Evil, evil Harry! How could he? ::hisses:: Well...er...I suppose we'll find out in this next chapter that will have you on the edge of your seat reading as fast as you can and scrolling with all your might! Ahem...::cough cough:: Sorry, got a bit carried away there...yes, well, enjoy ^_^ Oh, and a bit of a forewarning...this is kinda sappy, you know...I mean, right after a breakup and all....just so that way you don't get too scared once you start reading.
Harry joined Hermione in their usual seat across from the fire, which was glowing red and crackling merrily. What a good start to a Christmas holiday, Harry thought as he slipped his arm around Hermione's shoulder. Hermione looked up at him and smiled contentedly.
"Harry, dear, are you perfectly sure Ginny took everything okay?" asked Hermione, a note of concern still in her voice.
"Of course," replied Harry, kissing the top of her head, which was nestled on his arm. "I'm sure she's somewhere talking with her friends and enjoying her vacation right now."
~*~
Ginny stumbled blindly down the stairway in disbelief. Harry had gotten back together with Hermione. And broken up with her in the process. Which, she thought as she pushed open the huge doors that led out of the castle and on to the grounds, which were buried under a good few feet of snow, meant that Ron had been right all along. She trudged across, not quite sure of where she was going just yet.
She decided to stop and rest on one of the many benches by the shore of the lake. After stooping down to brush off some of the snow that had collected on it, she sat down. Everything that had happened to her in the past month with Harry kept running through her mind, and now that she knew he had never really liked her in the first place, what was going on suddenly seemed so obvious. The way Hermione always joined them everywhere they went, the way Harry was always finding things to do instead of spend time with just her, the way that they always did everything together. At the time it hadn't struck her as unusual; they were friends, weren't they? She had never imagined in her wildest dreams that two of the people she loved the most would be the two that would hurt her the most.
Her mind wandered back to the fact that Ron had known about the whole thing all along. She wondered how he had found out...had he seen the fake affections Harry constantly gave her, while his true attention belonged to Hermione? Or had Harry confided his plan in Ron, the thought that Ron might tell never crossing his mind? Or had he...she stopped and hastily blinked back some tears that were threatening to fall. She would not cry over a guy; she would not cry over Harry Potter. And yet she felt the ice cold tears begin make their way down her face; bringing her soft blue mittens to her face she made to wipe them off.
Ginny silently wished that she could be like other girls, and get over guys as fast as they got over her. She wished that she could have normal crushes that left as quickly and suddenly as they came. For her, it was different. It had always been. She remembered the first time she had seen Harry Potter, nearly seven years ago when Ron had first started at Hogwarts.
She had stood, clutching her mother's hand, as the four Weasley children to attend Hogwarts (Percy, Fred, George, and now Ron) grabbed their trolleys and started to make their way to the platform. Once the three eldest brothers had gone, and Ron was just about to leave, Ginny had noticed a curiously small and quiet boy glancing nervously at the Weasley family. Something about his unruly, jet black hair and nervous green eyes hidden behind an overly large pair of thick black glasses had attracted her attention and held it. Though she was quite sure she didn't know him, he looked oddly familiar. Glancing at his trolley loaded with a large trunk and a cage containing an owl, she assumed he was going to Hogwarts.
Just as Mrs. Weasley was about to reprimand Ginny and tell her that it was rude to stare, the boy stepped over.
"Excuse me," he said, extremely softly. Ginny's heart fluttered and her stomach lurched, two sensations that she was very unused to feeling, especially simultaneously.
"Oh, hello there, dear," Mrs. Weasley had replied, in her usual motherly voice. She went on explaining about how to get onto the platform (the boy was a first year, like Ron, he had said, and probably Muggle-born, too, Ginny thought) and soon he made his way though the barrier and, along with all the other students, boarded the Hogwarts Express.
When she had found out that the boy was the famous hero Harry Potter, she begged and begged her mother to see him. Even then she knew that it had been very childish, but something inside her told her that she just had to see this boy, had to know him better.
Ginny broke herself from her thoughts momentarily as the snow began to fall faster and more heavily. She slid down the bench closer under the thick boughs of a large oak tree which blocked out enough of the frosty flakes for her to be comfortable again.
She remembered how her stomach had flip-flopped when she woke one morning, the summer before she started Hogwarts, to find Harry Potter sitting at her breakfast table. Having Harry around had been both a blessing a curse; while she had never felt more contentment in her life than when she knew that he was so close to her all the time, every time she was in the same room as Harry she was very prone to making a fool of herself, and blushing a deep shade of red afterwards.
Later that year he had saved her life after she had foolishly walked right into the hands of the Dark Lord. She remembered waking in the dank, cold chamber and seeing his face hovering above her, filled with concern. She felt a warm tingle right in the pit of her stomach when he helped her clumsily to her feet, and he looked so genuinely worried about her that, if possible, her love for him increased. But then, oh, how she wished she had never picked up that stupid diary! It was bad enough that she had been so stupid, but why was it that Harry was the one who had to find out about it all? She was incredibly embarrassed and ashamed of what she had done, and was finding it harder than ever to look Harry straight in the face, which of course made her affectionate feelings for him even more obvious than ever.
In her second year, she had pretty much convinced herself that, since Harry would never be interested in her in that way, that it was pointless to go on hoping and loving. And it seemed to work, too, and when she noticed all the extra time that he was spending with Hermione, it only seemed natural that he would go out with her, without a second thought to her, Ginny Weasley, who was only the younger sister of Ron, anyway.
Later that summer, that slight glimmer of hope sparked up a bit when he came to spend part of the summer with them again, and joined them at the Quidditch World Cup. Of course, Ginny hadn't get too hopeful, as Hermione was there the whole time, too. Even though the two were fast friends, after noticing all the time Harry and Hermione spent together Ginny couldn't help but feel jealous.
But now, Ginny wasn't jealous of Hermione. No, not anymore. Not after what Hermione had done to her that day, not even thirty minutes ago. Ginny had been so sure that the two had been friends, so sure that Hermione would never even dream of snatching Harry right out from under her nose.
And Harry! Just thinking about him a surge of hate rushed through her veins. That...that...goodness! Ginny racked her brain trying to think up a word bad enough to describe him. How could she have ever loved him? How could he have ever meant the world to him? That dirty, cheating, low life excuse for a boy...and he got away with it all, too, simply because of who he was. Harry Potter.
Ginny knew she should have given up on him in her fourth year when he and Hermione started going out. And then the year after that when they spent so much time together you would have thought they were attached at the hip. And the two paid no more visits to the Burrow--no, Harry spent the next summer with Hermione. And the next one. And Ginny found herself more and more often crying herself to sleep.
As she sat on that bench under the tree, she looked back on those days with as much embarrassment as disgust at how petty she had been over the whole thing. And the fact that it had taken her seven years to realize it, when the girls in her dorm had been teasing her about it since her first day at Hogwarts. Yes, there wasn't a single person who hadn't know about her crush on the famous Harry Potter.
When he had asked her out, she was ecstatic as no one had ever been. Her wish had finally been granted. Finally. After all these years of waiting, the boy of her dreams was hers. For the first few weeks she pinched herself sharply several times just to make sure it wasn't all just another dream. And when she found that it wasn't, she was even happier than before.
Oh, how quickly she had been to accept him! She had been so sure that he loved her, that her feelings were finally reciprocated. Never again would she trust anybody with her heart so openly, she vowed. Next time--no, wait. Ginny stopped herself. There would be no next time. She had been a fool, she thought, and she would never let it happen again. No, not even if he came begging at her feet.
And to think, at one time she hoped that he would!
~*~
Rumors were already spreading like wildfire through the Gryffindor common room. Hermione? And Harry? Oh, look, they're kissing! How did it happen? When did it happen? Where in heaven's name has Ginny gotten to? Oh, goodness, do you know what I just heard?...
"Harry?" Hermione picked up her head from where it was resting on Harry's shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I...I'm glad we got back together. Really and truly. And I'm horribly sorry that we broke up earlier," she said earnestly.
"Me too." They smiled at each other warmly, a mutual look of contentment passing between the two.
~*~
Ron stomped into the library, pulled out a chair roughly from a small table in one of the many tables sprinkled about, and plopped himself into it. He randomly grabbed a book from the shelf behind him and slammed it on the table as loudly as possible, earning him a reproving glance from Madame Pince, who shrieked, "You take care of this library! It's far older than you and heaven knows how much more it's worth!"
Ah, she can go to bloody hell, thought Ron bitterly. After all, Harry'll need somebody to keep him company.
Yes, just like Hermione and Ginny, Ron was thinking about Harry. Of course, his thoughts were not nearly as nice as Hermione's, and compared to his even Ginny's seemed friendly.
Speaking of friends, Ron no longer counted Harry as one of his. He went as far to think that he would sooner buddy up with Draco or Snape than even smile at that foul creature again in his entire life.
Just who did he think he was to run around and break the heart of his little sister, anyways? He was so damn full of himself all the time, he never thought of anybody else but himself. Harry took his too-large ego with him everywhere he went. People made too big a deal about something that happened when he was a year old that they completely missed what an annoying self-centered little bastard he could be, whining like a baby when he didn't get what he wanted, and heaven forbid that at least a dozen people didn't come running to his aid at that very moment.
"Ron!" God, thought Ron. Perfect timing.
"Hi there!" The skinny little figure of Colin Creevy came running down between the shelves and took a seat next to Ron. Ron sighed.
"Hullo Colin. What's up?" Despite the fact that Colin was quite the last person he wanted to see at the moment, Ron still thought he was pretty nice and felt obligated to at least be civil to him.
Ever since Harry had started going out with Hermione, he had been too absorbed in his significant other to even acknowledge Colin's existence, so Colin had turned to the person who knew Harry best--Ron. At first it had been just a substitution, but since last year Colin had abandoned Harry and attached himself to Ron. After you got past the fact that he followed you around everywhere, bobbing up and down and asking endless questions like you would expect from somebody who was six, not sixteen, Colin was pretty good company.
"Have you heard? Everybody's talking about it. Harry and Hermione got back together."
Ron heaved a loud sigh. "Yes, Colin, I have," he said impatiently. "And I'd rather not talk about it, okay?" Colin took the hint.
"Well...um...I think I have some homework to go do." Colin stood up and pushed his chair in. "I'll see you later then?"
"Yeah. Sure." Ron propped his head up on his elbow as Colin left the library, and all of his confused thoughts flooded back into his head again.
A/N Uh. Yeah. Sappy sappy sappy. Blah blah blah. But honestly, people! We had to go through this. There is *no* way around it. And when I say *no* way, I mean *NO* way. Okay then. So if you complain about it I'll come back there and kick your scrawny little butt! Complain about anything else, just not about the sappiness, k? And I'm very very very sorry for not posting in such a frikin long time. The next chapter should be out sooner. Oh yeah, this chapter is named after the incredibly froody soulDecision song of the same name...rock on XD
Harry joined Hermione in their usual seat across from the fire, which was glowing red and crackling merrily. What a good start to a Christmas holiday, Harry thought as he slipped his arm around Hermione's shoulder. Hermione looked up at him and smiled contentedly.
"Harry, dear, are you perfectly sure Ginny took everything okay?" asked Hermione, a note of concern still in her voice.
"Of course," replied Harry, kissing the top of her head, which was nestled on his arm. "I'm sure she's somewhere talking with her friends and enjoying her vacation right now."
~*~
Ginny stumbled blindly down the stairway in disbelief. Harry had gotten back together with Hermione. And broken up with her in the process. Which, she thought as she pushed open the huge doors that led out of the castle and on to the grounds, which were buried under a good few feet of snow, meant that Ron had been right all along. She trudged across, not quite sure of where she was going just yet.
She decided to stop and rest on one of the many benches by the shore of the lake. After stooping down to brush off some of the snow that had collected on it, she sat down. Everything that had happened to her in the past month with Harry kept running through her mind, and now that she knew he had never really liked her in the first place, what was going on suddenly seemed so obvious. The way Hermione always joined them everywhere they went, the way Harry was always finding things to do instead of spend time with just her, the way that they always did everything together. At the time it hadn't struck her as unusual; they were friends, weren't they? She had never imagined in her wildest dreams that two of the people she loved the most would be the two that would hurt her the most.
Her mind wandered back to the fact that Ron had known about the whole thing all along. She wondered how he had found out...had he seen the fake affections Harry constantly gave her, while his true attention belonged to Hermione? Or had Harry confided his plan in Ron, the thought that Ron might tell never crossing his mind? Or had he...she stopped and hastily blinked back some tears that were threatening to fall. She would not cry over a guy; she would not cry over Harry Potter. And yet she felt the ice cold tears begin make their way down her face; bringing her soft blue mittens to her face she made to wipe them off.
Ginny silently wished that she could be like other girls, and get over guys as fast as they got over her. She wished that she could have normal crushes that left as quickly and suddenly as they came. For her, it was different. It had always been. She remembered the first time she had seen Harry Potter, nearly seven years ago when Ron had first started at Hogwarts.
She had stood, clutching her mother's hand, as the four Weasley children to attend Hogwarts (Percy, Fred, George, and now Ron) grabbed their trolleys and started to make their way to the platform. Once the three eldest brothers had gone, and Ron was just about to leave, Ginny had noticed a curiously small and quiet boy glancing nervously at the Weasley family. Something about his unruly, jet black hair and nervous green eyes hidden behind an overly large pair of thick black glasses had attracted her attention and held it. Though she was quite sure she didn't know him, he looked oddly familiar. Glancing at his trolley loaded with a large trunk and a cage containing an owl, she assumed he was going to Hogwarts.
Just as Mrs. Weasley was about to reprimand Ginny and tell her that it was rude to stare, the boy stepped over.
"Excuse me," he said, extremely softly. Ginny's heart fluttered and her stomach lurched, two sensations that she was very unused to feeling, especially simultaneously.
"Oh, hello there, dear," Mrs. Weasley had replied, in her usual motherly voice. She went on explaining about how to get onto the platform (the boy was a first year, like Ron, he had said, and probably Muggle-born, too, Ginny thought) and soon he made his way though the barrier and, along with all the other students, boarded the Hogwarts Express.
When she had found out that the boy was the famous hero Harry Potter, she begged and begged her mother to see him. Even then she knew that it had been very childish, but something inside her told her that she just had to see this boy, had to know him better.
Ginny broke herself from her thoughts momentarily as the snow began to fall faster and more heavily. She slid down the bench closer under the thick boughs of a large oak tree which blocked out enough of the frosty flakes for her to be comfortable again.
She remembered how her stomach had flip-flopped when she woke one morning, the summer before she started Hogwarts, to find Harry Potter sitting at her breakfast table. Having Harry around had been both a blessing a curse; while she had never felt more contentment in her life than when she knew that he was so close to her all the time, every time she was in the same room as Harry she was very prone to making a fool of herself, and blushing a deep shade of red afterwards.
Later that year he had saved her life after she had foolishly walked right into the hands of the Dark Lord. She remembered waking in the dank, cold chamber and seeing his face hovering above her, filled with concern. She felt a warm tingle right in the pit of her stomach when he helped her clumsily to her feet, and he looked so genuinely worried about her that, if possible, her love for him increased. But then, oh, how she wished she had never picked up that stupid diary! It was bad enough that she had been so stupid, but why was it that Harry was the one who had to find out about it all? She was incredibly embarrassed and ashamed of what she had done, and was finding it harder than ever to look Harry straight in the face, which of course made her affectionate feelings for him even more obvious than ever.
In her second year, she had pretty much convinced herself that, since Harry would never be interested in her in that way, that it was pointless to go on hoping and loving. And it seemed to work, too, and when she noticed all the extra time that he was spending with Hermione, it only seemed natural that he would go out with her, without a second thought to her, Ginny Weasley, who was only the younger sister of Ron, anyway.
Later that summer, that slight glimmer of hope sparked up a bit when he came to spend part of the summer with them again, and joined them at the Quidditch World Cup. Of course, Ginny hadn't get too hopeful, as Hermione was there the whole time, too. Even though the two were fast friends, after noticing all the time Harry and Hermione spent together Ginny couldn't help but feel jealous.
But now, Ginny wasn't jealous of Hermione. No, not anymore. Not after what Hermione had done to her that day, not even thirty minutes ago. Ginny had been so sure that the two had been friends, so sure that Hermione would never even dream of snatching Harry right out from under her nose.
And Harry! Just thinking about him a surge of hate rushed through her veins. That...that...goodness! Ginny racked her brain trying to think up a word bad enough to describe him. How could she have ever loved him? How could he have ever meant the world to him? That dirty, cheating, low life excuse for a boy...and he got away with it all, too, simply because of who he was. Harry Potter.
Ginny knew she should have given up on him in her fourth year when he and Hermione started going out. And then the year after that when they spent so much time together you would have thought they were attached at the hip. And the two paid no more visits to the Burrow--no, Harry spent the next summer with Hermione. And the next one. And Ginny found herself more and more often crying herself to sleep.
As she sat on that bench under the tree, she looked back on those days with as much embarrassment as disgust at how petty she had been over the whole thing. And the fact that it had taken her seven years to realize it, when the girls in her dorm had been teasing her about it since her first day at Hogwarts. Yes, there wasn't a single person who hadn't know about her crush on the famous Harry Potter.
When he had asked her out, she was ecstatic as no one had ever been. Her wish had finally been granted. Finally. After all these years of waiting, the boy of her dreams was hers. For the first few weeks she pinched herself sharply several times just to make sure it wasn't all just another dream. And when she found that it wasn't, she was even happier than before.
Oh, how quickly she had been to accept him! She had been so sure that he loved her, that her feelings were finally reciprocated. Never again would she trust anybody with her heart so openly, she vowed. Next time--no, wait. Ginny stopped herself. There would be no next time. She had been a fool, she thought, and she would never let it happen again. No, not even if he came begging at her feet.
And to think, at one time she hoped that he would!
~*~
Rumors were already spreading like wildfire through the Gryffindor common room. Hermione? And Harry? Oh, look, they're kissing! How did it happen? When did it happen? Where in heaven's name has Ginny gotten to? Oh, goodness, do you know what I just heard?...
"Harry?" Hermione picked up her head from where it was resting on Harry's shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I...I'm glad we got back together. Really and truly. And I'm horribly sorry that we broke up earlier," she said earnestly.
"Me too." They smiled at each other warmly, a mutual look of contentment passing between the two.
~*~
Ron stomped into the library, pulled out a chair roughly from a small table in one of the many tables sprinkled about, and plopped himself into it. He randomly grabbed a book from the shelf behind him and slammed it on the table as loudly as possible, earning him a reproving glance from Madame Pince, who shrieked, "You take care of this library! It's far older than you and heaven knows how much more it's worth!"
Ah, she can go to bloody hell, thought Ron bitterly. After all, Harry'll need somebody to keep him company.
Yes, just like Hermione and Ginny, Ron was thinking about Harry. Of course, his thoughts were not nearly as nice as Hermione's, and compared to his even Ginny's seemed friendly.
Speaking of friends, Ron no longer counted Harry as one of his. He went as far to think that he would sooner buddy up with Draco or Snape than even smile at that foul creature again in his entire life.
Just who did he think he was to run around and break the heart of his little sister, anyways? He was so damn full of himself all the time, he never thought of anybody else but himself. Harry took his too-large ego with him everywhere he went. People made too big a deal about something that happened when he was a year old that they completely missed what an annoying self-centered little bastard he could be, whining like a baby when he didn't get what he wanted, and heaven forbid that at least a dozen people didn't come running to his aid at that very moment.
"Ron!" God, thought Ron. Perfect timing.
"Hi there!" The skinny little figure of Colin Creevy came running down between the shelves and took a seat next to Ron. Ron sighed.
"Hullo Colin. What's up?" Despite the fact that Colin was quite the last person he wanted to see at the moment, Ron still thought he was pretty nice and felt obligated to at least be civil to him.
Ever since Harry had started going out with Hermione, he had been too absorbed in his significant other to even acknowledge Colin's existence, so Colin had turned to the person who knew Harry best--Ron. At first it had been just a substitution, but since last year Colin had abandoned Harry and attached himself to Ron. After you got past the fact that he followed you around everywhere, bobbing up and down and asking endless questions like you would expect from somebody who was six, not sixteen, Colin was pretty good company.
"Have you heard? Everybody's talking about it. Harry and Hermione got back together."
Ron heaved a loud sigh. "Yes, Colin, I have," he said impatiently. "And I'd rather not talk about it, okay?" Colin took the hint.
"Well...um...I think I have some homework to go do." Colin stood up and pushed his chair in. "I'll see you later then?"
"Yeah. Sure." Ron propped his head up on his elbow as Colin left the library, and all of his confused thoughts flooded back into his head again.
A/N Uh. Yeah. Sappy sappy sappy. Blah blah blah. But honestly, people! We had to go through this. There is *no* way around it. And when I say *no* way, I mean *NO* way. Okay then. So if you complain about it I'll come back there and kick your scrawny little butt! Complain about anything else, just not about the sappiness, k? And I'm very very very sorry for not posting in such a frikin long time. The next chapter should be out sooner. Oh yeah, this chapter is named after the incredibly froody soulDecision song of the same name...rock on XD
