, and her deep blue eyes shone. She noticed me looking and smiled, flashing her very even white teeth. I felt green with envy as her silky light pink dressrobes disappeared as she walked out of my eye range. She was the only other girl in our dormitory, besides me, going to the Yule Ball. An exceptionally handsome Beauxibatons boy had asked her out a few weeks before now.

There was a knock on the dormitory door; Tabitha sprinted elegantly to answer it. Seconds later, I could hear a familiar voice, Hermione's voice. I heard Tabitha mention loudly that she had to find her date from Beauxibatons before leaving.

"Er…hi Ginny," said Hermione.

"Hi," I replied without looking at her, I was still glaring at myself in the mirror.

"Just thought I'd pop in and say hello before I meet Victor," Hermione said happily. I looked up at her and my mouth fell open, the Hermione before me…well she didn't look like Hermione in the slightest. In fact I didn't even feel entirely sure she was Hermione. Her hair was sleek and shiny, tied up in a high knot at the back of my head. She was holding her body in a different way than usual, more elegantly and docile than I would have believed from her. I opened and closed my mouth stupidly but no sound came out. She looked as good, perhaps better than Tabitha.

"Thank you," Hermione smiled. I diverted my attention back to the mirror and my awe-struck look became a frown.

"You look nice too," said Hermione, but I didn't reply, I just looked sulkily into the mirror.

"I know you would've liked to be going to the ball with Harry tonight, Ginny," I heard Hermione say.

That's right I thought miserably I would've liked to go to the ball with Harry tonight. And I could of, if I hadn't said yes to Neville first. This made me feel, if possible, worse.

"But maybe you'll meet someone else," Hermione said, before temporarily drifting off. She awoke with a start and clicked her fingers.

"Well, I better find Victor, and you," she said, "better find Neville." With this she strolled out of the dormitory, leaving me alone.

It took a while to gather up enough strength to pick myself off the chair and leave to find Neville. Thankfully, by then the common room was nearly empty, and Harry and his date, it seemed, had already left.

"Hi…Ginny," said Neville in relief, evidently under the impression I wasn't going to turn up.

"Hi Neville," I said dully, hardly lifting my head to greet him.

"Er…shall we go then?" he asked, I had a brief vision of myself saying no and running back up the stairs, crying. Instead I nodded.

"Suppose so," I tried to say brightly, it sounded more like a grunt.

We made our way through the crowd of boys and girls, all chatting loudly in the corridors. I waved hello to Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott.

Soon we reached the Yule ball, loud music filled our ears, and Neville actually clamped his hands over his ears.

One glance was enough to tell me only the champions and their partners were dancing at the moment. Neville found us both seats while I stared determinedly at the floor. However, the gleaming floor was not enough to stop me throwing occasional looks of deep jealousy at Parvati Patil, who was dancing with Harry. Parvati seemed very happy; I would've been too in her position. Harry, however, looked uncomfortable. I wondered if he would've looked uncomfortable in my arms, probably, I answered myself, Parvati's prettier than I am.

I sighed and tried not to look at Harry and Parvati, I watched Hermione and Victor Krum for a while, though I felt slightly jealous Hermione was with a teen international Quidditch star and I was with Neville. I turned my gaze to Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, a huge fire of jealousy burst inside of me, I didn't like Cho - but she was the one Harry liked, not me.

Other couples were filling the dancefloor, I knew it was only seconds before…

"Er, Ginny, would you-" Neville stuttered, I cut him off and tried to forget about the envious thoughts that flooded my brain.

"Ok, that would be nice," I stretched my mouth into a fake wide smile, whether Neville noticed it was fake I shall never know.

He led me and we danced for while. It seemed like hours, Neville was not a good dancer and was constantly ending up on my feet and apologising. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Harry was looking at us, I winced as Neville stood on my already very sore feet.

"Neville, I think I should go and get some drinks, I'm thirsty," I lied, but it worked, I was able to throw Neville off. I did go to get drinks, so Neville wasn't suspicious. I sat down at the far end of the hall out of sight sipping my drink, lost in thought.

I blinked, Harry was coming towards me, he was smiling, Parvati had left him for some Beauxibatons boy. But he was looking at me. His bright green eyes were gazing at my own brown. I gazed back at him, expecting him to walk straight past me to talk to someone behind me. But he didn't. He was slowing down; he slowed until he was standing right in front of me. He poked me hard on the shoulder…

I blinked again; it wasn't Harry, just a fifth year Hufflepuff boy looking slightly annoyed.

"Excuse me? But could you move? You're blocking the way to the drinks," he said loudly. Reluctantly I shifted my seat to the left, leaving his path clear, I'd finished my drink while I'd been dreaming, I put the empty goblet on the floor. It had been such a good dream…

Harry took my hand. We locked eyes.

"Sorry," he told me, "I've never seen you look so beautiful though, and, I'm not very good at it but could we dance?" My heart lifted, I nodded, unable to speak. He led me out, I had to steer, he'd told me he didn't want to, it was bliss. A memory I wanted to keep pictured in my head forever. We danced for ages, although it seemed like only minutes, unlike with Neville. Harry was really getting the hang of dancing, but the he stopped and brought me back to the far end of the hall.

"Do you think we could find a place more private?" He whispered to me, I was so happy I couldn't speak. We saw Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies looking very busy in the bushes. Harry and me were very busy too, we didn't want to be disturbed, unfortunately we were…

A boy had knocked over my goblet and was handing it back to me. The sound of it clang against the floor had shook me out of my daydream. Now he stood before me.

"I suppose you want me to move out of the way too?" I asked angrily, I had now been shaken out of my dream world twice. Both times by boys who looked like they didn't care.

"No," the boy said, I had seen him before, he was a Ravenclaw in Harry's year, "it's just, you look beautiful, and I wondered if you'd like to dance?"

So we did. He told me his name was Michael Corner. And I thought, maybe it was time to let Harry go, maybe Hermione had been right.