A Moment Like This
Chapter 1 – Parvati's Plan
Disclaimer: As much as we wish we did- we do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters developed by the brilliant JKR. We're just taking them for a test drive.
Outside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, heavy snow twinkled down from a purple dusk sky. In Gryffindor Tower, Ginny Weasley was humming the first few bars of her new favorite song, Miss Independent, by Kelly Clarkson. The brand-new diary that her mother had sent her by owl post arrived this morning, and she couldn't wait until after classes, when she could write everything down in it. At the moment, it sat open on her crimson four-poster bed.
Hmm…. Ginny thought, waving her quill around aimlessly. Nothing special happened today…Her mind wandered back to breakfast that morning. Wait, now that I think of it… Elizabeth wouldn't shut up about some Slytherin boy, and I was wondering when I could possibly order one of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes when she interrupted herself to whisper that Harry Potter was staring at us….staring at me. Me!
A rather goofy smile spread across her face as she dipped her quill in ink and began to scratch,
The best thing happened this morning. Actually, two good things happened. I got this diary from Mum, and (hold your breath) Harry Potter was staring at me! Elizabeth interrupted her own conversation with herself to whisper this tiny tidbit of slightly earth-shattering information into my ear. Then, I looked up to see if it was true, (looking back, I find that I am rather like my dear brother Ron, no sense at all) and it was! I saw his eyes widen slightly, and then a blush creep over his Quidditch-toned features. Swoon.
She paused, and the charmed Muggle stereo on her bedside table sprang to life. The very song that she'd been humming minutes before came blasting on. She was getting ready to go down to the Great Hall for dinner when her dormitory door burst open.
Glancing wearily at the door, Ginny was shocked to see Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown standing gawkily outside.
"Hello," Ginny said cautiously.
"Ginny! We've had the world's best idea! You have to help us!" Parvati bustled in and sprawled out in the armchair in the corner. Lavender followed, but chose to stand nearby, as if she were hoping to blend in with the walls.
"Um, okay. Spill." Ginny gathered up her diary, and shoved it in the drawer of the bedside table.
"Okay. Lav and I were thinking- "here, Lavender waved her hands at Parvati, urging her forward, "- that this year, since it's our last year, our last Christmas at Hogwarts, we should leave behind a tradition, something to be remembered by. So, we came up with an idea to have a singing contest!"
"A what?" Ginny asked incredulously.
"A singing contest! You know, la la la and all of that?" Parvati said hastily. "And, to encourage people, we want to tell the common room right nowthat you're definitely going to take part in it." Parvati looked at the redhead expectantly.
"Me? Why me?" Ginny asked, horrified at the very idea. The whole common room would be reduced to snorts and giggles.
"Well," Parvati said slyly, "If you don't, then we'll be forced to send this," She took out a pink envelope from the pocket of her robes, "to Harry."
"Excuse me? What on earth does that say?"
"Oh, nothing. Except for the confession that you talk about him in your sleep, and you sing Rubber Ducky to yourself in the shower."
"Oh, okay. So basically, you're blackmailing me," Ginny said. Her eyes were wide with apprehension now, and she wondered what these two would do to other people to force them into the contest. An image of Hermione in a tutu came floating across her appalled mind, and she gasped in spite of herself.
"So…you'll do it?" Parvati glanced at Lavender, whose brown eyes were shining with glee.
"Hang on, I didn't say that!" Ginny paused. I'll admit to myself that I talk about him in my sleep, Hermione's told me that already. But what is Rubber Ducky?
"You don't want Harry to get this, do you, Ginny?" Parvati waved the envelope in front of her again.
Ginny sighed. "Fine. I'll do it."
The two older girls shrieked in excitement. "Really?" Lavender gushed. Parvati nodded brusquely, then took Lavender by the crook of the arm and led her out of the room.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Harry lobbed his last piece of parchment into the fire with a heavy sigh. "I'll never get this done in time for Thursday."
Across the table, Ron shrugged. "All the more reason for Snape to give you detention, the bloody git."
From somewhere behind a massive pile of assorted spellbooks, Hermione tutted disapprovingly. "RON! How many times do I have to tell you? Professor Snape, even though he is really quite unfair, should not be disrespected."
"Aww, come on, Hermione! He's worst to you and Harry. Why can't you just face the facts? HE'S A GIT!" He said this last sentence with a smug look upon his freckled face, as if he so thoroughly enjoyed making Hermione spit with rage.
"I don't care, he's a teacher."
"So? You didn't have a problem talking about Trelawney." Ron looked over at her expectantly. To his surprise, Hermione agreed with him.
"I suppose."
Harry was about to ask for a spare bit of parchment when Parvati and Lavender came thundering down the staircase, wearing identical looks of anticipation that Harry felt should be illegal, especially when there were people who still had Potions essays to complete. To his utter disgust, they pulled out their wands and cast a Silencing Charm on the common room.
"Could I have your attention for a few minutes, please?" Parvati asked timidly, seeing the looks on the seventh years' faces. Harry didn't blame them; they had their N.E.W.T.s to study for.
"Lavender and I have had an idea that we hope you'll consider being part of. This Christmas we have decided that Gryffindor Tower will hold a singing contest. We wanted to start a tradition for Gryffindor, apart from the one where we beat Slytherin in every Quidditch match of the year."
Lavender reversed the Silencing Charm, as the students were showing various signs of moderate interest. "We are also extremely pleased to announce that Ginny Weasley will be performing."
"What?!? Ginny's in on this, too? Are you mad?!" Ron bellowed. Hermione slapped his elbow, and after that he was silent.
Harry's mind had gone blissfully blank. Ginny was performing? Perhaps…no, that'd be wayyy too weird. He couldn't tell her, not after everything that had transpired over the summer.
When he'd arrived at the Burrow that past summer, Harry was shocked to find that Ginny seemed to barely care that he was in the same room. Later, after leaving Ron's room because of a quarrel between Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny had stayed outside in the garden until two-thirty, talking like old friends.
Truthfully, he missed the blushing and stammering Ginny used to do in his presence. He'd never paid much attention to it before she'd stopped. He often wondered if she didn't like him anymore. It kind of made him feel empty, like he lost a bit of who he was.
Bringing his thoughts back to the common room, he found that his two best friends were staring at him, adorning looks of sympathy.
"What?"
"You looked a bit sad there, mate. Thinking of what might happen if you enter?" Ron chuckled, but was silenced almost at once by a reproving glare from Hermione.
"Harry, I think it's wonderful that you want to enter. Actually, I was thinking of entering myself." Hermione blushed.
Ron gaped at her. "Let's hear you sing, Mione," he said in a croaky voice Harry had never heard before.
"I never said I was entering," said Harry automatically.
"Oh, please do! I'll feel really stupid if you two don't," Hermione begged.
"I will, I guess. If it means that much to you," Ron said, offering his comforting arm to Hermione, who took it hesitantly.
"I don't think so. I'll watch you two, thanks." Harry imagined the two of them doing a duet finally professing their feelings in front of Gryffindor Tower. The thought was comforting.
"If you don't, we'll make sure your life is miserable," said the chirpy voice Harry was beginning to dread. It was Parvati.
He wheeled around in his seat, hoping for all he was worth that the conversation that would probably follow would be one that resulted in his performing in the contest. Unfortunately for him, that's exactly what it turned out to be.
"Promise to us that you'll sing, and we won't give a certain redheaded beauty this." She brandished a red envelope, on which Harry could just make out the name of the addressee. Oh God! Ginny? What was in that envelope, exactly?
"What's in there that will persuade me?" Harry asked with a shaky voice. He saw Parvati glance at Lavender with a knowing smile.
"Oh, nothing. Only your colorful confession to her that you love both her and singing the song Meet Virginia in the shower, because it reminds you of her." She smiled smugly.
"You'll what?" Harry felt lightheaded. He could see where they got the idea that he loved her, because for the past few days whenever she walked into the common room he would keep to himself and say absolutely nothing to anyone, but what the hell was Meet Virginia? He supposed that it was a Muggle song- therefore, what with his sheltered life with the Dursleys, he knew nothing about it.
"You heard me. So, are you in, or do I have to say something to Ginny?" Parvati folded her arms across her chest, on which a Prefect badge was pinned precariously.
Harry closed his eyes in defeat. They had him cornered. There was no way out now. He opened his eyes, hoping that she'd be gone. No such luck.
"Okay, fine. But no one's picking a song for me. Not you, not anyone. Got it?"
For a second he thought he had seen a flicker of worry in Parvati's determined brown eyes, but it passed and she held out her manicured hand. "Deal."
Gryffindor Tower was rarely quiet after ten o'clock at night. But this night, one dormitory light remained on. Ginny rummaged through her trunk, throwing her clothes out and pulling at her hair in frustration.
"What am I going to sing? How, how on bloody earth did I get myself into this mess? Oh, right. I remember now. Harry." Her eyes fell on a stack of Muggle CDs that threatened to topple over. Slowly, she sifted through them.
Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, hmmm….what's this? She had come across a blank case. Sighing, she opened the case and slipped the CD into her portable CD player, which Hermione had so graciously charmed to work properly inside Hogwarts. The music drifted into the headphones, and Ginny found herself wondering, who is this? A strong voice followed, and after listening to the words, Ginny knew she'd found it; the song that she would sing in front of every Gryffindor declaring her feelings for Harry Potter.
She fell asleep with a contented smile on her face, right there on the floor of her dormitory, with her headphones still playing her song.