Chapter 2
I really don't know how I did it but I found a way to continue breathing. I was still completely and utterly devastated. But a part of me knew that I had to go on, however hard it may be. Jayda at first kept on with her tactic of being mean and tough but I think she soon realised that that wasn't working. Before long she was instead being as nice as she could be, giving me plenty of hugs (which must have been very hard for her) and saying as many comforting things as she could think of.
It was all going reasonably well. I guess. "There's loads of others, Gin, don't worry. Just don't think about it." She advised in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was very easy to say that but a whole universe harder to actually do it. I was beginning to see just how much harder when dinner time came around a few days later.
"Hogwarts will, for the first time in over 100 years, have an End of Year Ball. All—" Before McGonagall could finish her sentence there were high-pitched squeals of excitement from girls (and some boys) around the Great Hall. A weight the size of several cars and an elephant dropped inside my stomach and I groaned silently. Just what a recently-dumped girl needed.
This was a chance for all the pretty girls to show off how young and pretty they really were in front of their good-looking boyfriends, or in fact any boy (friend or not) that deserved a look. I would not be attending. I simply refused. I mean, yes it was basically a year away, and who knows, maybe by then I might have moved on from Harry and found someone else (yeah right) or better yet, Ruby Harish would have moved away to some far far away country and Harry and I would be back together, the way it should be. But regardless of any of that, I was not going. Not going. Not. Going.
McGonagall then announced that the Ball was only for fifth-years and up (which caused a huge amount of grief and protests from the younger students in the Hall). I genuinely did not care. I looked over at Jayda to see her listening intently to what the Professor was saying. When she was finished, Jayda turned back to me with a big smile on her face.
"Ginny, this is brilliant! I'm so excited for this!" She squealed enthusiastically, acting totally unlike her.
I rolled my eyes. "You don't have anyone to go with either, F.Y.I. You're going to stay with me all night and we can be miserable together, please miss." I asserted firmly.
Jayda was not to be shut down so easily. "No! Ginny, this is for you, this Ball, as ridiculous as I think it is, it'll be good for you. We'll find you another guy, someone totally cute and stupendously amazing and we'll shove him down Harry's throat til he chokes to death!" She laughed evilly and grinned at me, clearly impressed with this idea she had formed in her crazy little head.
I sighed a dramatic sigh. "First of all, I don't want to find another guy. Second of all, I doubt I ever will manage to find another guy. And thirdly, if you kill him then we'll never get back together and you'll be carted off to Azkaban, which I'm sure neither of us could ever handle. Life would be much easier if we just forgot this whole stupid Ball was even happening."
Later that day, what seemed like every single girl at Hogwarts seemed intent on making me feel like the brown stuff that gets stuck on the bottom of your shoe. I couldn't have one conversation with anyone without it turning to something to do with the Ball. Dresses, hair, shoes, make-up, hair, shoes, dresses, colour schemes, matching dresses with dress robes, matching dresses with dresses and make-up with hair (who even knew you could do that?) and so much other inconsequential nonsense that nearly forced me to tear my hair out. Even my best friend of so many years, who was usually of the same mind-set as me, being against girls that are all clones of each other doing what the current trend and fashion tells them to do, Jayda was obsessed with this Ball.
By dinner that same day I had had enough and let my temper and terribly dark mood get the better of me. Afterwards I felt bad about it, but to be honest, she (and every other female I knew) had it coming.
"I think you should wear blue, Gin, or perhaps a nice green. That would look good. Okay so who are we going to set you up with? Robbie Danes in Ravenclaw has always looked good to me." She gasped dramatically. "You two would look so good together, I'll have a chat to him tomorrow for you in—"
She had been vomiting garbage like this all day; I had to put a stop to it. "Jayda, shut up! Seriously, just stop talking! I don't care about any of this stupid drivel you've been harping on about! I don't care about dresses, or the Ball, or bloody Robbie Danes! I am not going. So stop!"
Jayda looked so shocked and taken aback. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally came out with: "Jeez, Ginny, I, I was just trying to help you get over Harry. Calm down."
"Did you ever think that I didn't want to get over him just yet? Hm? You think about that while you were choosing what underwear I'm wearing to the Ball? Just make sure it matches the nail polish you pick out, Jay. Ooh and don't let it clash with Robbie Danes' hair!"
With that final bellow, I noticed how much attention I had drawn to myself. My cheeks went bright red, I cleared my throat and attempted to exit the Great Hall inconspicuously, which proved rather hard to achieve seeing as most its occupants had their eyes on me.
The long walk up to the common room I huffed and puffed angrily and I think by the time I reached the dormitory that the castle was about ready to blow down with all my angst and depression still inside. I sat on my bed for a long time thinking about how miserable my life was at the moment. I had lost the only person I had ever loved. Then I had managed to push my only friend away, the sole person who really cared about how horrible I was feeling. Way to go, Ginny. Kudos on the great interpersonal skills.
I woke in the morning feeling the same as I had every day for the past couple of weeks – like going back to sleep and never waking up. But I put on my brave face and got showered and dressed anyway. Jayda was in the common room reading when I went down. She looked up at the sound of my footsteps and went back to her book when she saw that it was me. Fortunately at least some things were going my way, because the room was mostly empty for my epic apology, which would probably end in tears from me. Not Jayda, she was a stone sometimes.
I perched on the edge of the table in front of her and started. "I guess you're still mad at me, huh?"
She nodded stiffly, her eyes not leaving the book she was so absorbed in. "Yep."
"Well, I should be just as mad at you, you know." She gave me an evil glare as if to say 'yeah right' and returned to her book. Great way to start an apology, Ginny. "Look, I get that you were just trying to help, Jay, but obsessing about that stupid stupid Ball is not what I need right now. I need my friend. I'm sorry that flipped out on you last night, okay?"
She was silent. "And you can stop ignoring me, pretending to read because you're book is upside down, you spaz." I let out a little laugh. When she looked up smiling, I breathed a sigh of relief.
