Harry and Ginny continued to steal glances and looks at each other for the next
couple of months. Especially at the particular morning's breakfast. Harry hoped
Ron hadn't noticed, because he would probably shit a brick if his best friend
and his sister had a relationship. Luckily, he was a bit preoccupied with other
affairs-Hermione. They were making up after a row they had had the previous
night. A lot.
Now even just the thought of
Ginny, and her fiery mass of hair, the beautiful depths of brown that were her
eyes, and her freckles made him blush. Harry loved her freckles. He then
realized he was staring right at her, and quickly looked around to make sure
that no one had seen him.
Harry had to stop doing
this. He was going to talk to her tomorrow after the Quidditch Final against
Slytherin (which he was also nervous about). Harry wasn't quite sure what he
was going to say to her, but he had a day to think about it, so he wasn't that
worried…yet.
Ginny, who was at the other
side of the table, was also thinking about Harry.
'What is he doing? He
keeps staring at me…you'd think that he…' Ginny gasped. 'What if?' Ginny
started to fidget. She tried not to get excited. 'If he…then…that means he
must…' Ginny couldn't help but smile a big, wide grin.
All this time she thought
Harry hadn't given her a second glance…but apparently…he had…given…lots of
them. She flipped her hair with newfound confidence. She bit her lip to keep
her eyes from looking at him. She wanted to jump up and dance on the table. Or
sing. Or cry. Or laugh. She didn't know which. She finally decided on a little
bit of payback. Ginny couldn't let Harry have her without a little bit of
revenge for all that lost time. She looked at Harry, bit her lip, and twirled
her hair around her finger. Harry shot a glance at her, and Ginny made eye
contact. Harry blushed instantly, turning away, sticking his elbow into his
goblet, spilling pumpkin juice. Ginny had to turn too, to keep Harry from
seeing her giggling.
Every time Ginny saw Harry that day, she did something to make Harry blush
profusely. Once she walked so close to him that her hair dragged over his
shoulder. Slowly. Excruciatingly slowly. Harry's face was at an extreme
contrast with his emerald green eyes. Harry wanted to touch her hair, feel it
between his fingers, so bad. He didn't know what to do.
Ginny just smiled and said
innocently, "Oh…I'm sorry Harry. I am so clumsy. Please don't be mad." She did
her best puppy eyes.
"That's…it's…that's okay,"
Harry managed to stammer out. Ginny pulled her hair off of Harry and kept
walking. Harry just stood there for a minute, mouth hanging open, trying to
comprehend what had happened.
That evening, Harry was trying to get his mind off of Ginny, and back on to the
quidditch final tomorrow. This was a very important game. He tried to go over
plays in his mind, and even got Ron away from Hermione to strategize with him
as he was the new keeper. This helped a little. That is, until Harry remembered
he had promised himself he was going to talk to Ginny tomorrow. Two huge things
in one day.
He looked across the common
room at Ginny and his face paled. What was he going to say? Would he tell her
that he had wanted to be with her since the summer? That he wanted to wrap his
fingers around her hair? Then he wanted…
'Okay…this is going a bit
too far.' Harry blushed. 'I'm just going to ask her…What am I going to
ask her?' Harry finally just decided to play it by ear…what came to him he
would say. Harry tried to get his mind back to quidditch…without much success.
All he could think about was Ginny's hair, and Ginny's freckles, and her eyes.
After daydreaming for a while, Harry decided to just go to bed, so he would at
least look like he was trying to rest up for the big game.
He was thinking about if his
team could pull through, with an almost brand new team. Ron had taken Oliver
Wood's place as keeper, and was very good. Alicia Spinnet had been injured, and
Dean Thomas's little sister, Kari, was taking her place. Angelina Johnson was
the new captain. And a tough one.They had practiced day in and day out. But it
must have paid off, because they had beaten Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw easily,
and were, after all, in the finals. Harry rolled over. He managed to keep his
mind off of Ginny until he fell asleep.
*+*
The next morning, Harry woke up earlier than usual. Even though he had been
playing quidditch for five years, he was very nervous because they were playing
Slytherin in the final.
He polished his Firebolt,
and by the time he was done, everyone else was up and down in the common room.
Ron told him to go get his quidditch robes. As Harry headed upstairs, who else
did he run into than Ginny. Harry blushed instantly, mumbling a sorry. Ginny
was blushing a little as they made eye contact. They just stood there for a
minute, each not knowing what to do even though they felt the same way about
each other.
Finally, Ginny said "Good
Luck, Harry," and walked down the stairs. Harry went upstairs grinning and got
his robes. Now he knew they would win. The team was already starting to head
out of the portrait hole. Harry rushed to catch up with them. Down in the
locker room, Harry put on his uniform robes. Angelina gave them a long pep talk, but wasn't nearly as serious as Oliver
Wood had been. She could even joke.
"Now be easy on the Slytherins. We know we're better than them. Our chaser
formations are as tight as tight gets. And our beaters…well…" She smiled at
Fred who was his boyfriend. He winked. "Well, let's just say…they're…mediocre."
She giggled. Fred and George put on looks of mock disgust.
"What!?
We're the best damned beaters around! Hmph. That's what I get for snogging the
captain in the locker room." Fred put on a devilish grin as Angelina blushed.
"Oops, did I say that out loud? My mistake." Everyone chuckled.
Angelina
regained composure. "Now, seriously. We can get this one. Just do your best.
Let's go!" She led the team out to the pitch. It was quite a spectacle. Way
more than half of the field was totally decked in gold and scarlet, with
banners flying, and they were cheering and screaming their lungs out. The other
fourth or so was entirely green and silver, and booing the team as they walked
out. Slytherin was already out on the field.
Everyone got into their starting positions, and Madame Hooch released the balls. Lee Jordan was serving as
commentator.
"And Gryffindor possession…Johnson with the quaffle…Spectacular chaser. Very
spectacular looking too"
"Lee, I'm telling you…" Professor
McGonagall warned.
"Sorry professor…Johnson
passes to Bell, who pulls a move on the goalie, swooping under him and SCORE!
Gryffindor 10-0!"
The Gryffindor side of the stands was erupting with cheer. Harry smiled, still
squinting for the Snitch through the slight fog that had developed, since it
had rained the previous night. Malfoy was following Harry as if they were
hooked together by a short leash.
"Slytherin's Schulz has the quaffle…and OH! Nicely aimed bludger George…Fred…one
of you! Thomas grabs the quaffle, she passes it off to Johnson, who dodges a
Slytherin beater, and oh! Nice fake Ange! She might take it all the way! OH!
FOUL! THAT WAS OUT OF LINE! I'LL BEAT YOUR BLOODY HEADS IN YOU BAS--"
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry. Bad hit by
Slytherin's Williams! Johnson sets up for her penalty shot and…YES! It's
in…20-0 Gryffindor!"
Harry was still circling around the pitch, with Malfoy in tow. He went tried to
lose Malfoy by heading through where all of the action was going down. Harry
ended up having to dodge a bludger and a whole bunch of Slytherin players.
Just as he left the mayhem, he saw Kari Thomas score. Lee started to commentate
again.
"Slytherin's Schulz with the
quaffle now. He dodges a bludger and passes it off to Williams…He takes a
shot…it gets past Weasley…20-10 Gryffindor."
And it went on like this. It was a very tight game, even at 90-70. Gryffindor
was still in the lead, and Lee was getting more and more excited by the minute.
Harry could imagine him jumping all around the commentator's booth as he
delivered his blow-by-blow commentary.
"Bell with the quaffle, passes it off to Thomas, who narrowly avoids a bludger.
She throws it, and the Slytherin goalie tips it, but it still goes in!
Gryffindor 100-70!"
Thirty minutes later, Gryffindor had somehow managed to take the demanding lead
of 230-70. Harry was desperately looking for the Snitch so they could end this
game and go back to have a nice butterbeer celebration. It was starting to
drizzle again, as it had on and off during the whole game. Gryffindor had
just scored another goal.
Just as they scored, Harry
spotted a glint of light fluttering almost straight down, right amongst where
the rest of the players were. Harry checked to see if Malfoy had noticed yet,
and he hadn't. Harry kicked his broom into gear, diving almost perpendicular
with the ground. He looked back, and Malfoy was leagues behind him. This game
was in the bag.
"Looks as if Potter has spotted the Snitch…Malfoy will never be able to catch
up!" Lee was leaning so far out of the box it looked as if he would fall out.
Harry was only thirty feet away. He could almost feel the snitch fluttering in
his hands. He was only twenty feet away when-CRACK!-Harry had been hit on the
side of the head with a beater stick by a Slytherin. Harry had been knocked off
his broom, and vaguely, as he fell, he could hear in the distance LeeJordan
yelling
"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! SLIMY
GITS! CAN'T WIN UNLESS THEY CHEAT! TAKING OUT THE SEEKER! OF ALL THE FOUL
THINGS! I'LL-" Lee's commentation was interrupted both by Professor McGonagall
yanking the microphone out of his hands, and Harry hitting the ground, passing
out instantly.
Harry woke up in the Gryffindor Common Room, with only Hermione and Ginny
looking over him. There was immense pain in his temple. He looked up to see
Hermione, who was smiling that Harry had waken up.
"You took a nasty spill out there. A Slytherin beater took a cheap shot at you
and knocked you thirty feet to the ground. Madame Pomfrey wanted to bring you
to the hospital wing, but we got you up here before she could say anything
about it. Malfoy caught the snitch of course." Harry frowned. "But-we were ahead
by 160 points…so we won!" Harry smiled and sat up. Joy flooded him.
"I'm going to go get Ron…the team and most everyone is still out
on the pitch. I'm going to go try and find him." Hermione smiled, and walked
out of the portrait hole, leaving only Harry and Ginny.
They
both watched Hermione leave, and then looked at each other. Harry waited for
words to come to his mouth, but they never did.
"Does it hurt too bad?" Ginny asked, putting a finger
on his forehead, in between his scar and his gash.
Harry's head hurt like bloody hell but--"No, it's not
as bad as it seems." Harry weakly smiled up at Ginny.
"Oh…well are you sure?" Ginny pushed a little where
her finger was and Harry flinched, despite his best efforts. "That's what I
thought." And with that, Ginny leaned over and kissed his forehead, near the
gash.
"Does it hurt anywhere else?" She asked, her face
still very close to Harry's. "Here." Harry pointed to his nose. Ginny kissed it
lightly. "And here," he said, pointing to his cheek. Ginny kissed his cheek.
"Anywhere else?" Harry pointed to his lips. Guess I didn't need those words
anyway.
"I thought it would there the most," she said as she
leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Harry put his arms around Ginny, his
fingers just brushing the bottom of her locks. Harry was in heaven. Just as
things were getting really fiery, the portrait hole swung open and Ron walked
in. They both spotted him. In their minds, they both thought The shit just
hit the fan.