My last idea for Hinny Ficfest 2021

Prompt #88: "Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny playing never have i ever one late evening (could be either before or after Harry and Ginny get together)"

By the mood in the Gryffindor Common Room, one would think that it was the evening before an execution. Everyone besides Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had gone to bed, but the four of them knew, without saying it out loud, that they were too miserable to sleep. Harry's recent almost-killing of Malfoy, and his resulting absence from the final Quidditch match the next day, meant that nobody had high hopes for Gryffindor's chances. Harry felt like the weight of all his guilt was crushing him. He couldn't even talk about it, because that would just be opening the door for Hermione to scold him about using the Prince's book again.

Harry was so desperate to distract himself that he allowed himself to steal more glances towards Ginny and fantasize about sitting in that spot on the couch next to her and pulling her close to him. As miserable as his pathetic pining made him, pining after a girl was at least a much more normal form of misery than guilt over unleashing dark magic in a bathroom.

Although, he couldn't keep the two separate for long, since he was fairly certain that his most recent failure had also ruined his chances with Ginny.

For most of the year, the main roadblock to his fantasies with Ginny had been completely straightforward: she had a boyfriend. As much as that frustrated him, it was also oddly comforting in how simple it was. He didn't have to worry about what to do, because there was nothing he could do. Now, however, Ginny was single again, which was both elating and terrifying.

Harry still had trepidations about how Ron would react if he asked Ginny out, but he honestly….just didn't care much anymore. Ron could get over it.

But with those out of the way, Harry was forced to face the final question regarding Ginny, which was by far the most terrifying one:

What if she said no?

What if she rejected him? What if Hermione was right and she was completely over him? Worse, what if she never fancied him, and was just caught up in his fame when she was young, like so many others? That idea scared him more than an entire army of dementors. He really didn't have any reason to think that Ginny still had those feelings for him. Sure, they were friends, but for all he knew, that's all she saw him as. Even worse, she may think of him as — perish the thought — a brother. She had even seemed genuinely happy when Harry had taken Luna as his date to the Slug Club party. There had certainly been no signs from her of the kind of burning jealousy Harry felt every time she so much as mentioned Dean.

And now, after what he'd done, why would she fancy him? She'd have to be mental to fancy him.

Ginny glanced sideways at him, and he quickly looked away, not wanting to be caught staring. He winced at how pathetic he was. He let out a heavy sigh, and dragged his hands down his face.

Like it was contagious, Ginny let out a similar sigh, followed by Hermione. When it was Ron's turn, at the end of his sigh he slapped his thighs and stood up.

"Alright," he grunted, stretching his arms over his head, "I can't take this anymore, the time has come."

And without another word, he stood up and disappeared up the staircase to the boys' dormitories.

Hermione frowned. "What...what did he mean? Time for what?" Harry and Ginny just shrugged.

After a few moments, Ron returned to the common room, carrying a brown paper bag.

"I've been saving this for an emergency, and this definitely qualifies," he said, and from the bag he pulled out a glass bottle full of amber liquid.

"Firewhiskey!? " Hermione hissed, looking around in fright, as if McGonagall would step out of the shadows with a look of disappointment. "Ron, for the thousandth time, we're Prefects!"

"Yeah, which means that we're the ones responsible for reporting nonsense like this," said Ron, "but I've given Mr. Weasley a stern lecture and let him off with a warning."

Hermione just continued to stare icily at him.

"Ron, the match is tomorrow," said Ginny tiredly. "I don't think it's a good idea to try to play while hungover."

"I think it's a worse idea to try to play without getting a wink of sleep the night before," Ron countered. "The match isn't until noon, and I'm not saying we get hammered, just something to take the edge off. You and I need to relax about the match, and Harry needs to relax about Malfoy and Snape."

"Then why do I need to be roped into this?" snapped Hermione.

"You always need to relax, just in general."

Hermione looked about to give an indignant retort, but then noticed how she was sitting as straight as a rod, and tried to make a show of laying back and relaxing, but the rest of them laughed as it just made her look even more uncomfortable.

"Come on, we'll play a drinking game," reasoned Ron, setting four shot glasses on a coffee table, "that way it's not just drinking, it's another thing you can beat me at."

"I do not—" Hermione began, but then sighed and rolled her eyes and joined him in sitting on the floor around the small table. "Fine, if it will speed things along so you go to bed soon."

"Do you actually know any drinking games?" asked Harry skeptically, "You have other friends you get more wild with we don't know about?"

"There's this game that Fred and George told me about," explained Ron, "They gave me these glasses, they said it went with the game."

Hermione and Harry shrank back as if the glasses might bite them, but Ginny looked closer in curiosity.

"Don't worry," said Ron, reading their minds, "If they were just for me, I wouldn't touch them, but they said I should play the game with you," he nodded towards Hermione, "and while they have no problem causing me serious harm, you know they're way too scared to hurt you."

"So what's the game?" asked Ginny, joining Hermione on the floor.

"The game is called 'Never Have I Ever,'" explained Ron, sitting down. "We take turns, saying something that we've never done. Then, if someone else has done that thing, they have to drink."

"That sounds….straightforward," said Ginny, frowning.

"The twins said it gets fun," said Ron.

Harry didn't care, he was just focused on the spot on the floor next to Ginny that had been left vacant. Harry sat down, trying not to be too obvious by sitting closer to her than absolutely necessary.

Ron finished pouring four shots and slid them to the four sides of the coffee table.

"You go first," he told Hermione eagerly.

Hermione's eyes narrowed at him, then she turned her eyes to her glass. "I….don't know what to say."

"I just told you what to say!" said Ron, rolling his eyes. "Something you've never done before!"

"There's lots of things I've never done before!"

"Just pick something!"

"Alright, fine! I've never gotten a D on an essay!"

Ron snorted. "Figures even when you're drinking you're….thinking about…."

His voice died as the glasses in front of Harry, Ron, and Ginny rose up into the air and hovered in front of them.

"Well I guess we now know what the trademark Twins twist on these are," said Ginny. "I guess it's to keep everyone from just lying and keeping secrets."

Harry felt a jolt in his stomach. Harry did have secrets. He wasn't that afraid of getting found out about Horcruxes and his lessons with Dumbledore. Ron and Hermione would never delve into that, and even if Ginny were curious, she wouldn't know how to phrase the challenge. What he was terrified of were questions that might hint at how he felt about Ginny.

He assured himself that nobody was going to ask questions like that. There were times when Harry felt that Hermione suspected the truth, but it wasn't like she could pointedly say "Never Have I Ever had a crush on a Weasley," now could she?

The three of them hesitantly reached out and took their floating shot glasses, which moved without resistance.

"Well, bottom's up," said Ron.

The three of them took a large gulp, then promptly erupted into coughs and gasps at the burning sensation.

"Why is this so popular?" Harry croaked. "Seriously, is this the only hard liquor for wizards?"

"Nah, just the cheap stuff," said Ginny, refilling their glasses. She smiled at Harry and playfully bumped his shoulder with hers. "You go next."

Harry gulped loudly and searched for something vague and innocuous. "I...er….I've never been outside the country."

All of the other three glasses rose into the air.

"I don't think this is how the game is supposed to work," said Ginny. "You know that we have, that's no fun, we should ask things we're not sure about."

Hermione was gaping at Harry. "Really? Never? "

"Yeah, I know, after all, Vernon and Petunia really valued different cultures," said Harry dryly, "and they just loved taking me places where there was a risk I would enjoy myself."

"Oh, we should have taken you with us to Egypt!" Ginny said excitedly. "That was so much fun!"

"Oh, sure," Ron laughed, with a cough after taking his shot, "I'm sure it would have been a lot of fun if you spent the whole trip red as a tomato, unable to talk and staring at him—"

He was cut off by Hermione slapping his arm, and his smile fell from his face. Apparently the whiskey was already loosening his tongue, but now he realized that this was the first time the four of them had spoken out loud about the crush Ginny used to have on Harry.

Harry glanced sideways at Ginny, and found her looking back at him. They both quickly looked away and Harry felt himself blush. He hoped it wasn't too obvious in the dim light from the fire.

"Well," said Ginny, clearing her throat. "I will just have to take you back there. I now know where to find the most cursed tombs."

Harry tried very hard not to think about the fact that she had said " I will" instead of "we" or "my family."

"Alright," said Ginny, and knocked her second shot back without hesitation. "My turn. I have never….gotten a spanking."

The only glass that floated was the one in front of Harry.

"Really?" said Harry, looking around, "I've heard horror stories from Fred and George…"

"Yeah, but that was reserved for when they did things like slip me acid pops, or try to get me to make an Unbreakable Vow," said Ron heatedly. "Basically, corporal punishment is only for the surprising number of times my brothers try to literally kill me."

"For relatively well-behaved children like us, Mum and Dad never had to resort to such a thing," said Ginny primly.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" said Ron, "What do you mean 'us?' You're every bit as bad as them, you're just better at not getting caught."

"Ah, I know," sighed Ginny, "They can be such amateurs sometimes."

She looked back at the floating glass in front of Harry and her mouth pressed into a thin line. She started gripping her glass so tightly Harry was worried it would shatter in her hands.

"It really wasn't a big deal," Harry preemptively said, trying to sound casual. "You know, if it was just with the hands. They only broke out the belt or the frying pan for special occasions."

He meant it as a joke, but none of his friends laughed.

"Are you serious!?" Ginny seethed

"A frying pan?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"Blimey…." said Ron softly, looking very uncomfortable.

"Like I said, it wasn't that often!" said Harry, very much wanting this topic to be dropped, he hated the pitying looks on their faces so much. "They actually preferred not to touch me at all, they mostly just locked me in my cupboard."

"Your what?" they all asked at the same time.

"Come on, mate, that bedroom you had wasn't huge, but it wasn't a cupboard," said Ron.

"No I mean…" Harry's voice died and his eyes widened as realization hit him. "I...Have I seriously never told any of you this before?" He hadn't tried to keep it a secret, it had just never come up before.

The three of them just looked at him expectantly.

Harry sighed. "Growing up, that room was actually Dudley's second bedroom, where he kept a lot of his stuff. Up until I got my Hogwarts letter….I actually slept in the cupboard under the stairs."

"WHAT!?" Ginny shrieked so loud Harry nervously glanced toward the stairs, worrying she might wake someone up.

"I'll kill them!" Ginny was seething, up on her feet pacing around the room. "I swear, I'll kill them."

"Did none of your teachers or neighbors notice anything?" asked Hermione.

"This would even make Dad rethink his Muggle protection stances," said Ron.

"This was years ago!" said Harry, "They moved me out after I got my letter, now can we please just keep the game going?"

Reluctantly, Ginny sat back down. After she was calm again, her look softened and she put a hand on Harry's arm. "The point is, that was inhuman of them and you shouldn't have had to go through that."

Harry wasn't sure if the warm feeling spreading through him was from the whiskey or her fingers. He considered steering things back to his tragic backstory to get more sympathy. Maybe she would hug him and stroke his hair in comfort.

"Er...why did you ask that, anyway?" Harry forced himself to say.

"Oh," Ginny chuckled. "That was actually directed at Hermione, I was wondering if she was always as well-behaved as she is now."

"I break rules all the time!" Hermione said in exasperation. "Why do you all keep acting like I'm Percy?"

"You only break rules to help Harry do something heroic," said Ginny dismissively, "never just for fun, which in this crowd practically makes you Umbridge. Go on, Ron, your turn."

The game continued, and Harry rapidly felt his coordination and his inhibitions dropping like a stone. He wasn't sure when it happened, but at one point he found himself not sitting up straight, but was instead leaning sideways against Ginny. Or she was leaning against him, he couldn't quite tell which. The important thing was their shoulders were pressed firmly up against each other and the scent of her hair combined with the alcohol made it impossible for him to string a sentence together.

A big reason why Harry was so quickly intoxicated was that Ron was ignoring the spirit of the game and targeting Harry specifically. Apparently Ron found the scrunched up face that Harry made after taking a shot very amusing, so he kept using his turns to say things like,

"Never have I ever caught a Snitch."

"Never have I ever led a secret organization."

"Never have I ever fought a basilisk."

"Oh, go to Hell!" Harry growled at the most recent one, as Ron collapsed into laughter, his cheeks and nose cherry red by now from the drink.

A thought occurred to Harry, which with his impaired faculties seemed like a good idea, and he struck back.

"Never have I ever kissed with tongue!"

Ron's shit-eating grin instantly dropped from his face and he looked mortified. He glanced sideways uncomfortably at Hermione, but didn't dare look her in the eye.

Harry's smug satisfaction was short-lived, however, when Ginny's glass rose into the air along with Ron's.

Ginny, however, wasn't looking at her glass, she was staring intensely, her eyes narrowed, back and forth between Harry and Hermione, like her drunken brain was struggling to process what she saw.

"Wait….really?" she finally asked.

Harry silently cursed himself. He had meant to bring up something embarrassing for Ron, but not only did he call attention to the experience the girl of his dreams had in snogging other blokes, but also highlighted his own pathetic lack of experience in front of her.

"Er….no," he admitted quietly. Could you help me with that? He very nearly said it out loud, he really needed to stop drinking.

He became quite annoyed at Ginny for being so perfect yet un-kissable, so he went on the offensive.

"Yeah, I know I'm a few months late for this," he said bitterly, "but for the record, I did not 'snog' Cho Chang, thank you very much, and I'd appreciate that not being used as ammunition in Weasley civil wars."

Ginny didn't retort back, however, or laugh at him. Instead, she bit her lip and a huge, mischievous grin spread across her face, like she had just heard the best news of her life.

"Hold on one second!" Hermione barked. She slapped her hand down on the table, swaying as she knocked herself off-balance. She pointed an accusing finger at Ginny. "Why did you — hic — why did you look at me when — hic — when you said that?"

Ginny tore her eyes away from Harry and looked at Hermione in confusion. "Well….didn't you and Krum? You said that at the Yule Ball…"

"Viktor kissed me once under the mistletoe, it was perfectly polite, and then I reminded him that we barely knew each other," Hermione groaned.

Ron was looking at her with eyes the size of saucers, like he was rethinking every decision he had ever made in his life.

"You…. didn't snog Krum?" he asked, as if in a daze.

Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously as she rounded on him. "It's absolutely no business of yours who I snog!"

"You really didn't snog Krum?" asked Ginny.

"No," Hermione told her casually.

After Ron and Ginny took their shots, and Ron swayed dangerously in his seat, it was Ginny's turn. She rested her elbow on the table and her chin on her hand as she stared at Harry with much more focus than she should have managed after so many shots. Harry's face felt hot and he felt like she was looking right through him, strip-searching him with just her eyes.

"Hmmm…." she hummed. "Never have I ever….been jealous of a friend's dating life."

Harry's heart was pounding as his was the lone glass that raised up off the table. He supposed that the glasses concluded that Hermione didn't consider Lavender a "friend" as much as Harry considered Dean one.

In his state, it took Ron a second to process what he was seeing, then his mouth dropped open at Harry.

"You... no! You don't mean…. Lavender?"

"NO! I mean — er, yeah…" Harry lied, deciding that that was less embarrassing than the truth, but no one seemed to buy it. Ron raised his eyebrows skeptically, Hermione rolled her eyes and grumbled something he couldn't hear, and Ginny looked like she was trying not to laugh.

"But, er, not about Lavender specifically," Harry said quickly, "It was more just jealousy in general that you had a girlfriend and I didn't."

Ron thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, that makes more sense."

Ginny gave a soft snort and looked at her hands. "Nice save…" she spoke so softly Harry almost didn't hear it.

It was Ron's turn next, but he was swaying worse than ever with his eyes closed, until he finally tipped over sideways and collapsed against Hermione's shoulder.

"Alright, I think that's our cue," grunted Hermione, struggling to support Ron's weight. "Let's get you to bed."

" Hmmm no, this is too comfortable," whined Ron, nuzzling his face into Hermione's shoulder. Her face turned scarlet, but she didn't respond as she heaved herself to her feet and started yanking on Ron's arm for him to follow her. Once he was vertical, she led him across the room to the foot of the staircase to the boys dormitory.

Which left Harry and Ginny alone at the table.

"I guess it's my turn again," said Harry, his shaky hands spilling plenty of firewhiskey as he refilled their two glasses.

"Oh?" said Ginny, "Go on, then."

They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like forever as Harry weighed the risks of what he was considering. He knew that once he was sober he would be horrified with himself, but she had gone fishing, why shouldn't he?

"Never Have I Ever…." he said thoughtfully, "fancied my Quidditch captain."

Ginny didn't flinch, and didn't take her eyes off of Harry's as her glass rose into the air, she took it in her hand and, without a hint of embarrassment or bashfulness, knocked it back in one gulp.

Harry could swear he was floating up off the floor. A goofy smile slowly spread across his face.

"Well, I can't say I blame you," he said, "Angelina is quite a looker."

Ginny burst into heaving laughter, to the point where she had to put a hand on Harry's chest to steady herself.

"Yes, it's so great to finally come clean," she said, "It's true, Harry, I'm a lesbian."

"That pains me to hear, Gin."

"Yes, I'm sure it does."

Her hand was still on his chest, and her cheeks and nose were so red by this point that it hid her freckles. She bit her lip and Harry could swear her eyes darted down to his mouth.

Losing the last of his control, Harry leaned toward her. She closed her eyes and tilted her head—

"Alright, you two off to bed as well!" Hermione's scolding voice made Harry jump back from Ginny as if he had been hexed. He spun his head around and saw his best friend towering over them with her hands on her hips, giving them her best "disapproving mother" look. As furious as he was with her in that moment, he also knew she was right.

Harry wobbled as he rose to his feet, then almost collapsed again when he offered his hand to Ginny and was knocked off-balance as he helped her up. Being the gentleman he was, he helped her all the way to the foot of the girls staircase, then gave her a hug goodnight before heading up to bed.

It didn't take long after leaving Ginny's comforting presence before his doubts started creeping back up on him. He now knew that Ginny had at least some lingering feelings for him, but he also felt like everything could change with the match tomorrow. He started concocting elaborate scenarios for the different outcomes of the game.

If they lost, he knew she would be furious with him. She would realize that he would always be reckless and stupid and putting up with him wasn't worth it. She'd be heartbroken, and Dean would no doubt provide a comforting shoulder to cry on.

Harry's prospects if they won weren't nearly as bleak, but he could still see Ginny feeling so elated and confident that she started wondering why they ever needed him, and the last bit of her old crush finally dying. She'd be celebrating with Dean, butterbeer would be flowing, and she'd probably remember all the things she liked about her ex-boyfriend.

But as pessimistic as he tried to be, as he got into bed Harry knew that the bit of hope he got tonight meant he couldn't keep this a secret anymore. For better or worse, it would all come to a head tomorrow. He was going to tell her. He wouldn't come onto her like a drunk idiot again, he'd be as respectful as possible. After the match he'd ask her if he could have a private word (away from, hopefully, the victory party) and he'd tell her how he felt. She could then decide what she wanted.

He just prayed that he would have enough courage on his own, without the liquid kind.

This prompt gave me a chance to fix something that's always bothered me about the romantic aspect of HBP: the fact that Harry kind of takes it for granted that Ginny would even want to date him. All of his anxieties are about getting Dean out of the way and how Ron would react, there's never a moment where Ginny's feelings are the concern, which is really weird to me. There's not really any hints that she still likes him that way, you'd think Harry asking Luna on a date would be a good opportunity to plan that seed, but there's no indication of conflicting feelings, JKR just seems uninterested in exploring Ginny's side of the romance.