A/N: Here's Chapter 21! Hope people have time to read this, as I think everyone is on winter break now. I have off until mid January, so I'll be trying to get more chapters up soon.
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Chess
Taylor's good mood as a result of Sean asking her out lasted only momentarily. As soon as the first bright glow of happiness in her stomach began to fade, her mood rapidly spiraled downhill. She spent most of her time either sitting in her dormitory or walking around the grounds when she wasn't in class. Not even being able to concentrate long enough to finish her homework, her grades began to spiral down with her mood. Sean could not figure out what the problem was, constantly demanding if it was something he had done or said that was making her this upset. Taylor always insisted that it had nothing to do with him. In truth, she didn't really know herself what was the problem. It seemed like she had become so used to depression, it was her natural state of mind, rather than being happy. She had also stopped eating again. An apple here and there, enough yogurt to keep her going, and many, many cups of black coffee were what she ingested. Sean was worried about this too. Taylor was running more than ever now, often getting up early to run, and sometimes staying up late to run. Her sleep was a disaster. When she was able to sleep, which was a rare occasion, she constantly dreamed of seeing her dad and being able to do absolutely nothing about it to help him, always awaking upset and agitated. Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione could not do anything, even though Sean had cornered Ginny several times and demanded that she help her ailing friend. On those times, Ginny had glared hard at him and told him that if he thought that she wasn't doing everything in her power to try and help Taylor, he was a buffoon and not worth anyone's time, to which Sean had politely agreed, not wishing to cause any more of a disturbance than necessary.
"Taylor!" Ginny cried, walking over to her friend's four-poster bed. "It's time to get up, want to go down to breakfast?" There was no answer, so Ginny yanked back the curtains. The bed was empty, only her covers piled on her bed. Ginny sighed and sat down hard on the bed. She didn't know what to do; she was at a complete loss. Nothing seemed to be helping Taylor, she hadn't even mentioned her father in a week. Putting her head in her hands, Ginny rubbed hard at her eyes, making little lights pop in her head. She had thought about going to Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore, but she didn't want Taylor to think that she was butting into her life.
Although her life damn well needs butting into, Ginny thought. Agitated, she stood up and walked gloomily out of the door and down the stairs into the Common Room. It appeared to be empty at first, most people still in bed, and those who were up were down at breakfast, until she saw Harry sitting in the corner in an armchair, knees pulled up to his chest and staring out into space. It was such a vulnerable position for him to be in, Ginny had never seen him like this. Carefully, she picked her way through the room towards him.
"Harry?" She asked softly, getting no response. "Harry?" She tried again, louder this time. Still Harry did not respond. Lifting a hand, Ginny touched his shoulder, at which point he jumped and let out a squawk of surprise.
"Sorry to scare you," Ginny said. "Are you doing ok?" Harry stared blankly at her, and then shifted his gaze once again onto the distant nothing, giving his head a sort of nod and a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. Immediately alarm bells went off in Ginny's head. Harry did not just shrug his shoulders when asked if he was ok, he had always insisted that he was fine, even when he wasn't.
"Harry, what's wrong?" She demanded, trying to sound soft, which she wasn't used to being, and at the same time worried, which she was. Harry sighed, looking up into Ginny's eyes.
"I don't know…" His voice trailed off. "It's like Taylor's mood is infectious and I caught the disease," he mumbled, clearly embarrassed. "It's no big deal, I'll be better in a bit, I'm just feeling fairly melancholy right now."
Ginny sat down on the arm of his chair. "Perfectly understandable," she said. "I feel kind of the same way…I just know that I have to be strong, because I know that somewhere along the line, Taylor is going to snap, and it won't be pretty when she does. I'm hoping to hopefully mellow it out as much as possible, but she won't let me – or anyone – help her." Harry nodded.
"I miss Sirius," he croaked, and Ginny knew that he had just admitted his real reason for being upset. Suddenly she felt sympathy poor over her towards Harry. She awkwardly hugged him (being seated on the arm of his chair made it rather hard) and ran her fingers soothingly through his hair like her mum did when any of her children were upset.
"I know," Ginny whispered. "It must be so hard for you, I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help…I know he was the only family you had left, and he was jerked so unkindly from your life."
Harry nodded jerkily again. "Actually, I'm kind of mad a Taylor. I know she probably can't help the funk she's in, but I wish that we could be working harder on this whole thing; I desperately want to see Sirius again. I…" His voice broke off, and Ginny saw a tear squeeze out from his eye and trickle down his cheek. She took her thumb and gently wiped it away.
"I feel bad, I know it's not Taylor's fault that she's falling apart at the seams, but I still have this anger at her. I know it's horrible, I'm such a bad person, she's in such a bad place, she doesn't deserve this anger…"
"Harry, you are not a bad person." Ginny insisted, taking his hand and beginning to massage it, kneading and rubbing, this always made her feel calmer when her mother did this. "I know I feel a bit angry at Taylor too. I wish there was some way we could snap her out of it."
"Do you think we should talk to Professor Dumbledore or McGonagall?" Harry asked.
Ginny paused. She did think that they should. "Not yet. We should give her a while to try and figure this out on her own. I don't want her to get mad at me for butting into her life."
"Yeah, you're right. I just hope she figures this out before too long. I can't take much more of this. I dream of the night Sirius died every night. She didn't even see that."
"Do Ron and Hermione know that you keep having these nightmares?" Ginny asked, studying Harry's face. He looked away from her.
"No," he mumbled. "They always get so tied up about me. I don't want to be another burden on their plates."
Ginny nodded. She often felt the same way at home. With all her brothers being into one thing or another, always in some kind of trouble, especially Fred and George, she had taken to not really telling her parents when she was having problems. She just didn't want to overwhelm them further than they already were.
They sat in silence for a little while, Ginny still rubbing Harry's hand, dimly aware that she was sitting with her long time crush touching his hand. But there seemed to be more pressing matters than that on hand.
Suddenly, Harry asked, "Do you want to play chess?" Ginny looked up at him.
"Sure," she nodded.
"Ok, hang on, I have to go get my board," Harry said, and looking much better, sprang out of his chair and up into the boys dormitory. A few moments later, he came pounding back down the stairs, clutching the board in one hand and a small box containing the pieces in the other.
He plopped down into his chair again, and Ginny obligingly got off the arm of the chair and grabbed a nearby table, which she pulled over, and then sat on the ground opposite Harry.
"Hang on," Harry said again, going a bit red. "You can't sit on the floor, here take my seat," and he bounced up, offering Ginny his chair. Ginny cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Always the Gentlemen, eh, Harry?" She asked, but she smiled and took the seat anyway, her heart pounding a little faster than normal. Maybe, just maybe the Boy Who Lived was coming around to her.
Don't get your hopes up, said a voice in her head, he's probably just being a gentlemen.
Don't be like that, Ginny replied, I was enjoying the thought.
"White or black?" Harry asked, tipping the box over and the pieces spilled out on to the board, which Harry had already placed on the table between them.
"Black," Ginny said.
"You don't want to go first?" Harry asked.
"Na, you forget, I'll beat the stuffing out of you whenever I start."
"According to…?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised.
Ginny grinned, "You forget, once again, I'm the little sister of the boy who got past McGonagall's giant chessboard."
"Ah," Harry said, "I did forget. I suppose I'm in to get my ass whooped, aren't I?"
Ginny's smile broadened, "You bet you are."
Later on in the game, one of Ginny's Pawn's inched forward towards Harry's Bishop as she egged it on.
"No!" Harry shouted, trying to bat it away. "Not my Bishop! Not with a Pawn!"
Ginny giggled and swatted Harry's hand away, "Sorry, next time you'd better wake up earlier if you want to win!" But she couldn't help feeling a slight swoop in her stomach as her skin brushed against Harry's. Their eyes met briefly and Harry gave her a grin that Ginny felt was totally disconnected from their game.
Ginny had soon captured many of Harry's figures and was nearing a check mate. At one point Harry threw his hands up in the air.
"Ah," he exclaimed, "You Weasley's! Why do I ever even try to play against you?"
"It's good for the Boy Who Lived to get beat now and then, it will keep your head from growing too big." Harry prodded a Castel forward and immediately one of Ginny's Knights jumped on him.
"Check Mate," Ginny grinned. Harry examined the board. It was a legitimate check mate.
"Alright, alright," Harry said, but he was grinning too. "You win." Ginny could feel herself beginning to drown in his smile
"What's Ginny won now?" Came a voice from behind Harry and they both jumped.
"Ah, Ron, Hermione" Harry said, suddenly looking really guilty. Ginny felt a swoop somewhere in the pit of her stomach. "Ginny just won at chess," he gestured towards the board.
"Well, is that any surprise?" Ron asked, prodding a first year out of nearby chair and pulling it over to join Harry and Ginny.
"So, guess what?" Hermione asked, perching herself very uncharacteristically on the arm of Ron's chair, like Ginny had on Harry's some time earlier.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"That Ancient Runs exam that I thought I bombed, I actually got one hundred percent on it, although that's only because I did the extra credit, if I hadn't, I would have got a ninety eight percent." She looked genuinely put out.
"But surely, Hermione," Ginny said, "that's better than bombing it?"
"That's not the point! The point is I should have studied harder, my grades are going to crash."
"If my grades were crashing like your grades, I would be very happy," Ron pointed out. Hermione merely scowled at him.
"You don't understand," she muttered. Then she continued, "I'm spending too much time thinking about this Veil and Sirius thing. It's been the only thing I can think about for a while now. And I just can't seem to come up with a logical plan! I can't believe I'm failing this." She looked even more put out than before.
Harry scowled. "Me too. Ginny and I were just saying…" he trailed off and looked at Ginny. This was her friend; maybe he shouldn't be saying this.
"We were just saying," Ginny said and Hermione and Ron's heads snapped on to her face from Harry's, "That Taylor needs to get on it. I don't know what her problem is right now, but honestly, if she is not going to be able to pull herself together, she needs to get help."
"You're willing to just intrude upon her life like that?" Hermione asked.
"Not yet," Ginny replied gravely, shaking her head. "Not yet."
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Hope you enjoyed! A little chemistry between Harry and Ginny. Well, if I don't update from now until Christmas, have a very merry Christmas, or whatever Holiday you celebrate!