Captain or Queen
"My life is over! This is the end!" Ginny was stretched across the bed, her arm flung across her eyes. Letting out an exaggerated sigh which somehow fell into a deep groan, she faked a few sobs before falling silent. She peeked out from behind her arm to see her best friend sitting casually in an armchair, flipping through a muggle magazine. What she didn't see was the large and pointed eye-roll that the witch had done moments earlier. A few minutes ago, Hermione was sitting in a comfortable silence pondering her thoughts and/or peacefully reading about normal, 'everyday' muggle life when Ginny had burst in and dramatically fallen onto the bed, spouting nonsense about difficult choices and stupid writers.
"You're life isn't that over! Stop exaggerating!" Hermione sighed, not even looking up from the unmoving pages of the latest issue of 'Woman's Weekly'. The youngest Weasley groaned again, turning in the bed to face Hermione.
"Yes, it is!" She said, then seemed to drop all dramatics at once. "You don't understand."
Hermione, sensing this change, looked up and caught the look of desperation and hints of tears.
"Gin, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, letting the pages fall together and placed the magazine beside her. She stood and found her way to the side of the bed, resting a hand on her friends shoulder. "What happened?"
"Apparently I have to decide whether I want to be taken serious as an athlete," the red-head said, her head falling against the bed, "or if I want to be with Harry." Hermione frowned.
"Why would that change anything?" The older asked, tracing small circles in her friends back. Ginny explained, through a heightening amount of emotion, that the recruitment team for the Holyhead Harpies had considered her for a spot on their team. But, she wasn't chosen because of an article that the Prophet had released the day before claiming that her 'fame' and 'talent' was all bogus, and only to be attributed to her 'relationship' with the Boy-who-lived. Hermione was fuming by the end of it. Not just at the Prophet, or the 'good-for-nothing-worthless-piece-of-crap-that-was-most-likely-Skeeter' who wrote it, but also at the Holyhead Harpies for basing their choice on the words of such a 'vile creature'.
The two girls, now curled up enjoying some ice-cream while meticulously sculpting two angry letters, spent the night trying to think of a way that Ginny could get over this. At one point Harry was even called – and after holding him back from cursing the parties in question – they managed to ask his opinion on the matter.
"Why don't I just say that you're crap?" He smiled. "Worst Quidditch player I've seen! Definitely not one of the people I would want on any team I was playing with slash rooting for." Ginny found a smile forming on her face and knew that no matter what, letting go of Harry was not an option.
They spent the rest of the night hurling insults at the Prophet, for which Ginny would someday head up the Wizarding World's leading sports section, and at the Harpies – from whom Ginny would receive an owl tomorrow outlining the miscommunication of the situation, and their apologies – and for whom she would captain under the proud name of Ginerva Potter.
A/N: Words – 544
Hogwarts Assignment: Defence Against the Dark Arts – "Write about a character which has failed to cross the hurdle or obstacle in their life, goals, or dreams. The character must experience being setback in their plans…"
Extra Prompts: Dialogue – "You're life isn't that over! Stop exaggerating!"