Title: 004 – Dinner
Description: Harry/Ginny. Ginny frets over their first official date.
It was just a dinner.
Pasta, some wine, bread, and a dessert. With maybe some romantic music in the background and a few candles. Sweet and simple, right?
Right. It would be a snap for anyone other than Ginny Weasley.
She had been running up and down for a week trying to make things perfect. At the grocery store, she spent over an hour debating between pesto and arabbiata, spaghetti or penne. She'd suckered Hermione into spending half a day with her to pick out the essential little black dress, only to try it on in front of the mirror and decide that she looked like she was going to a funeral. She'd obsessed over the dessert as if her life depended on it, making first key lime pie and then crème brulee before remembering that he preferred the rhubarb crumble and dumping the previous two on Ron.
There was no denying it. Ginny was officially at her wit's end. Now she sat cross-legged in the middle of the kitchen floor with a red dress far worse than the black, wine that definitely did not go with the food, not enough rhubarb, and less than an hour left before Harry was supposed to arrive. 'It's just a dinner,' she told herself over and over as she took deep breaths and fought the irrational tears threatening to engulf her. 'Get it together, G. There has to be more than one way to cook a freaking dessert.'
Finally managing to calm herself down, Ginny threw perseverance to the winds and walked over to the fireplace, riffling through a stack of menus on the way. Sticking her head into the logs, she shouted "The Prolific Oven!" and sprinkled Floo powder around her head, wincing slightly as it began spinning. She was greeted by a kind-looking lady with graying hair.
"How may I help you?"
"Hello. I need a plate of rhubarb crumble, enough to serve two, delivered to my house. Pronto."
"I'm afraid we don't do deliveries, my dear."
"It's for Harry Potter." The words had an immediate effect. A delighted smile spread over the lady's face as she hurried closer.
"Of course, of course! Not a problem at all, lovely. Would you write down your address for me? Excellent, excellent. We'll have someone over in half an hour."
Ginny thanked the woman and with much difficulty zoomed back home, colossally relieved that this one thing was taken care of. She went up to her room next and sighed deeply as she stared at herself in the dress. Picking up her wand, she muttered a spell to turn it green. But who looked good in that much green? And plus, with her bright red hair, she looked like a Christmas present. She changed it to yellow with a blue bow. He did like her in yellow, didn't he? Or had he said white? Would it be better if it was blue with a yellow bow?
After a few more minutes of pondering, she decided she'd leave that for later. She flew around applying makeup and straightening up the little place, coming to a pause in front of the shoe closet. Black? White? Heel or no heel? Were shoes strictly necessary at all, given that they were eating in her house? She skipped the shoes and instead pulled on a light white sweater and put a clip in her hair.
So that was the dessert and dress taken care of. The wine...she may just have to ask Harry to bring some. But was it too late? There were only 20 minutes left, after all, and she'd only managed to make her family promise to keep away for two hours. She cringed at the image of all twenty million of her vivid-haired relatives bursting in as they were saying goodbye. Well, they could always have ginger ale in wineglasses.
The doorbell sounded just as she was lighting the candles, and Ginny's heart skipped a few beats as she thought of the possibility that Harry could come early. He had never exactly been timely as far as visits were concerned. But it was only the delivery man, causing something of a hassle as he stepped inside and fumbled for the bill.
Just as she was ushering him out the door, a familiar figure jogged up the driveway and waved.
"Harry!" She blushed for no reason as he approached in a crisp button-down shirt and pants, complete with tie. "I wasn't expecting you for a while."
"I can see that," he replied with a quick glance at the delivery man. "You seem a little, uh...busy."
"No! No, it's nothing like that -" Ginny snarled and all but pushed the guy down the steps and closed the front door behind Harry as he entered. "That was, um, a delivery. For my father."
Harry nodded and began taking off his shoes. "From the Ministry? I heard they had an engine they wanted him to take a look at."
Ginny's blush deepened. "Yes. That's probably it."
"It's very strangely shaped for an engine," Harry commented as his eye fell on the round package sitting on the small table next to the door.
"Well, who knows with all these Muggle contraptions?" Ginny laughed, guiding him towards the dinner table while mentally kicking herself and Banishing the crumble into the fridge as discreetly as she could with her wand behind her back.
"Oh, for you," Harry said with an abashed smile, handing her a bouquet of flowers.
"They're so pretty!" Ginny gushed and buried her face in the petals for a moment before thanking him and moving away to put them in a vase. She quickly checked her reflection in the glass for any missed mess-ups as Harry entered the dining room.
"Ginny! This is amazing!" He said sincerely, taking her into a hug when she came back and kissing the top of her head, and suddenly all thoughts of dresses and wine flew out of Ginny's head as she breathed in his familiar smell. "It must have taken hours."
"Oh, it was nothing," she smiled back.
How did you like it?