10 - Tactics

The Gryffindor common room was a very busy place when Jimmy and Ritchie ascended the boys staircase the next morning - for a brief moment they thought the large queue was for exiting the portrait hole, but then they noticed a large sign had been pinned to the noticeboard overnight and they went to investigate. It was an announcement that Apparition Lessons were to become available for students turning seventeen before the 31st of August that year - unfortunately for Jimmy and Ritchie, this was not the case for them, and so therefore they were forced to look on jealously as the majority of sixth-years signed their name.

After the queue had thinned and after Jimmy had yielded no results in quickly scanning the room for any sign of silky red hair, they made their way out of the portrait hole with the crowds and down to breakfast before the start of the new term. Jimmy gave the Gryffindor table another sweep for red hair - but he could only see one Weasley, and it was not the one he sought after.

'I still think riding a broom is safer,' Ritchie was in the middle of saying as Jimmy sat down, he had been discussing apparition all the way down to breakfast whilst Jimmy had merely murmured in response. 'Though it would be cool if we could learn it this year, I'm ready - dad refuses to side-apparate Jess and I, says it's far too dangerous.'

'Yeah,' was all Jimmy could do to reply, looking sulkily down at the available dishes for breakfast.

'Were you even listening?' asked Ritchie, already knowing the answer.

'Sure I was,' Jimmy shrugged, 'something about how your dad let you side-apparate?'

'No-'

'No way! You've side-apparated with your dad?' came a squeaky voice beside them, and upon looking around to find the source, Colin Creevey was sitting there, looking up at Ritchie like he was a superhero. 'Hey everyone!' Colin bellowed before Ritchie could retort a response, 'Ritchie here can apparate!'

It was like a tidal wave - the murmur rippled down the table, and suddenly ten- then twenty people were rising from their seats and making their way towards him, whilst Colin begged him to tell him what it was like. Jimmy was ignored completely by the growing crowd and he effectively got pushed away - so he simply decided to throw his bag over his shoulder and leave the Great Hall and Ritchie behind. He got to Herbology early and waited, eventually Ritchie caught up to him fifteen minutes later, red in the face and look very disgruntled.

'Thanks very much for that,' he said impatiently as he approached, his fist and teeth clenched.

'Thanks for what?' Jimmy said coolly, leaning against Glasshouse Two.

But Ritchie didn't have time to reply, the door to the glasshouse opened and Professor Sprout ushered the arriving class into the glasshouse. When Jimmy and Ritchie followed the rest of their class into the glasshouse, a few students could be heard making noises of discontent at the plants that were all lined up in a row in front of - Professor Sprout had a habit of showing them the most ugly of plants - but she was usually pretty spot on when it came to teaching them the right ones - these ones in particular took the cake for being just about the ugliest plants Jimmy had even seen.

In fact, they rather looked like something Hagrid would show them in Care of Magical Creatures - they looked like large and thick black giant slugs, producing out of the soil and each one was squirming slightly and had a number of shiny swellings on it - and appeared to be full of liquid.

'Bubotubers,' Professor Sprout said proudly with a grin.

'Bless you,' Jimmy said in reply and a few people laughed.

'No, Peakes, that is what they are called,' she told him, 'you're all to wear your dragon-hide gloves for this one, you don't want to be getting this stuff on your skin, believe me, can be a terrible mess - and try to collect every last drop into these bottles here for Madam Pompfrey please, very valuable stuff you see.'

Bubotubers pus was incredibly disgusting, Jimmy did not see how it could possibly be valuable, but squeezing the liquid was so oddly satisfying that he did it without any more questions. At the end of the lesson, the class all trudged back to the castle smelling heavily of petrol with Jimmy and Ritchie bringing up the rear.

'It's everywhere,' Ritchie was complaining, and he even took a chunk of his robes to his nose and inhaled. 'It's even on my clothes!'

'Be thankful you didn't spill any on your skin,' Jimmy hissed back as they arrived in the Entrance Hall and saw the rest of the class begin to take the stairs up for History of Magic.

That's when he saw her.

She was descending the same staircase as their class was ascending, and she was moving very slowly against the traffic, and she was having to move either left right every second step. Eventually she made it to the bottom, and he look her up and down - she had her waist-length silky red hair up in a bun, her arms were wrapped around her books that she had pressed against her chest and she looked slightly out of breath. As she began to cross the Entrance Hall, Jimmy was debating with himself whether or not he should call out, to talk to her and maybe understand how she felt about what had happened that night.

But just when he thought he might not, the decision was made for him anyway.

'Hey! Ginny!' Ritchie called out to her beside him, making Ginny stop suddenly and look around for the source.

She saw them standing there and Jimmy couldn't help but notice ever slightly that the lines on her face clenched a little bit. Oblivious to any of this, Ritchie practically lead him over to her and she attempted a smile as they approached.

'Hi guys,' she said still trying to smile.

'How was your Christmas?' Ritchie asked her as Jimmy attempted to hold back.

'Pretty good,' Ginny replied, and Jimmy noticed her push a loose strain of hair back behind her ear, 'and yours?'

'Fine, yeah,' Ritchie grinned, 'got a pretty good haul this year I did-'

Jimmy leant around Ritchie slightly to interrupt. 'He got two more large packets of Chocolate Frogs,' he told her with a wink, before quickly stepping back.

'Oh, that's, nice,' Ginny said, she was turning slightly pink through the awkwardness. 'Well I'd better get to class,' she said, indicating the dungeons with her thumb, 'see you later.'

And she hurried off.

'Well that was-' Ritchie began.

'Awkward,' Jimmy finished for him, nodding, 'I guess your theory was right then.'

'What theory?' Ritchie asked as they began to ascend the marble staircase, 'I have so many of them.'

'The one about her wishing she hadn't kissed me,' Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

'You don't know that,' Ritchie pointed out to him.

They had History of Magic for their next lesson, but Jimmy spent all of it thinking about the complications of Ginny Weasley whilst Ritchie just sat there beside him with his mouth half-open, doodling absently on a random piece of parchment. It was a very dull class about Giant Wars anyway, and the only highlight was when Peeves showed up at the end of the lesson and wrote very rude words about Professor Binns on the classroom blackboard.

If it weren't for the fact that Jimmy had physically seen Ginny in the Entrance Hall that day, he might have believed that she had dropped out of Hogwarts just to avoid him; the rest of the week past without a single sight of her and he was beginning to think he smelt bad or something. Ritchie kept coming up with excuses for her though - perhaps their schedule just worked out that they did not cross paths, and perhaps she was so incredibly busy with homework that she did everything in her dormitory and on her four-poster, in case she fell asleep.

Jimmy and Ritchie both had such large piles of homework by the end of the first week back themselves, they could scarcely comprehend what kind of a load there would be for someone taking their OWLs.

But then very quickly, as if his mind thought that this wasn't very rational thinking, he had become paranoid at the idea that perhaps she was indeed avoiding him; and he began to suggest to Ritchie that she was even going to the extent of taking alternative routes to her classes just so their paths could not meet.

And then he began pointing out other things, like how she appeared to be skipping meals, giving him less of an opportunity to sit and talk with her - and how she appeared to always be in the sanctuary of her dormitory come night time, knowing quite well he could not get to her there, and she did not have to be expected to sit with them or talk with them.

'I'm sure she's not,' Ritchie had said when Jimmy had listed these points of view to him on the way to breakfast Saturday morning, but Jimmy hinted that his words didn't sound assured at all. 'She's just busy with her OWLs, that's all it is. Maybe she'll be at breakfast-'

But she wasn't, and the weekend came and went, and they did not see Ginny once - not even Sunday night, when most of the other students in her year where spotted in the common room relaxing, apparently having at least caught up with everything they had. Some, Jimmy noted, were definitely not as smart as Ginny, and he doubted that they could have finished all their work and she not have.

Again he was not sure if this made him feel better or worse.

Tuesday marked the first Quidditch training session since they were back from Christmas break, and Jimmy half-contemplated the idea that Ginny would not attend simply because of him. But well after everyone else had arrived and gotten into their Quidditch robes, and just as Harry declared they ought to get started without her, she appeared looking quite red in the face.

She gave Jimmy and Ritchie a quick glance, a fleeting smile, but nothing substantial - the rest of the team all headed out onto the pitch (including Ritchie) as she began to get changed, but Jimmy purposely held back, stared at the ceiling and waited for her to turn around and spot him.

'Oh,' she said, just as she had thrown her broom over her shoulder and made for the exit where Jimmy was standing in the way.

'Hi,' Jimmy said coolly, his eyebrows raised.

'Hi,' Ginny had a hard blazing stare when she looked at him, showing neither a positive nor negative expression - she seemed determined to not give him any sign as to what she might be thinking

'Everything all right?' he asked her curiously. 'I've hardly seen you all week-'

'We should be getting out there,' she insisted.

'I thought maybe we could-'

'Practice if we want to beat Hufflepuff? Good idea.'

And she carefully brushed passed him and exited the locker room.

After training was just about the same, Jimmy and Ritchie had barely dismounted their brooms before Ginny had come out the locker room, fully changed, and strode away up the lawn, quickly becoming a silhouette against the castle before disappearing inside of it.

'What's up with her?' they heard Harry ask behind them, and they both turned - half expecting him to be asking them of her - but he was merely talking loudly with Ron.

'Not sure, she's been like that since Christmas,' Ron said with a shrug as they approached Jimmy and Ritchie, 'probably over a boy-'

'She's doing her OWLs isn't she?' Jimmy piped up, hoping not to get snapped at by Ron.

Ron looked at him and furrowed his brow. 'Yeah, she is,' he nodded, 'that could be it,' and he turned back to Harry, 'reckon it reminds me of Hermione a bit, she was snappy and all girl-like last year, you remember?'

'Too well,' Harry said as they moved into the locker room with Jimmy and Ritchie. 'Not like Luna though, she's calmer about her OWLs than I was in my first-year-'

'But that's Luna though,' Ron pointed out.

'It is,' Harry agreed.

'Nothing fazes her,' Ron pointed out some more.

'Nope, nothing,' Harry agreed again.

Rather than hang around and listen to such riveting conversationalists, Jimmy and Ritchie got changed quickly and left, preferring to talk about Ginny's on-going odd behaviour between just the two of them instead.

'Turns out you we're totally wrong on this one after all,' Jimmy was telling him as they ascended the marble staircase, 'she doesn't want to talk at all, not one little bit - it's like I was the one that initiated the kiss.'

'Maybe you were?' Ritchie questioned him.

'I told you, she kissed me!' Jimmy snapped, 'and you said she would want to talk, but she doesn't!'

'I did say it would be complicated,' Ritchie reminded him, 'I'm not wrong about that at least.'

'Well then maybe you should talk to her,' Jimmy suggested to him, 'seems as though you appear to have this god-like understanding of girls.'

'You need to fight your own battles, mate,' Ritchie told him, 'besides, I never said that I understood girls either.'

Jimmy rolled his eyes as they came around the corner to find Peeves had managed to shut Mrs Norris into a suit of armour.

'Fine,' Jimmy sighed, 'maybe it's better that we just leave it, I've pretty much given up hope that things would turn around by now; besides, I'm sure she'd be much happier to be with someone else than me, anyway.'