Chapter 8
There's More To Life Than This
Disclaimer: These are JKR's characters and places. Songs/lyrics, featured in the chapter, belong to Blur, The Prodigy, Shaggy and Björk.
Author's notes: My thanks to Zsenya for the beta-reading. Thanks to Carrie who help me through the final part of this chapter. My love to Miss Pince who tells me to get a move on with the writing and then there are the readers and the reviewers who make this all worthwhile.
Then there are few announcements from the author. First up, underage drinking will be featured here. I'm certainly not encouraging that, it just serves my plot. This chapter and the subsequent three chapters will all take place at the same time but will tell events from different perspectives. Don't worry … those strange things will be explained.
Harry ran his hand through his hair nervously. He wasn't really sure why he was so nervous, he knew most of the people who were attending the party, but it might be the fact that this was a party. He only had a vague idea of how one should act at a party like this, and he was afraid he might do something odd.
Mr and Mrs Weasley had left that afternoon for Birmingham, where Mrs Weasley's sister lived. She threw a party every New Year's Eve. Mrs Weasley had fussed a lot, making sure that the twins weren't up to anything and so on. Harry had had trouble not snickering when Mrs Weasley had asked Fred and George not to do any silly business. Ron had excused himself and Hermione had a pained look on her face. When Mr and Mrs Weasley had finally Disapparated, they had all burst out laughing, though Hermione recovered very quickly.
Ron came in, dressed in blue robes, looking a bit happier than the last time he had been in dress robes. He was wringing his hands, looking anxious.
"What's wrong?" asked Harry.
"Just …" Ron seemed to be about to say something, "nothing … forget it." Harry looked at him curiously.
"No, wait …" Ron seemed to have changed his mind again. "Reckon there's going to be dancing like at Yule Ball?"
"I've no idea," said Harry, "I've never been to a party." He hadn't thought of that, dancing wasn't something he planned on doing.
"If it's going to be so … do you think I should ask Hermione to dance?" Ron's ears were now in that shade of maroon his old dress robes had been.
"Do you want to?" Harry suppressed a grin. Ron looked down and nodded. "Ask her then," suggested Harry.
"Do you think she would want to?" Ron then asked.
"I think so," said Harry, trying to sound nonchalant. Ron didn't say anything but his ears seemed grow even redder, if such thing was possible.
They didn't speak any further till they were both ready to go downstairs. Hardly anybody had arrived except Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson, who were both with the twins in the kitchen.
"What's that?" George was asking as Harry and Ron entered the kitchen. He was pointing to some bottles which stood on the table.
"Oh, that's champagne," said Angelina.
"Cham … what?" George had picked one up and was trying to remove the aluminium foil on the top.
"Champagne, it's a Muggle wine, sparkling wine. It's apparently a tradition to drink it on New Year's Eve," she said. George raised his eyebrows and finished removing the aluminium foil and the wire. He then tugged at the cork and jumped back when it flew out of the bottle with a loud pop and a fountain of wine was sprayed in George's face. The kitchen rang with laughter.
Harry wandered out of the kitchen and met Hermione and Ginny. They both looked very pretty. Hermione was dressed in a Muggle dress and Ginny was in the dress robes she had worn at the Yule Ball last year.
"So, what's going on in the kitchen?" asked Hermione.
"Oh, just inspection of the beverages that will be served tonight. I think we might be expecting some aggressive champagne," said Harry.
"Alcohol?!?" exclaimed Hermione, horrified, and rushed to the kitchen, which left Harry and Ginny alone. He looked shyly at her and he remarked that she had done something to her hair. It was in a bun, from which a few strands seemed to have escaped. Harry thought it looked nice.
"So did Lee bring any music?" Ginny asked. Harry looked at her quizzically. He hadn't thought about that. Ginny noticed his puzzled look.
"Let's check it out then." She tugged at his sleeve and led him to the living room. Lee indeed seemed to have brought some music with him. There was a Muggle CD player with few CD cases and something that to Harry looked like an ancient radio.
"Oh, what's this?" said Ginny in a curious tone, examined the CD player.
"It's a CD player but how it is supposed to work here, I don't know. I mean, there's no electricity here," said Harry as he picked up the CD-player.
"It's probably charmed," said Ginny, "something my father would be very interested in."
"Let's try if it works," said Harry and picked a random CD from the case, loaded the CD-player and pressed play. Immediately, music blared out of it. Ginny's eyes were alight with interest.
"Oh, I like Muggle music," she squealed. "Did you see the name of this band or whatever this is?"
"Yeah," said Harry, "Blur or something like that …" Ginny was starting to sing along, "girls who like boys to girls …"
Harry had turned his attention to that the thing that looked like an ancient radio, but he couldn't find any buttons to operate it. He was poking at something he suspected were the speakers when he felt someone touch his arm.
"Let me show you," said Ginny and brought forth her wand.
"Can you do that? Do magic, I mean?" Harry asked flabbergasted.
"No, you just have to touch the Wizard Jukebox with your wand to activate it, no spelling involved, and then you request the song you want to listen to. Hmmm … Lee is bound to have Sorcery Rox with the Weird Sisters," said Ginny and prodded the Jukebox. Very quickly music started sounding and Harry recognized a fast paced song he had heard at the Yule Ball. He smiled towards Ginny and she shot him a smile back.
The guests were beginning to arrive while they were looking through the music. Soon Harry was chatting about Quidditch and O.W.Ls preparing to people like Oliver Wood, Ernie MacMillian and Roger Davies. Oliver introduced him to Serafina McQueen, a shorthaired and quick moving witch. Harry learned she was a reserve Seeker for the Appleby Arrows but was hoping to get transferred to the Bigonville Bombers in Luxembourg. He had to admit he was enjoying himself even though he was much more careful in the amount of mulled mead he was drinking. Seamus Finnigan had obviously been drinking it in generous amounts because he was barely standing straight. Ginny seemed to enjoying herself too, dancing around and obviously preferring fast paced songs. Now she was bouncing up and down to something he suspected was Muggle music. Mostly it was loud beats but there were very vague lyrics there, "You're no good for me, I don't need nobody, don't need no one that's no good for me …"
Harry looked around and saw Ron standing alone, leaning against a wall. He was staring hard at the group of people who were dancing. Harry followed his gaze and saw he was focusing on Hermione, who was dancing in a very un-Hermione like manner. She was shaking her hips and moving her arms in rhythm with the music, looking quite enraptured.
"Dunno what she thinks she's doing," whispered Ron when Harry approached him, "she was drinking that fizzy Muggle wine and now she's behaving like that." Harry raised his eyebrow; that seemed to be very unlike Hermione. Something told him that they must have had an argument but he decided that he wouldn't ask Ron about it. That could prove to be rather touchy subject. He just hoped that it wouldn't make them awkward towards each other.
~~~
"Mista luvar, luvar, mista luvar, luvar, girl, mista luver, luver, she call me mista bombastic say me fantastic!" Ginny was getting a sore throat from singing along with all the songs. Those Muggle tunes were so much fun and she learned the lyrics very quickly. One day she was going to go to a Muggle club to dance. Too bad most of the boys didn't want to dance. Fred and George were of course jumping around and doubly so when the fastest tracks came on. Lee had also joined in the fun but mostly it had been the girls who danced. Hermione was showing a new side to her, she was quite the dancer and Ginny noticed that the guys were giving her eye. Maybe it was the Muggle dress or the way Hermione was moving her hips. Ginny shrugged, she wasn't going to worry about Hermione, especially since it appeared that her brother had taken that role.
Hermione's Muggle dress stood out in the sea of dress robes with laced-up backs. A smile played on Ginny's lips, poor George. He wouldn't know who the secret admirer was until she would introduce herself. It looked like he would have an interesting night ahead of him.
Ginny looked for Harry and saw him standing with Ron, who was staring at Hermione with a rather sullen look on his face. They'd probably had a row and not had a chance to make up yet. Hopefully they would face up to reality soon. It didn't seem like Harry was having much luck in talking to Ron – Ginny thought that maybe she should rescue him.
"Hey," she said as she slid up to Harry, "having fun?" Harry nodded, but then pointed to Ron, "I don't think he is though."
"Let him wallow, he brought it upon himself, I believe," she whispered to Harry so Ron wouldn't hear her, though it didn't seem like he were taking much notice of anything but Hermione. Suddenly Harry grabbed her arm and said, "Let's go outside for a bit." She nodded, her heart beating faster.
It was chilly, but the air was still and the sky was clear, decorated with thousands of stars. Ginny sighed, she loved a starry sky, though doing homework about it for Astronomy wasn't always a pleasant task. Harry also looked like he appreciated the starry night sky.
"What do you supposed transpired between Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked her, a bit timidly. She couldn't help but giggle.
"It does make you uncomfortable when things get tense between those two," she looked at him sideways and saw he blushed slightly.
"Yeah, and I feel like I shouldn't, you know, but it's hard not to." There was a trace of surrender in his voice.
"Well, I suppose you've got to get used to it. Things are clearly heading in one direction with those two."
"You needn't tell me," he said and sighed. "Funny how these things end up, I mean with liking people and all that." Ginny turned to look at him, could he be saying something? He didn't look at her, but kept his eyes fixed on the sky instead. She could feel uncomfortable silence creeping up on them, and decided to change the subject.
"Who do you think it is?" she asked hurriedly.
"Huh?" he looked quizzically at her.
"George's secret admirer. Almost all the girls were wearing robes like the letter described."
"Really? Poor George. Let's hope she's his type then."
"Yeah, though I wouldn't be able to describe his type exactly. And think! I've known him all my life. I suppose no one but yourself can know your type, and maybe not even then. What do you think, Harry? You know your type?" As soon as that question had left Ginny's lips, she wanted to kick herself. Was she ready to hear any answer from Harry on the subject? He seemed to be taken aback by the question.
"Err, I don't know what to say," he said and his cheeks were quite red. "I know what girls I think are pretty and all that … but my type?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything," she said quickly. He didn't answer but shook his head unconvincingly and the uncomfortable silence returned. The music inside could be heard faintly and Ginny decided to concentrate on the song.
"Let's sneak out of this party, it's getting boring, there's more to life than this, it's still early morning, we could go down to the harbor, and jump between the boats, and see the sun come up…" Somehow she felt this applied to her and Harry and where they were now. They had snuck out of the party and there was something more to it than their need to talk about Ron and Hermione and George's secret admirer. Was it because they wanted to be together alone?
She dared a glance in Harry's direction and saw he was looking at her, she didn't look away though, for she felt his gaze locking her in. His eyes were so incredibly green, she couldn't help but stare into them and they seemed to get closer and closer. She felt the need to tilt her head a bit but the reason why never entered her mind, she was acting on pure instinct. And then, their lips touched and it was like something exploded in Ginny's mind. Never in her entire life, had she felt anything like this. Harry was gripping her forearm in an attempt to pull her closer and she felt the brim of his glasses nearly cutting into her nose but she didn't care. All she ever wanted to do was to kiss Harry and be kissed by him.
After what Ginny thought was eternity, they stopped. Both flushed and out of breath, they regarded each other with a shy glance.
"That was … err …" Ginny couldn't find the right word, she was sure there was no word that could describe it. Harry was silent, but a smile flickered on his lips. She reached forward and took his hand. He squeezed it slightly and she couldn't help herself, she stepped closer to him and laid her head on his chest. Immediately she felt his arms encircle her.
"Do you mind us staying like this for a little while?" she asked and she felt him laugh, his chest vibrating slightly.
"I wouldn't mind if we stayed like this all night," he said, drawing her even closer.
Ginny had no sense how long they had stood there embracing each other, a few minutes or the whole night, when a loud scream from inside the Burrow made them jump apart. They looked quickly at each other and then rushed inside. The sight that greeted them, was one of terror. Everyone present stood in a deformed looking circle. Ginny couldn't see what seemed to be happening but from the way Harry was gripping her shoulder, it had to be something horrible. The looks on everybody's faces and the sound of their voices, it was much like how things had been at the third task of the Triwizard Tournament when Harry had returned with Cedric's body.
"What is it?" she whispered but then someone moved and she saw inside the circle. She turned cold right away; Lee Jordan was holding Percy like a hostage, pointing his wand at her brother's throat.
