A:N: YAY! I got such great feedback for the preview of The Serpent and the Siren! A lot of people were asking when it was going to be posted up, and I was thinking that I'd probably put it up at the same time as Fast-Forward. I'm not sure – it hasn't got a strong plot yet. Mergh. Also, I want to point out that this chapter is actually two chapters squished together, because I didn't like drawing all of this out. So if it's kinda screwy, sorry. Well, here's the next chapter of Press Play, thank you for the reviews!
snakes and lions unite, I would love to be your beta, by the way! I'm reading your fic as we speak… or as I speak, really. Either way. Which one is it that I'm beta-ing? Or both? Or is it not posted up yet?
Disclaimer: I don't own Ginny or Tom or Hogwarts or the Wizarding World or Dippet or Dumbledore or Flitwick or Slughorn. However, I do quite a lot of other characters, as I made them up, and the plot is entirely mine.
Press Play
Chapter Thirty-Five: Happy Endings
She didn't want to try out for Quidditch again. She didn't want to be on the team anymore. Quidditch had put one of her friend's in a coma. Quidditch was a sport for whooshing through the air like not a problem could hold you down.
Ginny had so many problems that the broomstick would fall out of the air.
She buried her face in the pillow. She wanted to know what he had wanted to say. She wanted to know why he'd come. She wanted to see him. She wanted to hold onto him and never let him go. So, because of these wants, she deliberately hit her head on the bedside table, for being so pathetic.
xxx
Ginny was given a big welcome when she got back to Hogwarts. Well, not massive, but a few people had turned out to welcome her, so it was bigger than nothing. She suspected that Grace had organised this. Standing in a big crowd by the Entrance Hall stairs was Philippa, Alden, Ramira, Scott, Jack Swithin (to her immense surprise), Flora (also to her surprise), Heather Tristanebury, Celine Xavier, Antonia Durrell, Mia Brown (a Gryffindor Prefect from last year, who Ginny had never really talked to, but held nothing against), Bernard, Edouard Devin, and several people who she didn't even know.
"Hello," she said, blinking at them all. "Er. What are you doing here?"
The majority rushed forwards to hug her, while Jack Swithin and the ones that she didn't know stood awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot, before approaching warily, not really in their forte.
"Grace," said Ginny warningly, scowling at the other girl, who'd accompanied her back from St. Mungoes'. "I'll get you back for this."
Then she was drowned in hugs, and grins, and 'oh we were so worried's. Ginny was quite pleased that Scott had turned up, as he had been avoiding her for a while after the last time that she'd snapped at him.
"Scott!" she said, beaming. "I thought that you'd forgotten about me!"
"No," he muttered, seeming to resent something that he didn't say aloud, but then he smiled. "Are you okay? Philippa told me what happened. I can't believe the nerve of-"
Ginny tuned out of the rest of what Scott had to say, turning away from him so that she wouldn't have to hear it, and embraced Antonia instead, assuring everyone that she was fine.
Because I am, she reminded herself. I'm fine.
Jack came up to her, the last person. "You're trying out for the Quidditch team, right?" he asked gruffly.
She hesitated. She'd already decided on the answer to this – a definite no. But somehow, when she was asked so outright, she wasn't sure. "I…" she bit her lip. "…Yeah, I am." She sighed.
"Good." Jack nodded, and uncomfortably added something unintelligible. She caught the phrase 'glad you're better' before he sloped off towards the dungeons.
xxx
Every free period for a week was spent taking mock exams. Ginny didn't have any time to revise for them, as she had to also catch up on not only last week's homework, but this week's as well. Grace helped as best as should in between revising for her real NEWT exams, but it wasn't enough.
Everything was 'pay attention, Miss Peregrine', 'are you listening, Miss Peregrine', 'your homework standard is slipping, Miss Peregrine', 'this really isn't good enough, Miss Peregrine' until Ginny was sick of it. She couldn't cope.
She was walking to the library to try and get some peace and quiet for her homework, but walked into someone.
"Oh, hi, Scott," she said, trying to side-step past him. He side-stepped with her, so that he was still in her way. "Scott, move. I need to do my homework. Seriously, I'm not in the mood for this."
"You're not in the mood for anything anymore," said Scott, looking down at her with a sad note in his eyes.
"And why do you think that is?" she asked coldly, narrowing her eyes at him. She couldn't be bothered to hate anyone, and she was being nicer to him, but hell, that didn't mean that he was forgiven for what he'd done.
"Ginny, what's the bloody point in being horrible to me?" Scott said, angry now. "Yeah, okay, so maybe I screwed up in my stupid jealousy and accidentally got your precious little boyfriend busted. He got out, didn't he? But the fact that he's broken up with you isn't my fault, so stop trying to blame me!"
Precious little boyfriend-
Her temper flared like throwing a match into a sea of petroleum. "I'm not blaming you for what he did. I'm blaming you for being an insensitive arsehole!" she snapped.
"What?"
"Everything, all the time! 'Oh, Ginny, it's fine, he wasn't much of a boyfriend anyway'. 'Don't worry, nothing lasts forever, you know. It's normal for this to happen'. 'How are you feeling, Ginny?' 'Oh, Ginny, let's just gang up on-" she struggled here- "-on – on Tom, and go ON and ON about him, because after all, it's only BLOODY AGONY for you'!"
"I have never said that," Scott said horrified.
"No, you haven't. But that's what it's been meaning for me! Strangely enough, having at go at him with me isn't helping! I could get on with my life so much easier, you know, if I could just forget him – which is pretty freakin' hard when you're always going on about him!" Ginny shouted.
"Okay, okay – I'm sorry, I didn't know-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Seven weeks of fury and destructive despair was exploding out of Ginny like nothing ever seen before to mankind, and, honestly, for very little reason. "EVERYTHING IS BUILDING UP, PIECE BY PIECE, AND I CAN HANDLE THAT, BUILDING A WALL ONE BRICK AT A TIME – BUT I CAN NOT FREAKIN' HANDLE YOU CONSTANTLY STEPPING IN AND HELPFULLY DROPPING A BLOODY STONE COLUMN ON MY HEAD!"
All the little hurting things that people had said had made a trail of matches to the dynamite, and this was not only the last match falling into place, this was the fire as well.
"Not on purpose-"
"YES, ON BLOODY PURPOSE! JUST BECAUSE YOU THINK THAT MAYBE IF YOU DISS TOM ENOUGH, THEN I'LL FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU INSTEAD!" she screamed at him, tears springing to her eyes, stinging, burning in her skull as she refused to let the salt tears fall. She wouldn't show that weakness, though frankly she wasn't sure that a display of weakness could get more extreme than screaming her lungs out at Scott Reeve. "YOU DON'T SEE ME FOLLOWING TOM AROUND AND TRYING TO WIN HIM BACK WITH STUPID COMMENTS! BECAUSE THAT'S JUST NOT HOW IT WORKS!"
People were staring, and then scurrying away, not wanting to be involved.
Ginny was breathing hard through her nose, her now-shoulder-length hair spilling across into her face. "You can't possibly love me, Scott, because otherwise you wouldn't seem to get such a kick out of my pain."
"No, Ginny-" Scott tried, but she'd already left. She continued on to the library and settled down with her Arithmancy homework, focusing on it with a ferocious concentration that dug her quill-nib too deep into the parchment and stabbed holes in it with every full-stop.
xxx
"Okay, what's the incantation for turning yourself into an animal?" Grace quizzed Ginny, reading the answer from her Transfiguration textbook between classes, preparing the redhead for her next mock exam, which was Transfiguration.
"Er, verte bestius."
"What's the wand shape?"
"A sort of sharp flick." She flicked her wand. "Like that." She bit her lip. "Was that right?"
"Yep," said Grace cheerfully. "Okay, let's go back to a less recent thing. How do you-"
"What's this?" an average-height, sturdy girl with thick dark hair approaching, twirling her wand with surprisingly agile fingers, sticking her chest out so that the world could see the badge pinned to her robes – Head Girl. Penelope Dann. "Oh, right. I see." She turned her sharp gaze on Ginny. "You get 'hospitalised' so that you have to take the exams a week later… and get your little friends to tell you the answers."
"What- no, we're no cheating," Grace said, surprised. "I'm helping her with her homework."
"I know you're still sort of new here," said Dann to Ginny, ignoring what Grace had said, "so I'll let you off this time without sending you to Dippet. Here at Hogwarts, we don't like cheaters." With a swish of her wand, the Transfiguration textbook flew into her hands, and with another swish, it caught fire. "Oopsies." She giggled. "Butterfingers."
She gave the two of them a long, lingering, don't-mess-with-me look before heading off in the opposite direction to screw up someone else's day.
"Butterbrain, more like!" Ginny said angrily. "How the hell did she become Head Girl? Pippa's way smarter – and way nicer! How many people d'you reckon she bribed? We should complain to someone. She's such a-"
"There's nothing we can do," said Grace. "She is actually really clever, but she's horrible to everyone who's not in her…" she used her fingers for inverted commas, "special people friendship group", she quoted with an scary mimic of Dann's voice, so perfectly accurate that Ginny jumped as though the Head Girl was behind her. Grace sighed. "I am going to have to get a new textbook, though," she mused, irritated.
Ginny glared after Penelope Dann, but then Professor Slughorn called them into Potions, and her mind strayed from those thoughts to instead concentrate on her studies. She needed it. It was better to only think of her schoolwork, because when her brain wandered it could sometimes wander, unbidden, to certain topics that she preferred to keep locked away.
xxx
Ginny twitched in her sleep.
"If I can't have her, no-one can…" A scream rang out.
She rolled over, groaning and burying her face in the pillow, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
Scarlet eyes, burning with their familiarity, yet somehow transforming into something she didn't know at all.
She twitched back onto her other side.
Dancing rabbits…
Her eyes snapped open wide, breathing hard. What the hell had that been about? The first two were creepy, but the dancing rabbits were just weird.
Ginny looked over at the clock on her bedside table. Six-thirty. She was only awake half an hour early. She sat up, pushing a hand backwards through her hair so that it spilled around her shoulders. She was really hot as the summer term had started and the days were heating up. Even in the cool dungeons, it became stifling sometimes.
She glanced down and saw that she was still sleeping beneath her winter quilt, which probably explained why she was so stuffy. Grace, Flora, Avani, Claude and Ramira didn't seem to have any of these problems, because they had kicked off their winter quilts weeks ago.
Grabbing the quilt, Ginny moved to her trunk and unlocked it as quietly as she could, before bundling the patchwork blanket up as small as she could and stuffing it in the box marked G.A.P for her adopted initials. Before she battled the lid closed, she grabbed her towel and school uniform.
In the shower, she drowned her thoughts with soap, letting it get in her eyes so that she pretend that that was why there were tears mingled with the hot water spraying from the showerhead.
Sadness was actually exhausting, and she was too tired to keep being so upset. She thought about her dream again.
However, the real thing that panicked her was that usually her dreams were soft and blurry. The ones that were this crystal-clear and vivid were unusual and rare…
And while the dancing rabbits made this next memory slightly more than dubious, Ginny recalled that the vivid ones also had an uncanny knack of becoming reality.
xxx
Ginny finished her final mock on Thursday the twelfth of March. It was an Astronomy exam, and she was fairly certain that she did quite well. The next day, tired from having stayed up late in the night measuring stars for Professor Rowney, she nearly fell asleep in her breakfast. She didn't get much sleep these days, what with so many things to worry about, and also NEWT revision, and the Astronomy exam was the icing on the cake.
"Hey!" called Ginny, noticing Heather as she walked out of the Great Hall, wiping baked beans off her face. "Heather."
The eleven-year-old turned, a pouty scowl on her young, round face. "What, so do you like me now?" she asked.
That made guilt slice through the redhead. "I'm really sorry," she said quietly. "I wasn't… I wasn't…" She didn't have a word for what she hadn't been when she had dismissed Heather carelessly. She had been herself – a terrible version of herself that lost herself to her emotions.
Heather didn't look happy, but muttered, "Fine. You're forgiven." She looked up at the older girl. "Yes, what do you want?"
"Well, I just thought… if you weren't busy, then this is the only free period I have for a while," Ginny explained, "and I thought maybe I could take you to see Myrtle now."
Heather's face lit up. She didn't hold grudges, did she? "Really?" she gasped.
Ginny nodded, smiling.
"Yay!" Heather exclaimed, and tugged on Ginny's sleeve to take her there. "Oh, please, thank you, please!" she babbled.
They made their way up to the second floor where Moaning Myrtle's abandoned bathroom was, Heather clinging to Ginny, who could feel the Hufflepuff's tension and anxiety mounting rapidly.
"You ready?" Ginny asked Heather as they paused in front of the door.
Heather bit her lip, and then nodded hesitantly.
With a backwards glance to check that no-one was watching, Ginny pushed the creaky wooden door open. A cold, damp breeze hit them both, which Ginny was easily used to, due to the fact that she'd been here countless times, but Heather shivered and took a step backwards.
"Come on," Ginny encouraged her quietly, and lead her quickly through the door before someone spotted them. "Hey – hey, Myrtle?" she called.
"Oh, great, it's you again," complained a low, irritated voice from a toilet cubicle down at the other end of the bathroom.
Ginny smiled wryly, her eyes flicking over to Heather, who was trembling. She'd let go of Ginny's arm now, and was clasping her hands tightly together.
"Myrtle, I've brought someone to see you," Ginny said in a bright, sing-song voice. "Aren't you even just a little bit interested?"
A reluctant, fine-if-it'll-make-you-go-away sigh sounded, and then the fifteen-year-old ghost floated up to the top of the cubicle, resting her elbows on it and holding her chubby chin in her palms. "What?"
Grinning, Ginny stepped sideways so that Heather was in clear view.
For a couple of seconds, there was silence. Then Myrtle's eyes widened. "Heathie?"
Heather flinched, and then warily looked up at her deceased sister through her round glasses. "Hi, Myrt," she stammered, swallowing hard.
Tears were forming in Myrtle's transparent eyes. "You came to visit me?" she whispered, straightening her arms so that she lifted herself above the cubicle, and then dropped slowly and gracelessly to just above the bathroom floor.
"Myrt," stuttered Heather. "Myrt – you're see-through!"
Ginny chuckled, staying quietly by the door. Myrtle laughed as well, and the noise was so rough and raw that Ginny suspected she hadn't laughed in several years. It was so sweet that it made her stomach hurt. Why did other people always get the happy endings?
"I can fly as well," Myrtle bragged, and, to show off, flitted into the air, hovering above the sinks, a pale shimmering beam of dusty light gleaming through her from the window at the end of the room. "See?"
"Cool," said Heather, and while it was clear that she did think highly of this new ability of her sister, it was also apparent that she would have preferred to have her alive. "…Are you going to be fifteen forever?"
Myrtle's face fell. "Yes."
"In four years time, I'll be your twin," Heather beamed.
"And in five years time, you'll be my big sister," Myrtle mumbled. She attempted a smile. "And then I'll be telling you off all the time." She sighed. "You're still so precocious, aren't you?"
"Sadly, I am." Heather smiled in return, but hers, unlike Myrtle's, was real. "I'm probably going to be precocious forever."
"Eleven going on eighty-five," Ginny joked, speaking up for the first time since the two Tristaneburys had seen each other.
Startled, Myrtle looked up at the redhead, remembering that she was there. "Peregrine," she said, and then, pausing hesitantly, amended that to, "Ginny." She floated closer to her. "Thank you."
Ginny nodded, sticking her hands in the pockets of her bomber jacket. "No problem." She twitched her head towards Heather. "I like her. It was the least I could do."
"Thank you," Myrtle repeated, and then turned back to her sister. "You'll come back, right?" Her voice was worried, anxious that this was it, that this was some sort of grand goodbye and then it would be over.
"Of course!" Heather seemed horrified that Myrtle could possibly think otherwise. "But I think I have to go to class, and I know that Ginny certainly does, so I'll talk to you later, okay?" She faltered, biting her lip. "…Can I hug you? Or will you be all weird?"
"I don't know." Myrtle stared down at herself. "I never really hugged any dead people while I was alive."
Bravely, Heather took a deep breath, filling her lungs, and then put her arms gently around the transparent, wispy form of the ex-Hufflepuff who had previously only been worth sobbing in the U-bend. She stiffened noticeably, sucking her breath in through her teeth.
"You okay?" Myrtle verified nervously, hearing this.
"Yeah," Heather grunted, her teeth clicking together once or twice as she struggled not to shiver. Her way of speaking was usually quite reserved, but now she let it slip. "S'not that bad." However, she let go, and her teeth chattered slightly. "Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea."
"Oh well," Ginny shrugged. "It's the thought that counts."
"Yes, I suppose," said Myrtle. "Alright. Bye then, Heathie. See you soon."
"See you!" chirped Heather, regaining colour as she warmed up, and then with one last longing glance, one last fleeting smile, she skipped after Ginny out of the bathroom door.
A happy feeling was swelling Ginny's heart as she walked with Heather to her Charms class, but as soon as the eleven-year-old was out of sight, it sank.
What she would give for such an easy happy ending.
xxx
A/N: You'll like the next chapter. Me promise. –squeedance- I get so hyper when I know what's going to happen and someone else didn't. I read Breaking Dawn before my friend did, and I was pissing her off so much by dancing and squealing while she tried to read it that she told me just to tell her what happens so that I could get it out of my system. That's me! Plot-spoiler!
But that's beside the point. Er. What was the point? I dunno. I don't remember anymore. I'm doing textiles technology for GCSE, and it's all about clothes and stuff. It's cool. I have to make a mood board with loads of things on it like the fabrics I like and the type of clothes I like. I LOVE IT! Mwahahaha. Sugar high… bounce.
Bounce.
Bounce.
PLEASE REVIEW!! I adore you.
Bounce.
Next Time:
They didn't have unlimited time, so the three finished their drinks quickly and then progressed towards the bookshop to get Grace's book.
Only when Ginny saw the broad sign declaring 'Flourish & Blott's' did she actually realise where they were going.
She stopped in her tracks.
xxx
BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE.
Ooooh, I want you to read it now! NOW NOW NOW. Aarhafkdsag,adngbngfkgnas.
I'm such a child.
I saw the Tom-like guy today. And I wasn't paying attention, so out of the corner of my eye, I thought he was wearing Slytherin robes. I was just like, WHOA, double-take – my reality lines have seriously gone whack. But then I realised how stupid I was being. Hehe.
BOUNCE.
BOUNCE.