Chapter 9: Try Something Out
It was nearly 10:00AM when Harry finally arose the next morning. He looked over at a still slumbering Ginny before gingerly untangling himself from her and putting on his glasses. He made a quick call to Kreatcher and before long the elf was delivering a tray of tasty looking pastries, the smell of which finally awakened Ginny from her slumber. "Morning Beautiful," he said grinning at her.
"Beautiful, do you really think Hermione would want you calling me that?" she asked rubbing her eyes
"Well since all of this was her idea in the first place I'm pretty sure she'd be okay with it. Besides, can't a guy just notice a pretty girl, especially a pretty naked girl," Harry said with a smirk.
"Yeah about that, any idea where my clothes are?" she asked holding the covers up to her bare chest.
Harry walked over and grabbed the neat pile of clothes that had been placed on his trunk and handed them to Ginny. "Here love," he said before going to get the tray.
As he was walking back towards the bed he couldn't quite take his eyes off of Ginny's body as she pulled her bra and knickers back on before pulling her shirt and pants back over herself. "You know a girl always knows when she's being gawked at right?" she asked grinning over at Harry.
"Well you know, it was dark last night. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any weird moles or something," he said chuckling before Ginny hit him with a pillow.
Twenty minutes later they were sitting in bed, eating their breakfast and discussing that afternoons tryouts when Hermione walked into the room. "Morning Mione," Harry said getting to his feet and giving Hermione a soft kiss on the lips.
"Morning babe," she replied smiling and blushing.
"Oh God you two are insufferable," Ginny said, whipping off her face before coming over to great Hermione. "Harry I swear if you ever call me Gin or anything like that you'll find yourself Bat-Bogied," she said with a smirk.
"Oh I think it's cute," Hermione said smiling.
"Well good, he can get that out of his system with you," Ginny replied.
"So I'm assuming you two had a fun date?" Hermione asked smiling at the two of them.
"Well the end was certainly fun. You're right love, he does know all the right moves," Ginny said with a smirk towards Hermione.
"Oh I know, and he claims that I was his first," she replied grinning.
"Are you two really going to stand here and rate my performance with me standing right here?" Harry asked.
"Well I'd give you an 'A' if it helps," Ginny replied giggling.
"Oh yes, it could certainly be in the running for your best subject," Hermione offered.
"I'm never talking to either of you again," Harry said grinning and shaking his head and starting to walk towards the door.
"Oh no Harry you stay. I need to go get cleaned up and ready for tryouts. Something tells me Hermione will want to give you a proper good morning," Ginny called.
"If he's late for tryouts please don't hold it against him," Hermione mentioned.
Now it was Ginny's turn to shake her head before walking over to Harry and leaning in to give him a quick kiss. "Thank you so much for everything. I'll never forget it," she whispered to him. "See you later love," she said to Hermione before making her way down the stairs.
Finding themselves alone again Hermione turned to Harry, "You did good babe. I haven't seen her that happy since before Dumbledore died," she said as she walked over to him and they wrapped their arms around one another.
"Well she definitely needed it. I actually feel bad for not realizing just how down she was," he replied.
"So do you love her still?" she asked.
He looked into her eyes apologetically as he nodded his head. "I'm sorry," he stated.
"Harry no, don't you dare be. Do you still love me?" she asked.
"More than ever," he said smiling brightly at her.
"Well then we are completely fine. I can feel even more love radiating from you then I could before. It's quite remarkable really and it is also making it very difficult to keep from pulling you onto that bed right now," she said enthusiastically.
"Well don't let me stop you," he said and he picked her up and carried her over to the bed. It sure was a good thing he had his own personal house elf because he sure was messing up the sheets a lot recently.
...
Later that afternoon Harry and Ginny stood in front of a crowd of 75 or so of their fellow Gryffindors, having already weeded out the members of other houses that had tried to sneak through with the help of Professor McGonagall, ready to begin tryouts.
"Alright," Ginny began. "It seems only fair to be honest with you, chances are only two of you lot will be making the team. While we will be trying out for all spots, save my chaser spot, we do return four other people that have been on the team before so if you have any designs on beating them out you had better be on top form." Jimmy Peaks, Ritchie Coote and Demelza Robins all smiled and nodded at each other from the front of the crowd. "So first up we need to find ourselves some chasers. Those wishing to try out for chaser come this way." With that more than half of the group peeled off and Ginny quickly separated them into smaller groups. She sent Harry to the hoops and blew her whistle for the first group to begin. The first several groups were quite pitiful as even Harry, who out of all the positions was probably the worst at keeper still managed to save every attempt that came his way. Most of the time those trying out where just struggling to stay on their brooms and hold the quaffle at the same time let alone try and find the goal. But after a few groups there were some signs of improvement. Demelza came up and showed everyone how it was done properly as she wizzed several goals passed a diving Harry. The group working with her seemed to be clicking as well as Seamus outstripped the bludgers to find his mark a few times as well. After announcing Seamus and Demelza as the teams chasers Ginny next called for beaters. Only two first years came up to tryout against Jimmy and Ritchie but it quickly became clear that it wouldn't have mattered who they came up against, Jimmy and Ritchie were in top form, their accuracy and power improving greatly since Harry had last seen them play. Next up Ginny asked for those that wished to try out for seeker. Harry walked forward and all around just stared at him in wonder. "Okay then," Ginny announced grinning at Harry. "Harry I guess we'll take you."
"Thanks," he said smiling back at her.
"Alright that just leaves keeper," Ginny announced and the 10 remaining students including Neville stepped up. Two at a time Ginny sent them up to guard the hoops while the chasers tried to score and the beaters and Harry tried to distract. Several did okay with following the quaffle around but most really struggled with the distractions Jimmy, Richie and Harry were throwing their way. Finally, after a miraculous save that Neville made while still talking to Harry the choice was made. Ginny thanked everyone for coming before leading her team into the locker room. "Well done everyone, well done. With this year being the celebration year I don't think there's a better way to celebrate then with that Quidditch Cup but we know everyone else will be gunning for us. We'll start practice this week and I expect everyone to study their playbook.
With that everyone began to file out of the locker room but Ginny lightly grabbed Harry's arm and held him back. "Are you and Hermione still okay?" she asked once everyone else had left.
"Oh yeah, remember this was all her idea in the first place."
"Oh good, you two really are great together."
"Yeah it seems to be working out, though this whole thing is getting a little weird."
"It is. I mean I know Hermione has her plan but I sure don't understand what exactly she's playing at right now," Ginny stated.
"No I don't think anyone does but her," he replied grinning.
"Harry, do you think you could make yourself scarce tomorrow evening. I think I really need to talk to Hermione."
"Of course Beautiful," he replied. "I can always use more time to get ready for my classes this week. Someone kept me pretty busy yesterday," he said grinning.
"Oh stop," she replied and he pulled her in for a brief kiss.
"Go talk to Hermione and please do figure out what she has up her sleeve in terms that a normal sane person can understand," he said grinning.
"I'll do my best," she replied and they left the locker room together and headed back to the castle.
