A/N: Okay,
here's Chapter 4! I hope I'm going fast enough for you guys…I want to thank
TsukiKou again for posting (if you like Gundam Wing, read her stories. Gundam
on the Roof is especially hilarious.) and most of all, everybody who read and
reviewed! Gwen, Starlight Hope, Rose Tangle, Bebe, Mike, Kathy, Min,
~*~Hermione~*~, Midnight of Shadows, BballStardust41, Su, Carrie, Ron's Babe,
lalagirl, and Ayleeandra – plus all of you who I mentioned at the beginning of
chapter three! Rose Tangle – you've won the award for longest review I think
I've ever seen, come on up and claim your trophy. :-) I do know some of the
things in my story couldn't (or wouldn't) actually happen in the wizarding
world, even when the gang's on holiday (like magic in the home over summer
break or a game of Quidditch in the Weasley's orchard – for fear of being
noticed by the Muggles. I've read the books about a zillion times. J) But it
is fanfiction, and I thought they story was more interesting with those things
in there. You're very observant, though, bravo! Thanks again to all who
reviewed.
Disclaimer:
I wish it were mine. But it's not. That's why I write the fanfiction!
Mixed Messages
By
Ariel Star
PART 6
Ginny threw herself onto her bed, shaking with sobs. Her brain tried
to remind her that she knew this was a possibility from the beginning, and she
shouldn't have gotten her hopes up, and that Hermione was a wonderful person
and she should be happy for her and for Harry…Ginny let out a muffled scream
into her pillow. WHY had she even set the enchantment on Harry in the first
place? She had been happier not knowing, and hoping. Now that she knew
it was hopeless, she was miserable.
Ginny rolled over, hugging her pillow close to her heart. "It wasn't
enough for me to suspect," she muttered darkly. "You had to know, didn't you,
Gin? Stupid girl. You should have known already – Harry's not for you." She
closed her eyes tightly to keep the tears from leaking out under them. Still
shaking slightly from her outburst, Ginny sat up. This isn't the way to go
about this, she thought. Just because Harry can't ever love me as his
girlfriend doesn't mean we can't be friends! Part of the reason I love
– have to stop thinking like that! – why I like him so much is
because of his kindness, gentleness, friendliness…good looks…Ginny grinned
in spite of herself. She could still be Harry's friend…and he probably
thought she was mad at him. Ginny sighed and fell back onto her bedspread,
clutching her pillow. Oh, why had she ever done anything so stupid…a hot
sensation behind her eyes threatened to send the tears brimming again. Ginny
shook her head furiously, getting up and going to the mirror. Taking a
tentative glance at her reflection, Ginny saw a pair of overly-bright brown
eyes staring back at her (probably from the tears, Ginny thought), framed by a
frizzy halo of red-orange hair. Her rumpled clothes and bare feet completed the
ragamuffin portrait.
Ginny sighed heavily. Running a comb through her hair, she gave her
mirror a few quick practice smiles. Finding her bottom lip to be a bit too
quivery, Ginny turned her head to finish brushing. After she finished she
parted her hair in the middle and swept it up on the sides into tiny clips.
Ginny grinned more whole-heartedly at her reflection. She had spent all the
last year growing her hair out and loved being able to do different experiments
on it.
Slipping into a pair of flip-flops, Ginny bounced out of her room and
down the stairs, hoping her face wasn't too blotchy and gave away her earlier
downpour of tears. Sailing into the kitchen, Ginny found a sinkful of dirty
dishes from the rest of the family's breakfast. Ginny groaned and started to
tiptoe away – if she was caught in here she'd be recruited to dish-washing, it
never failed. All the Weasley children had caught on quickly that if they were
found in the kitchen during or around mealtime, they would be forced to do
chores. Ginny was almost to the door when she heard her mother call out from
the dining room "GINNY! Is that you, dear? Do be an angel and wash up those
plates for me, hmm?" Ginny gnashed her teeth together quietly and called back
"Sure, Mum, okay." Griping under her breath, Ginny snatched a dishtowel and
began furiously scrubbing a pot.
Her day sure was going nicely.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Four days later…
"Ginny! Hurry UP, we've got to GO, I told Angelina and the rest of the
girls we were meeting them in the Alley at 12:00 exactly, and I'm not going to
have enough time to buy my books and meet them if you don't MOVE!" Fred
complained, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he watched Ginny struggle
to lift all of her bags.
"We'll never make it if you don't MOVE!" Harry mimicked, sticking his
head in Ginny's doorway. "Honestly Fred, you just don't get it. I thought you
were the more intelligent twin. If you really wanted her to move, you'd offer
to carry something for her."
Fred leapt at the suggestion. Grabbing two of Ginny's bags and
hoisting one to each shoulder, he sprinted out of the room, calling over his
shoulder, "NOW we can leave! Come on!"
Ginny stared after him. Harry laughed. "Look…" he said, gesturing
towards her lone bag, "now you've only got one bag. And all your stuff will
still get safely to Diagon Alley. Who needs manual labor when there's a willing
slave nearby?" Ginny grinned back at him. "Good point," she agreed. "Though if
Fred spots Angelina, the bags might stop their journey wherever he drops them."
"If he does, I'll pick them up," Harry said, grinning. "Come on."
Ginny followed Harry down the stairs, clutching her last bag. She and
Harry had gotten back to the right footing the last day or so – Harry had
stayed away for a while after Ginny's snub on the front porch. Ginny could
hardly blame him – though she still felt a sharp pang of longing for something
more when he smiled at her now. Those smiles wouldn't ever show more than
friendship. She just had to accept it.
Ginny took a pinch of the Floo powder from the flowerpot and stepped
into the fire, calling "Diagon Alley!" out as she began to twirl. Once she fell
out into the back of the tiny bookshop, she quickly dusted off her top and
jeans and went to talk to her mother.
"Mum, I'm going to get my stuff. I need a bigger cauldron this year,
by the way – can I have some money to pay for it?"
Molly sighed. Opening the clasp on her purse, she extracted some money
and poured the coins into Ginny's waiting hands. "Here you go – meet us at
Gringotts around noon and we'll get some lunch."
Ginny let herself out of the shop and strolled out into the street,
looking around happily. Usually Mum made her stick tight to her side, this was
the first year Ginny really had any freedom – she couldn't wait to find her two
best friends and catch up on the summer's events.
Ginny bought her new books, robes, potion ingredients all within an
hour – lines weren't usually too bad until after lunch. She also bought a nice
dress robe – deep, midnight blue in color. It had gold edging, too, added on
for 12 Sickles. After seeing Ron's dress robes from last year, Ginny didn't
feel badly at all about splurging on this – and besides, she'd gotten it
secondhand, it had only been worn once and was on sale for three-quarters of
the original price. Ginny felt she'd gotten a good deal. After her escapades in
the robe shop, Ginny meandered over to Florence's for a chance to sit down. In
an hour she'd have to meet Mum – she still hadn't seen her friends anywhere.
"Where ARE they?" she muttered. "They said they were coming today…"
This self-asked query was answered immediately. A clear, light voice
called to Ginny from across the tiny patio of customers – "Ginny! Over here!
I've been waiting for you, where have you been?"
Ginny whirled. Through a gap in some standing witches, she could see a
medium-height, dark-haired girl waving at her and grinning. Ginny ran to her
friend and gave her a hug, dropping her bags at their feet.
"Oh, Rave, you'll never believe everything that's happened to me!" She
stood back and surveyed her friend, taking her by the shoulders. "You don't
look any different," she laughed. "Still beautiful, showing me and Gwen up."
Raven tossed her black hair (which was incidentally part of the reason
for her unusual name). Her mysterious, dark eyes danced, and she said
deviously, "Of course – what do you think I've been doing all summer? Playing
house to an international celebrity, like you? Oh, no, I stay original – I've
been plotting ways to make myself even more charming." She laughed. "But enough
about me – my summer was doldrums. I'm sure you had a much more interesting
time, what with Harry being around and all. So – spill! What's the scoop?"
Ginny sat down at the small table next to them. Raven followed suit.
"I don't think I should start until Gwen gets here," she explained, "it could
take awhile to repeat everything exactly with every detail, the way you insist
we tell stories." She smiled. Raven smiled back.
"True, but Gwen's not coming to Diagon Alley – she's feeling a bit
off-color, her mother said. I met her in Flourish and Blotts – she was getting
Gwen's school stuff. So you can go ahead and talk, because there's no WAY I'm
waiting 'til we're back at Hogwarts to hear this."
Ginny smiled inwardly. She loved Raven like a sister, but she could be
a bit crazy at times. This was part of the reason they'd become friends in the
first place – Raven was the complete opposite of Ginny, at least in
personality. Raven tended to be the daring, outspoken, charmer of their group –
always up for the excitement. And when there wasn't any excitement around…well,
she created her own. Oddly enough, she never seemed to get caught – and was a
favorite among the professors, not unlike Ginny herself. Raven was a fabulous
student, or could be – she just didn't really take school too seriously most of
the time. It was more like a hobby for her. Ginny had no doubts that Raven was
extremely smart, and talented, but getting her to do homework seemed to be an
un-winnable task most times.
The thing Raven was least interested in was her looks – most
definitely her striking feature. Dark, shiny hair, and dark eyes to match made
Raven one of the prettiest girls Ginny knew – Gwen was the other one. Raven
could run a brush through her hair once in the morning and it would look
perfect – something Ginny had never been able to manage. Today, her hair was
pulled back into a barette with sparkling stones set in it – Ginny had seen her
wear it before.
Getting back into her narrative, Ginny told Raven everything that had
happened up until after the Quidditch match (Raven had been alternately
thrilled and in shock when Ginny told her about Harry's hug and advice before
the match, which were the highlights of her story). She still felt a sharp pang
when she retold the story, thinking sadly about how Harry could never be hers.
She would just have to rejoice in her memories. Ginny was about to go into
running into him before bed when she happened to glance down at her watch. It
read 12:30. An alarm bell went off in Ginny's brain.
"Something wrong?" Raven asked, munching on a mini-Chocolate Frog from
the bowl on the table.
"It's 12:30," Ginny said, her voice laced with despair. "I told Mum
I'd meet her at twelve…oh, no, she'll be so mad…"
Raven stood up. "Well, let's go!" she said, flashing Ginny a smile and
picking up her own bag. "C'mon, if we run we can get there in five minutes."
"But – we're late –"
"So let's not be MORE late!" Raven cried, shoving Ginny's bag into her
arms and pulling her along. "Let's move!"
'All – all right," Ginny said nervously. "There's so many people,
though – if we run we might hit someone!"
"So – we'll apologize!" Raven said brightly. "Now come ON!"
They raced across the patio and out into the street. "Where did you
say we were going again?" Raven yelled as they tore down past Eeylop's.
"Gringotts," Ginny called back, racing to keep up.
"Oh – we're going the wrong way. About face!" Raven skidded to a stop
and took off in the opposite direction. Ginny swung around and chased after
her, laughing hysterically. "Rave, wait, hang on…" A group of old wizards
looked scandalized as they flew by.
"Sorry!" Raven shouted as they knocked down a 2nd or 3rd
year who was standing in the middle of the road, gawking at them. Raven had
knocked his porcelain owl cage out of his hands. It was now lying in shards on
the road. The boy looked down, his lower lip beginning to tremble. "Oooh, we'll
pay for that," Ginny added apologetically as she, too, raced by him. "Find us
later – I'm Ginny Weasley!" she yelled over her shoulder.
"I most certainly will!" The boy bellowed furiously. "I'm William
Thomas Bradford the Third, and I'm going to make you pay for that! My father…"
his voice faded. Ginny winced at the thought of how much money the cage had
cost and prayed the boy wasn't going to Hogwarts where he could easily find
her. She was ready to throttle Raven.
"Isn't this fun?" Raven called back, laughing. "Almost there…"
A snowy white building was visible around the corner.
"Thank God," Ginny muttered. "How much more havoc can we cause, I
wonder?"
Raven skidded to a stop and bounded up the marble stairs. Ginny tailed
her. Slowing down to a gallop, she knocked right into Raven, who had knocked
right into – Harry.
PART 7
"Well, I don't know WHAT got into you, but you're grounded until you
board that Hogwarts Express, young lady – or should I say child? Because that's
what you acted like." Molly glared down at Ginny's sulking face.
"But Mum – "
'Don't you Mum me, girl, you know perfectly well you should have been
back in front of Gringotts at noon. Here I was, thinking you could handle a
little freedom – "
"I CAN," Ginny wailed despondently. "Honestly, Mom, Raven and I – "
"And I almost forgot – about this 'Raven,'" Molly said. "Who is she,
anyway? I didn't realize she was such a troublemaker when you spoke of her. If
that's the kind of person she is, I don't want you around her."
"Mum," Ginny cried in outrage. "You can't pick my friends…" she
trailed off. This was nice. If she told her mother Raven was a bad
influence, she'd be in trouble too if she was caught around her. But if she
said she started the running rampage, she'd be grounded. Well, better
to be miserable for two days than nine months, Ginny thought despondently.
She resigned quietly, saying, "It was my fault. Ground me if you want."
"I most certainly WILL," Molly bristled. "Until the Express, my dear,
you are not to leave the building – understood?"
"Yes."
"Fine." Molly left. Raven poked her head into the room. "Well, what's
the verdict?" she asked, coming in and perching on the bed.
"Two days confinement."
"Thanks for covering for me," Raven said gratefully.
"If I hadn't, Mum wouldn't let me talk to you at school anymore,"
Ginny explained. "So of course I gave up and named the culprit – me."
Raven smiled sympathetically. "Well, it's only two days," she said
philosophically. "We can dive into our new books, play Exploding Snap, try on
each other's dress robes, fix each other's hair…"
"You're not confined!" Ginny said dully. "You can go wherever you
want."
"And who do you want me to go with – Harry?" Raven asked skeptically.
"Though I'm sure it would be a dream, I'm the one who got you into this.
I'll be your warden." She flopped back onto the bed. "What are friends for?"
"Keeping you out of trouble?" Ginny teased.
"Well, if that's the case, I'm not a very good friend," Raven giggled.
"In fact, I'm a horrible one."
"Well, I'm obviously a great one, because you're free as a bird – like
always, Rave. How do you manage to stay out of trouble?" Ginny asked.
"I have great friends who cover for me," Raven explained. "Oh, I know
what we can do – finish your story."
"Yeah!" Ginny said, jumping up from her chair and flopping down next
to Raven. "Okay, where was I?…"
TO BE CONTINUED
(DON'T WORRY!)
Not exactly a
cliffhanger, this time. More will be up very soon, for those of you who are
interested in seeing what happens next!
