Harry sat by himself at the table. Ron and Hermione who seemed to have finally gotten it together were dancing on the dance floor, apparently completely oblivious of the fact that there were any other people in the room.
He glanced across the room to where Ginny was standing with some of her friends. She looked beautiful. The light from the overhead chandeliers seemed to catch her hair making it glow like spun gold. He smiled wistfully; it seemed ironic somehow that the second he'd noticed exactly how amazing she was everybody else did too and she had moved on from him. The crush she'd once had on him seemed to have evaporated. They had become friends sure, but Harry wanted more than that. She looked up suddenly and caught his eye, she smiled self-consciously at him. Harry smiled back and turned his attention back to the serviette he had been shredding in his hands.
He sighed. This was his final year at Hogwarts and he hadn't had a girlfriend in the entire time he'd been there. Unless you counted the short lived relationship he'd had with Cho Chang, he didn't. It was hard to have a relationship when there was something like the death of Cedric hanging over you. He glanced up to where Ginny was standing. She was gone.
Almost out of habit panic started to rise inside his chest until it had painfully constricted his breathing. What if Voldemort had gotten her, or a Deatheater or worse… Malfoy had asked her to dance and she'd accepted. A tap on his shoulder caused Harry to jump about a metre in the air. He turned around expecting the worst. It was Ron.
"Oh… Ron…it's you"
"Who were you expecting? Harry mate are you alright?"
"Yeah, fine, I just thought that we were being invaded by deatheaters"
"You thought we were what? Harry did you forget that we destroyed You-Know-Who last year, all of the Deatheaters have been locked up in Azkaban. Did you hit your head or something?"
Harry grinned sheepishly "You know I'm starting to wonder myself"
"Ask her to dance"
Harry looked at Ron incredulously "What?"
"Go on you great prat, you think I haven't seen you looking at my sister all night with that wistful expression on your face"
"Wistful? You've been hanging around Hermione too long"
Ron turned the customary Weasley red "Yeah maybe, just go and ask her"
"Ginny doesn't like me like that anymore, and you're telling me you'd be ok with me dancing with your little sister?"
Ron made a face "Better you than Malfoy, and trust me I've talked to Ginny about it, she won't say no"
"I don't even know where she is"
"Try the punchbowl"
Harry swallowed nervously. Great he thought I can face the greatest evil known to the wizarding world, but I can't ask a girl to dance.
Ron turned back to Hermione and led her back onto the dance floor.
"Did Ginny really talk to you about Harry?" she asked
"No, but I figured they were never going to get together on their own."
"You are positively evil"
"Damn straight"
Harry watched them leave enviously why couldn't we just have leapt straight to that stage? Because you didn't like her when she liked you did you? Well…I was busy…fighting the dark lord and stuff. Some Gryffindor you are, you can't even ask someone younger than you to dance. SHUT UP! Right I was going anyway.
He stood up awkwardly and ran a hand through his tousled hair. This was it, the ultimatum, the now or never kind of moment…only problem was he couldn't seem to get his legs to move. Ok Harry, we went over this…right foot, then the left one…honestly who would have known little Ginny Weasley could reduce the great Harry Potter to this?
Right that was it. It was move now or be perpetually bugged by the voices in his head. Actually maybe that would work as a pick up line hey Gin, want to dance so the voices in my head will leave me alone?
Harry sighed audibly and forced his feet to walk towards the punch bowl. She was standing next to it, an empty glass in her hand. She was staring into the crowd almost wistfully, chewing anxiously her lip. Harry could feel the now familiar heat start to spread up his cheeks damn she was cute.
He strode purposefully towards her and came to a stop by her side. She turned to face him and smiled slightly.
"Oh hello Harry"
And his insides promptly turned into a puddle of goo. Now if only he could remember how to speak.
First you say hi.
"Umm hello Gin"
Good, good…now tell her she looks pretty
"You look err really umm good tonight"
Great work Einstein you've really pulled off that suave look
She smiled "you don't look so bad yourself"
There's your hint! Ask her to dance NOW!
"Err Gin, do you…umm"
SPIT IT OUT BOY
"Dance?" he finished kind of pathetically.
Well I suppose it could have gone worse
Suddenly a particularly breathless looking Colin Creevy appeared.
"Hi Ginny, would you like to dance? Oh hello Harry, didn't see you there"
And there you go
Ginny looked from Harry to Colin and back again.
"I'm sorry Harry; I told Colin earlier I'd dance with him, the next song ok?"
Harry shuffled his feet dejectedly "umm sure"
And with that she was gone, her arm tucked neatly into Colin's elbow.
He turned and walked, slightly more in a storming way than he intended…and collided directly into Ron.
"Harry, mate where are you going?"
"Yeah you were so right Ron" he fumed "Look over there" he gestured wildly towards the dance floor "what do you see?"
Ron grinned "there's Snape about to blast Lavender and Seamus for getting too cosy over there"
"Not that, the other that"
"Umm?"
"GINNY! She's dancing with that selfish little git"
"Colin? Steady on mate, they're just friends"
"She chose him over me" he complained
"Oh have a whinge, she was probably just being nice, you know Ginny and she probably thought you only asked her to dance out of pity"
"But you know I didn't!"
"Well tell her that"
"She's dancing with camera-boy"
"Then cut in, be bold Potter, stop being such a stupid sodding git and get my sister to dance with you"
Harry half smiled "I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth"
"Yeah well, don't you try any funny stuff you hear? Just dancing"
"Yes sir"
Once again Harry ventured for the dance floor, nerves threatening to completely overwhelm him and send him crashing to the floor in a dead faint at any moment. Focus Harry, just…pretend she's in her underwear! Great! Thanks for that mental picture, now asking her to dance is going to be SO much easier. Well you don't have to be like that about it.
He spotted Colin and Ginny immediately. Ginny was dancing fairly sedately and particularly gracefully now that Harry thought about it. Colin was getting a little more enthusiastic and Harry began to think he looked rather like he was trying to do his best impression of a chicken. Harry took a deep breath and strode purposefully onto the dance floor. The song playing ended as he got closer to Ginny. Wow, timing go me! Don't get so excited, she might say no. Thank you, I'm so glad I have an eternal optimist residing in my head.
He cleared his throat nervously and looked at Ginny "it's the next song" he said softly
"I noticed that too"
"You owe me a dance"
"You're right, I do"
"Really? I mean, so uh do you want to then?" this was going better than expected. He glanced at Colin who'd stopped his chicken dance for the time being, he looked uncomfortable.
Ginny gave Colin a smile and looked back at Harry "I'd love to"
Harry grinned brilliantly at her and led her onto the dance floor. A quiet song filled the air and Ginny slipped her arms around Harry's neck.
"So…you look really erm pretty tonight"
A slight blush crept across Ginny's face and she looked up at him.
"You really think so?"
"Of course I do! any guy in this room would give his right arm to dance with you! you're beautiful"
Harry could feel his face turn bright red as he realised exactly what he'd just told her.
"I mean, umm"
Ginny just smiled at him.
"So…you and Colin, looked good….dancing"
Ginny wrinkled her nose slightly "really? I thought he looked a bit like an overexcited chicken"
Harry smiled warmly and couldn't help but feel slightly smug as a slight red tinge crept up her cheeks. He glanced at her mouth and swallowed nervously. This was it, his opportunity. He leant forward. Just as their lips were about to touch the noise of splintering wood filled the air.
Harry turned abruptly to see a cloaked figure flanked by a swarm of deatheaters fill the doorway, the door lying in what looked suspiciously like matchsticks on the floor.
An eerie high pitched voice filled the air "Potter, I have come"
Harry had his wand in his hand in about a second flat. He glared angrily at the cloaked figure. "Oh for FUCK'S SAKE!" he practically screamed "I was just dancing with the girl I love and I was about to kiss her and you just storm in and completely destroy the moment."
He was so staring daggers at Voldemort, he was completely oblivious to Ginny's eyebrows almost disappearing into her hairline when she heard the word love come from the mouth of Harry Potter in relation to her. He also missed the seething look he received from Ron and the mutter he made under his breath. "I said he could ask her to dance, I never said he could fall in love with her!"
And with that Harry began firing off random curses, sparks of light shooting from the end of his wand. Within seconds all of Voldemort's deatheaters lay dead or injured on the ground. Voldemort looked down at his followers scattered around him and the fiery glare Harry was giving him.
"Oh fu…."
All of the other students scattered around the great hall stared at Harry open mouthed. Ron whispered fiercely to Hermione "remind me never to get him angry"
He shot a glance at Harry "umm so Harry mate, good luck with Ginny and all that" but Harry wasn't paying any attention to him.
He looked quickly at Ginny, who was still doing her best impression of a stunned mullet. "I'll be right back"
He turned to Dumbledore "Get Sirius, now"
Dumbledore narrowed his eyebrows in confusion, until he saw the body of Peter Pettigrew, lying on the floor unconscious, his gleaming silver hand having disappeared with the death of Voldemort.
"Certainly" and with that he disappeared out the door, his robes flowing behind him.
Satisfied that he could get back to what he had been doing previously, Harry turned back to Ginny and gave her a grin. "where were we?"
She gave him a weak smile "love?"
Harry's smile hesitated for a second "yeah?"
Ginny broke into a wide grin "good"
And with that, they both leaned in to finish what they had started earlier. A huge round of applause filled the air as they both quite happily made out in the middle of the dance floor, completely oblivious to the presence of anyone else.