Lady In Red
an H/G fanfic by acclaimed author of Freaky Flying: Summer Nights, HiSpAnIcPaNiC
a/n: technically, this is the sequel to FF:SN, but it can also stand alone. However, if you'd like to go and read that, who am I to stop you?
Rating: T
Setting: The end of Ginny's seventh year at Hogwarts, after the war, at her Graduation Ball.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter…well, then I would know who the Half-Blood Prince is, now wouldn't I? I also do not own the song "Lady In Red", whose lyrics are scattered throughout this story.
Onward!
C H A P T E R O N E :
"It's funny, isn't it?" Ginny Weasley sighed, taming a snarl in her crimson hair before her vanity, "the person we spend most our lives watching in the mirror is the one we know least about."
She gave her reflection a gruesome twist of the face, oddly distorting her scattered freckles.
"You're not alone there," said Hermione Granger, somewhat reminiscently, smoothing the covers on Ginny's four-poster bed. "Goodness, it's nice to be back. There was a time in which I'd thought I'd never set foot in Hogwarts again."
Ginny set down her brush and turned to face her friend.
"I'm really glad you came tonight, Hermione. You and Ron. I know you lot are busy with jobs and life and things…and it means a lot to me that you're here. I only wish Harry…" she broke off, leaving the sentence hanging in midair like a bird without wings.
It had been awhile since she'd last thought of Harry Potter. Their relationship had taken some bizarre twists and turns, starting and stopping and starting again like a rogue Bludger. Then again, the war had rendered them all a bit funny…
"He still asks about you, you know," Hermione said conversationally. "He was glad you invited him to come, but things at the Ministry have been insane lately."
"Well, it's my Graduation Ball, Hermione," said Ginny, now fastening earrings with shaking hands and betraying her nonchalant voice. "He was a big part of my life for quite some time. How could I not invite him?"
"The last breakup was hard for both of you," mused Hermione in sympathetic tones, "and even though you both agreed you needed that time apart, I'm not sure it proved what either of you were expecting." The confusion in her voice was evident, as if she had lost thread of what she had been saying.
"What I mean to say is, I can understand why you didn'twant a date—"
"I'm doing fine without him," Ginny cried defensively, now rummaging in her jewelry box for a matching bracelet, but instead entwining her fingers in a long silver chain with a ring on the end. Instantly her mind fluttered back to the beginning of her fifth year, on a rainy day in September:
---
"Lupin said it was my mum's," Harry said quietly. "And I want you to have it." "It's beautiful, Harry…but I can't…"
Ginny gasped, gazing at the ring on the end of the chain. In the center of the emerald stone, a small carved, white lily glistened.
"Please?" He didn't wait for a reply, but fastened it around her neck. "This way…no matter what happens… I'll always be with you."
"Harry, don't say things like that…you'll be alright."
"I'll be alright for as long as I live…as long as I have you."
---
"So, are we together, or what?" Ginny asked, nuzzling into Harry's shoulder.
"If you're asking if we're romantically involved, then yes. If you're asking if I'll protect you, then definitely. If you're asking if I love you, then, of course, for all eternity. I look into your eyes and it's like I see what I've been missing for so long."
"Me too," she said softly, meeting her lips with his. "Me, too."
---
Harry's promise…
"Eternity's pretty short these days," Ginny muttered dryly, under her breath.
"Erm…well, I can see you've got loads left to do," Hermione said, causing Ginny to start; she had forgotten Hermione was there. "I'll just go find Ron and keep him company until it's time for the feast. We'll be waiting by the marble staircase."
And she shut the dormitory door with a snap.
"How come Ginny gets a Graduation Ball while we got diddly squat?" Ronald Weasley groused, standing at the foot of the marble staircase with his girlfriend.
"Because it was her clever idea, and as Head Girl the teachers gave her a certain amount of social authority," Hermione replied vaguely, her thoughts still in Gryffindor Tower with Ginny.
"Are you proud of her, Ron?" she asked suddenly.
"Erm…sure?" Ron said, because this was, apparently, the right thing to say.
Hermione gave him a look. "No, seriously. I mean, she'll be the last Weasley to have come through Hogwarts for awhile, which is why I think she worked so hard this year. So she could be something you were all proud of—as a young woman, not as your baby sister."
"She proved she's not so little anymore…to all of us, during the war," reflected Ron quietly, after a short silence, but he was spared continuance of a heartfelt confession; Ginny, smiling nervously, was making her way towards them.
"Do I look alright?" she queried, accepting Ron's outstretched hand off the stairs.
"Wonderful," breathed Hermione, her eyes shining.
"Ron?" Ginny met his eyes, searching for approval.
He kissed her hand and said in a gruff voice, "Yes. Beautiful."
And although he would never admit it to Hermione, as he escorted Ginny into the Great Hall through the applauding crowd of grateful graduates, Ron wondered exactly when his little sister's stature had become long and graceful; when her eyes had lost that innocent shine and been replaced by an eager gleam for life's adventures; when her lips had stopped poking her tongue out at him and began to house that enchanting smile…
I've never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight
I've never seen you shine so bright
I've never seen so many men ask if you wanted to dance
They're looking for a little romance, given half a chance
I have never seen that dress you're wearing
Or the highlights in your head that catch your eyes
I have been blind.
"Save me a dance, Gin?" he heard the boys call as they walked by her table during dinner. She would smile and nod and give a little wave, but even Ron could tell not one of those boys was the one she really wanted.
"Ginny? Don't you have to open the ball?" Hermione asked sometime later, as the dinner plates were cleared and the lights were dimmed.
Ginny, who had been watching the band set up, nervously brushed her dress robes. "I'd almost forgotten," she admitted with a laugh.
"Well, take your pick, Gin. Good thing Mum and Dad are off on that second honeymoon, otherwise they might thump each of the twenty offers I've heard so far," Ron said comfortably, leaning back in his chair and gazing at the Head Boy as hemade the announcement to clear the floor.
"Yes, but not one of those offers came from the bloke I was hoping would ask," Ginny teased, fluttering her eyelashes at her older brother playfully.
"…and now, to open the first ever Hogwarts Graduation Ball, your Head Girl, Ginevra Weasley!"
Even through the thunderous applause, Ginny heard Ron quietly ask, pointing over her shoulder and grinning, "You mean him?"
And even with so many warm bodies in stuffy dress robes, ice flooded the pit of her stomach when the voice behind her murmured, "May I have this dance?"
a/n: well, there you have it, chapter one. What more is there to say exceptreview...that is, if you want to find out the conclusion?
Un Beso Dulce,
HiPa