Chapter 7: A Free Agent
"I don't like that red. It's just too bright."
"But it reminds me of Gryffindor's house colors."
"Actually, it's a good deal lighter than our red, Ginny, and it'll look downright garish on all of the sofas." To prove her point Hermione, tapped the floor plan they were working on with her wand, instantly changing the shade of the upholstery on the furniture.
Ginny wrinkled her nose. "Bugger. Okay, you've proven your point. Now turn it back quickly before I go blind." Smiling slightly, Hermione did as she was told and the sofas flipped back to a neutral tan.
"Crikey! Where. Did. It. Go?!" Tonks was rifling frantically through one of the several magazines strewn around Professor McGonagall's office in such a state of frustration that she was crumpling the pages as she manhandled them. "The perfect dance floor. I found it yesterday afternoon while flipping through this nonsense. It was just exactly how I envisioned it and now it's not bloody here."
"Did you mark it?" Hermione asked calmly.
"I thought I did," Tonks ground out. Her bubblegum pink hair seemed to be curling in response to her frustration and Ginny was suddenly struck by the novelty of it. Every time she was with Tonks, she found herself wishing she'd been born lucky enough to be able to change her appearance at will.
"Ah! Here it is!" All but cackling with glee the Auror pulled out a page and thrust it under Hermione's nose. "See? Perfect, isn't it?"
Leaning forward, Ginny stared at the expansive dark cherry-colored wooden floor. Hermione touched her wand to the picture in Tonks's hands and then touched the floor plan. Instantly, the dance floor appeared in it. She cocked her head and stared at the addition critically. "Well, the color matches the wood paneling, doesn't it?"
Ginny groaned softly. She never thought she'd see the day when she'd be sitting inside on a perfectly decent afternoon discussing wood paneling with Hermione. "Looks too big to me," she muttered.
"How many people are we expecting?"
Tonks looked thoughtful. "Well, counting the ten RSVPs I got today, I'd wager a guess of roughly three hundred people."
Hermione blanched. "Three hundred? But.but that's over a third of the school!"
"Aye." Tonks shrugged. "It was the 'guests welcome' portion that did it. I didn't realize you DA folk had so many blasted friends with nowhere to go for Christmas." She winked at Ginny, indicating the fact that she was only joking. "After all, I only sent out fifty or so invitations."
"Dear Merlin, it's like another Yule Ball." Hermione suddenly looked terrified and Ginny felt a faint flutter of anticipation herself.
Yes, it would be very similar to the Yule Ball, she thought, only thankfully not as dressy or as intimidating as that had been. Nor as painful. She thought back to Neville's enthusiastically awful attempts at dancing and wondered briefly if it would be a complete betrayal of their friendship to warn Luna to charm steel tips into her shoes ahead of time.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about space. That Room of Requirement is really one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen." Tonks then took the floor plan from Hermione's hands, made a few brief adjustments to it with her wand, and passed it back to the girls. "There now, what do you think of that?"
There were a few moments of silence as all three regarded the picture carefully. The choice of wood made the room a bit dark, but six fireplaces crackled merrily, lighting the space in a pleasant, homey manner. The dance floor was settled in the middle, and farther back along the wall facing the door were huge windows dripping with dark red velvet curtains. Running parallel to the windows was a table covered in white linen that was bursting with food. A few enchanted fir trees lined the left and right sides of the room and they drifted in lazy circles, their branches sparkling heavily from the silver ornaments that weighed down upon them. Ginny's favorite part of the floor plan, however, were the crowds of dark green and red sofas grouped intimately about the fireplaces. The ample furniture been her idea because she liked the notion that when dancers grew tired, they could sit and lounge with friends by the flames. It seemed so much more natural, especially for a party in honor of Professor Lupin, than making people sit at proper chairs and tables.
As if wondering what all the sudden silence was about, Maeven poked her tiny beak over the lip of the pouch attached to Ginny's waist by a sash and struggled until her wrinkled head emerged. She was covered in a shock of dark purple feather-like tufts that occasionally obscured her little blue eyes.
Tonks let out a strange trilling sound then and reached forward to stroke the chick's head. "Oh, Ginny, is this your phoenix? She's just so adorable!" Before Ginny could respond, the Auror started addressing the animal in an abnormally high-pitched voice. "Lookit the ickle birdie. Aren't you just lovely? Yes you are. Yes you are!"
Ginny looked down at Maeven, who simultaneously looked up at her. She had been worried at first that her ability to communicate with her Familiar would decrease when the phoenix hit her chick stage. Instead, she had found that the opposite was true. If anything, the lack of complexity in the bird's mind made understanding her just that much simpler.
Right now, for example, Maeven was under the distinct impression that Tonks was rather daft.
Staring unblinkingly at the Auror for a few moments, she unceremoniously popped her head back down into the sack, leaving the Auror in mid-coo.
"Cheeky little thing, isn't she?" Tonks said cheerfully.
"Not bad," Hermione finally said, addressing the comment at the floor plan. "We might need some more fireplaces, though. I also don't know if all that food is necessary."
"Of course it's necessary. We're going to have at least three hundred people dancing for Merlin knows how long. Do you know how tiring it is to dance?" Tonks suddenly bit her lower lip. "What we'll need, though, is someone to make sure the food gets to the tables. I've tried talking to that Dobby you sent me to, Gin, but I'm worried he's a bit crackers."
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Actually, I was thinking we could get some of the younger students to do that. I mean, the house elves are usually so busy helping everyone get ready to leave at that time of year." Ginny suddenly had a chilling mental image of what that particular scenario entailed, based on the way Fred and George 'helped' their Mum get food on the table.
It consisted of large kettles and platters chasing screaming first-years around the dance floor.
"You know, Hermione, why don't you let me handle the food? I'm utterly hopeless when it comes to all this decorating but I've always been rather good at drawing up menus for parties at The Burrow. "
"Great idea, Gin," Tonks said swiftly, as though she were afraid Hermione would attempt to push the house elf issue. Instead, Hermione merely nodded thoughtfully and made to pull out another magazine but Tonks put her hand out, stopping her. "Shall we call it an afternoon, then? Reconvene same time on Friday?"
Ginny shook her head. "I've got Quidditch practice then."
"Well, if you're going to be handling the food, then I reckon you needn't come to discuss the room. Hermione?"
"Friday works for me."
"Brilliant. I'll see you then. Ginny, owl me and let me know where you are with the menu by Friday night. We three can set up a time to get together again in a few weeks."
Murmuring their goodbyes then, the trio split up. Tonks hung back to clean up McGonagall's office with a few flicks of her wand. Ginny and Hermione made their way back to the Gryffindor Common Room to drop their things off before dinner.
"Say, Ginny." Hermione suddenly said, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant.
"Yes?"
"About the.the party..did you..uhm...." She took a deep breath. "I was wondering-well, no, that's actually not quite accurate. It's not as though I'm wondering, but see, I can't really say." Her voice trailed off into uncomfortable silence.
As Ginny had never quite heard Hermione make such little sense, she was unsure as to how to help her out.
"Uhm.well, Ginny, on terms of asking people to the dance and-and.dates and such." She stopped again suddenly. "Good gracious, I've stuffed it up already," she muttered.
"Hermione, is this about Ron?" Ginny asked, reckoning that if she could guess what on earth was going on, maybe it might ease her friend's ability to talk about it.
For a split second, a completely startled look crossed Hermione's face. "Yes?" She said it as though she were a bit too distracted at present to know for sure. "I-I mean yes." Her voice took on a much more definite tone. "Yes, it's about Ron."
Ginny smiled. "Listen, I'm thrilled he asked you, if that's what you're worried about. I was quite proud of him when he did it, actually."
Hermione looked touched. "Really?"
Ginny nodded vigorously. "Really. You're both so close and it's just that.well, it just seemed like such the right thing to do." She had been about to admit the fact that she'd always wanted a sister, but then she realized that she also didn't want to be the reason her friend panicked and broke the date with her brother as a result of being confronted with such a heavy sentiment.
Hermione opened her mouth suddenly but then snapped it shut again, a mildly perturbed look on her face. It took her a few more seconds to compose herself but once she did, she sounded relatively normal. "Ginny, I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Anything."
"I was hoping you would help me get ready for the party. I mean, on terms of getting dressed that evening." Ginny's face lit up as Hermione continued. "I already have a good set of dress robes, but I'm terrible at primping myself up properly for these things."
"Oh, but you looked so pretty at the Yule Ball."
Hermione cringed. "That was Lavender. She's a dear, but a bit heavy handed with beauty charms and I was hoping.since you always manage to look so nice."
Ginny looked at her, surprised. "Me? You think I look nice?" She hazarded a glance down at the worn school robes she was wearing that had once belonged to Percy and noted how they bunched a bit in odd places on her skinny, awkward frame.
"Well, your hair always falls so perfectly. Whenever I wrestle with mine, it just never seems to agree. And that rosy color you use on your lips is a very nice shade on you. I'm just so awful at picking out things like that, and I really do want to look presentable for the party." Hermione was blushing then, as though vaguely horrified to even be having this conversation in the first place.
For her part, Ginny wanted to tell Hermione that she only knew a few beauty charms and tended to use them sparingly, not to mention the fact that she wasn't wearing anything on her lips at all, but she kept silent as she rather liked the idea of the two of them preparing for the party together. "I don't know how useful I can be, but I'd be happy to try."
"Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you." Hermione seemed relieved.
And with that, the girls went up the stairs to their respective rooms before reconvening a few minutes later to make their way to dinner.
~*~
"So, who is everyone taking to the DA party?" Ron asked loudly, leaning across the table with an enormous smile on his face. It seemed to Ginny that ever since he had got up the nerve to ask Hermione, he was on some irritating quest to make sure everyone else was properly set for the affair.
"Lavender." Seamus said shortly before returning to his conversation with the girl in question.
"Justin asked me," Padma responded.
"I'll be going with Rufus Wilkes from Hufflepuff." Pavarti had a dreamy look about her when she said it and Ron rolled his eyes.
"How about you, Harry?"
"I'm going with Hannah Abbott," he said, barely looking up from the book Hermione was showing him.
In complete defiance to every scrap of sense in Ginny's body, she felt her heart plummet. It shouldn't have been any great surprise that Harry would so easily find a date to the party but it truly wasn't until that moment that she had fully given up the hope that somehow, some way, he would end up asking her.
"Neville?"
"I-I asked Luna Lovegood. She said yes." At this, Harry did look up. Neville's ears turned pink.
"Really, Neville? You asked Luna?"
"Yes."
"That's bloody brilliant. Good show."
Ginny, too, wanted to congratulate Neville but was so inexplicably irritated by Harry's sudden enthusiasm that she couldn't quite bring herself to chime in.
"How about you, Hermione, who are you going with?"
She gave him a withering glance. "You. I'm going with you, Ron. You know that."
"Oh HO, Finnegan, pay up." Dean reached over the table, palm up, while the Irishman rummaged around in his robe pocket grumbling.
"Couldn't have held out for just one more year, could you?" Seamus gave Hermione a dark look as he plunked the gold and silver coins into his dormitory mate's hand. She merely stared back at him, appalled, and luckily too distracted to see money exchanging hands at several different points down the table.
"And you, Gin?" Ron turned his attention to her. "What lucky bloke will I have to beat to a pulp this time?"
Having anticipated the question at some point, Ginny tried to recall how she'd phrased the response in her head. She was a bit annoyed that Ron was being so public in his inquiries, but on the same token, it might be best to get it all out this once so she wasn't continuously asked about it. Taking a deep breath, she braced herself for the stares she was sure to get. "Actually, Ron, I'm going alone."
"Alone?" her brother repeated, as though it was a word in some strange, foreign tongue.
"Yes. As in, by myself." She tried to block out what sounded like Pavarti letting out a mortified gasp and in doing so, her eyes accidentally darted in Harry's direction. He was staring at her with such a sympathetic look on his face that she fought the sudden flush of embarrassment.
Ron's confusion still hadn't abated. "But didn't anyone-"
"I think that's a brilliant idea," Hermione broke in, causing everyone to look in her direction. "That way, you're not tied down to any one person and can borrow other people's dates for dances. You'll be a free agent, Ginny."
"Yes," Ron began, "but who in their right mind is-"
"I'd love to dance with you." Neville cut him off smoothly, his blue eyes radiating eagerness. "I'm sure Luna wouldn't mind."
Ginny smiled gratefully at him while Ron looked annoyed. Before he could say anything else, however, Dean Thomas poked his date Katie Bell. "What do you say, will you lend me out to a friend for a good cause?" The request was delivered with such sly charm that Ginny reckoned Katie wouldn't be able to say no.
"Of course, though I doubt she'll want you," the blonde girl shot back and the table quickly erupted with laughter.
Dinner continued from there at a much more relaxed pace and Ginny graciously accepted the handful of offers she got from other boys to fill up her imaginary dance card. By the time it was over and she was heading out of the Great Hall towards the library, she was actually more excited to go to the party than before. Going alone had been Luna's idea. At first Ginny and found the whole notion rather mad, but Luna had been so convincing that the plan had grown on her. There were times when her friend said things in such a manner that she almost seemed to be imitating Professor Trelawney during a vision. Her blue eyes would go slightly unfocused and she would stare off into space while whispering the words.
In this particular case, it had happened during the Hogsmeade trip while at Honeydukes. Luna and Neville had met her there that afternoon after "running a few errands" together, and Ginny suspected that he had broached the subject with her, because she spontaneously brought it up shortly thereafter.
"Have you decided on who you'll be going with, Ginny?" she'd asked while they were browsing through the assorted sweets.
"To the party?"
"Yes."
"Actually, Dean asked me. I thought I might go with him."
"Have you told him you would?"
"No, not yet."
"When did he ask you?"
"Well, the first time he brought it up was about two weeks ago."
"Why haven't you given him an answer yet?"
She'd felt increasingly uncomfortable with the interrogation. "Well, I suppose it's because." Her voice trailed off. Because what? She didn't know.
"Go alone," Luna had said softly then, her eyes trained on some point to the left, near Neville's ear. "Yes. Alone. That's the best course." It always gave Ginny a bit of a chill when Luna acted like that, but then, it also made her heed the advice.
And so, she had approached Dean later that evening and gently told him of her plans. To his credit, he managed to cover his disappointment rather well and made quite the show of being supportive. He had also made her promise to dance with him at least a few times. In retrospect, it was really the only moment during that entire confusing period after he'd asked her to be his date that she truly regretted not having been able to say yes.
"Hey Ginny."
Jolting out of the memory, she turned and saw Harry jog up alongside her. Her heart fluttered in response and she couldn't quite fight the hopeful thought he might be coming to ask her if she would save a dance for him as well. She had been waiting for him to mention it while at the table, but instead, he had simply fallen silent and gone back to the book he was reading with Hermione. Perhaps that had been due to shyness and not indifference, as she had originally feared.
"Hi Harry."
"Listen, about the DA party."
Her heart raced merrily along. "Yes?"
"I.uhm.I'm really sorry that you're going alone."
The hopeful feeling shattered. Trust Harry to make her feel humiliated over something that everyone else felt was a grand idea. Sometimes he was so like her brother it was no wonder they were best friends. "Yes, well, I'm not too worried."
The hurt tone of her voice must have been a bit too apparent because he cringed. "Look, if I had known-"
A panic seized her then, and before she knew what she was doing she blurted out, "It's not like no one asked me, you know."
He stopped. "Oh."
The last thing she wanted to be told was that, had he known she was going by herself, he would have asked her to go as his date. This was partially because it would be an excruciatingly big brotherish thing to say and partially because she knew she'd feel an acute sense of loss that he might have asked her for any reason at all.
Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Yes, well Neville asked me once, as did Colin and Dennis. Oh, and Dean asked me twice, as a matter of fact." She didn't know why she added that last part. It was true, but seemed so blatantly unnecessary that she was almost certain Harry would discern the emotion behind the words.
Instead, he just looked at her. "Okay."
She tucked an errant red strand behind her ear and shifted her rucksack. "So, thanks for your.uhm.concern Harry, but I'm really glad to be going by myself." He just nodded at her slowly, his brows furrowed in thought. Eventually, it got to the point where the silence was so prolonged that she began to search her mind for something more to say. So intent was she on that particular task, that she almost had a seizure when he suddenly reached forward as though to touch her.
"Hello there."
For a split second, she thought he might be addressing her chest and felt rather annoyed with herself when she couldn't immediately decide whether or not that was a bad thing. Looking down, she realized he was actually speaking to her Familiar, who was sticking her head out of her pouch for the second time that day.
Mesmerized, Ginny watched as he rubbed his index finger gently alongside the phoenix's beak. His knuckles were almost touching her waist as a result of the action and the thought of it suddenly made her skin tingle under her robes. Maeven's eyes grew heavy and half-lidded as though with sleep and when he stopped, she abruptly slid back into her pouch.
He chuckled then. "Friendly, isn't she?"
But Ginny couldn't really respond because she was riveted by the notion that he hadn't taken his hand away.
He started touching the fabric of her robes absent-mindedly and she could almost feel the heat of his fingertips through the material. He had taken a step forward while talking and she fought the urge to step back. Something about his close proximity tended to make her feel lightheaded and she could never quite concentrate on what she was saying. "Are these.?"
"They were Percy's." She forced herself to maintain eye contact and not to stare at his hand as she so sorely wanted to. "Somewhat of an awkward fit, but we're closest in build so Mum just altered them a bit for me." It was the sort of stupid, useless comment she would normally never think to say aloud, but his presence was unnerving her and she was thrilled to have managed to say anything coherent at all.
His hand suddenly stilled on the fabric covering her arm and with a shock of surprise, she realized that he was staring at her, his green eyes searching. He licked his lips and her gaze caught on the tiny, flickering movement. She found her eyes shifting to his mouth, as her mind tried to weigh just how much trouble she'd get in if she were to just submit to the overwhelming impulse to kiss him right there. Perhaps if she did it fast enough, he'd be so confused she could convince him he'd imagined the whole thing.
"Ginny." He drew her name out in such a way that her eyes fluttered in pleasure before looking back up at him.
"Yes, Harry?"
"Your hair."
She bit back the urge to moan when she realized he was actually touching a piece of her hair. The gentle sensation of him holding it up was completely intoxicating. "Yes, Harry?"
"Your hair.is really."
She swayed forward.
"It's really..long."
And with that, the world snapped back into focus, the hazy, romantic feeling vanished and Ginny just stared at him. She nearly laughed then, but more out of happiness that mockery. It wasn't much by way of a compliment, but this was Harry, and she was enormously grateful for the fact that he even noticed she had hair at all. She was just about to thank him when the horrified choking noise in the back of his throat stopped her from doing so.
"I-I mean-I mean-that's not what I mean!" He dropped her hair abruptly as though burned and started backing away. "I'm sorry, Gin. Gosh, that was really."
"Sweet?"
He was giving her a mystified look. "No, actually."
She had valiantly tried not to tease him, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. "You mean you don't think my hair is long?" she asked, as though thoroughly disappointed.
"Well, of course your hair is long, but that's not what I." He threw her a look as though he thought she was mad. "I have to be somewhere else. I should go."
"Oh, well, okay." She was rather startled when he suddenly turned and walked away from her. "Bye," she said, aiming the farewell at his rapidly retreating figure. Torn between confusion and amusement, she was just about to head to the library when he suddenly spun around part way down the hall to face her.
"That sash, did you make it?" he called over the din of the other students. She nodded. "It's very nice." He shouted back before setting his jaw, turning around and continuing on his way.
Amusement stood in glorious triumph then and Ginny couldn't stop the smile that broke out over her face as she stared after him until he disappeared.
The prickling sensation in the back of her mind indicated the Maeven had an opinion on the matter she was trying to share, but Ginny resolutely blocked it out for fear that analyzing what had just happened would tarnish the strange beauty of it.
As a result, it wasn't until a good deal later when she realized that he had never asked her to dance.
~*~
"I-I can't do it. He just won't go."
Neville's face was flushed and he was breathing hard from exertion while staring at Trevor. The green toad was sitting in front of him, eyeing him balefully.
"Yes, you can. Come on now, you're very close, I can feel it." Ginny tried to keep her voice light in an attempt to mask her doubt.
"But this is hard," Neville said softly, staring at the library table.
"Which makes it all the more worth doing," Luna responded firmly. "Now, let's try it again." She put her hand on his shoulder as though to seal his resolve and Ginny watched in amusement as he obediently shook himself, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes in preparation to begin anew.
She, Neville and Luna were continuing their informal DA/Familiars debriefing sessions and this week's lesson found Ginny trying to teach Neville to use the same sort of concentration techniques she had learned to communicate with Maeven on Trevor. Given Trevor's tendency to hop off at the worse possible times, the notion of giving Neville a bit more control over the toad was not only based on wisdom, but safety. They had started off slowly, just trying to nudge the obstinate animal into hopping the length of the table from his owner to Ginny. Unfortunately, in the past two hours, they had met with little success.
"Perhaps he's just slow," he finally blurted in frustration after another failed attempt. "Makes sense, doesn't it? He's my Familiar and I'm slow so why shouldn't he be slow?"
Ginny felt a pang in her heart at his words because she knew how rare it was for Neville to ever voice such personal feelings of inadequacy and it hurt to know that he had them.
"Trevor is very clever, Neville, so you ought not say such things. It damages his confidence," Luna said quietly. "Instead, I think we should try lending him some encouragement, don't you?" She slipped her hand into his then, entwining their fingers before leaning over to regard the toad with a serious look on her face. "You're very bright, Trevor, and very agile. We all think so, don't we?" She prodded Neville gently. "Don't we now, Neville?"
"Yes, I suppose we do," he responded weakly, clearly more interested in the fact that she was holding his hand instead of what she was saying.
"Of course we do," she said to the toad.
Ginny just watched from afar, a wistful smile on her face. There wasn't really a term to describe how things had changed ever since her friends had decided to go to the DA party together, but they had. Beyond just an increase in physical touching, there was a sweetness between them that had become so much more pronounced. Sometimes she thought of the threads that Maeven had temporarily revealed to her that morning she had first met the phoenix. She found herself wishing that Luna had been present at the time so she could have seen how her friend was connected to Neville. If she had had the opportunity to view their connection back then, Ginny would have tried to repeat the experience with Maeven now to see if there was a visible change.
Returning her attention to the task at hand, Ginny noted that Neville's eyes were closed again. She felt a faint touch of trepidation over the thought that maybe they really were building things up too fast and that he really wasn't ready for this. For one thing, Ginny knew she was no Professor McGonagall and felt extremely ill at ease trying to pass along information that she herself had barely learned. She also knew with absolute certainty that Trevor had no blazing clue of what Luna had been saying, despite the girl's best efforts. Animals simply couldn't understand human speech.
As a result of these thoughts, Ginny felt a rather huge bolt of shock to suddenly see the fat toad come bounding towards her before leaping onto her lap with a disturbingly wet-sounding thud. Slightly numb, she looked down at it. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but there was something in his eyes that made him appear distinctly smug.
Still in a complete state of disbelief, she returned her gaze to Neville, who was staring back at her, his mouth hanging agape. So great was his surprise, that he appeared entirely unaware of the fact that Luna was clinging to him, her arms around his neck, as she kissed his cheek enthusiastically. Ginny knew this to be true because he suddenly turned to the other girl as though about to say something, inadvertently causing her to plant a kiss on his lips.
They sprang apart almost instantly, and Ginny looked down in embarrassment, immediately feeling as though she had witnessed something extremely private. She heard him mumble, "Sorry," to which Luna responded, "Don't be," and Ginny abruptly found herself wishing she wasn't stuck with a toad in her lap because she sorely wanted to make a hasty exit.
For some reason, her mind flashed to Susan Bones and she wondered, not for the first time, where her friend had run off to. Luna and Neville's increasing closeness aside, she sincerely missed her Hufflepuff friend and realized they hadn't properly spoken to each other since the day Maeven had reverted to her chick form. The Familiar's class had progressed to more advanced one-on-one study with animals so Ginny hadn't been able to speak with Susan then and her friend always managed to be the first to dash out the door once the period was over. Despite the fact that Susan had begged off of the last three debriefing sessions due to school-related stress, Ginny rarely saw her in the library and only glimpsed her briefly in the halls between classes. She was starting to suspect that Susan was avoiding her friends, but couldn't be sure. She wanted to ask Justin Finch-Fletchley if she was spending her study time in the Hufflepuff Common Room, but couldn't find a way to phrase the question so that it didn't cause unnecessary alarm.
Hufflepuff loyalty could sometimes slip into intrusiveness and the last thing she wanted was for Justin to stage a full-fledged intervention based on something that might be all in Ginny's head to begin with. Then again, there had been a time during her first year that Ginny herself had found cause to withdraw from her friends and the reason behind her decision was anything but innocuous. Even today, she wished she had been surrounded by people who cared enough to find out what was going on. Perhaps they could have stopped it.
"You're amazing, you know that? Just amazing!" Neville grinned at Ginny as he bent to lift Trevor off of her lap. "Isn't he amazing?"
His enthusiasm was so infectious that she grinned back before rising to stand, relieved that he and Luna had sorted out the awkwardness of a few minutes ago. "He is indeed amazing. Not entirely surprising, though, given the fact that he IS you Familiar."
"Quite right, quite an amazing fellow," Neville said distractedly, holding Trevor up and grinning madly in the toad's face.
Coming to stand alongside her, Luna linked arms with Ginny. "Thank you," she whispered, having caught the compliment that Neville had missed. "We couldn't have done it without you, though. You're a brilliant teacher, Gin."
"Really brilliant!" Neville said supportively, before Ginny could protest. Putting Trevor back down on the table, he grabbed the two girls, hauling them unceremoniously into a three-way hug, which rapidly grew so tight that she couldn't breathe. Her face squeezed rather uncomfortably against his robes, the Hogwarts crest roughly imprinting itself on her cheek, Ginny tried to disengage her arm from Luna's so as to push the girl's blonde locks away from where they were smothering her face.
"Neville, you're on my foot," she heard Luna's muffled voice say calmly, and his grip quickly loosened, allowing him time to briefly readjust before he abruptly yanked them together again.
Having freed her arms during the pause, Ginny was able to hug them both back this time with equal ferocity. She was struck then by a sudden rush of emotion that was decidedly unexpected.
For the first time in years, she felt really and truly safe.
It was the sort of thing that made her wonder if she should laugh or cry because she knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that these were the kind of people she would love for a lifetime.
Between the three of them, Tom Riddle never would have stood a chance.
~*~
End Part 7
"I don't like that red. It's just too bright."
"But it reminds me of Gryffindor's house colors."
"Actually, it's a good deal lighter than our red, Ginny, and it'll look downright garish on all of the sofas." To prove her point Hermione, tapped the floor plan they were working on with her wand, instantly changing the shade of the upholstery on the furniture.
Ginny wrinkled her nose. "Bugger. Okay, you've proven your point. Now turn it back quickly before I go blind." Smiling slightly, Hermione did as she was told and the sofas flipped back to a neutral tan.
"Crikey! Where. Did. It. Go?!" Tonks was rifling frantically through one of the several magazines strewn around Professor McGonagall's office in such a state of frustration that she was crumpling the pages as she manhandled them. "The perfect dance floor. I found it yesterday afternoon while flipping through this nonsense. It was just exactly how I envisioned it and now it's not bloody here."
"Did you mark it?" Hermione asked calmly.
"I thought I did," Tonks ground out. Her bubblegum pink hair seemed to be curling in response to her frustration and Ginny was suddenly struck by the novelty of it. Every time she was with Tonks, she found herself wishing she'd been born lucky enough to be able to change her appearance at will.
"Ah! Here it is!" All but cackling with glee the Auror pulled out a page and thrust it under Hermione's nose. "See? Perfect, isn't it?"
Leaning forward, Ginny stared at the expansive dark cherry-colored wooden floor. Hermione touched her wand to the picture in Tonks's hands and then touched the floor plan. Instantly, the dance floor appeared in it. She cocked her head and stared at the addition critically. "Well, the color matches the wood paneling, doesn't it?"
Ginny groaned softly. She never thought she'd see the day when she'd be sitting inside on a perfectly decent afternoon discussing wood paneling with Hermione. "Looks too big to me," she muttered.
"How many people are we expecting?"
Tonks looked thoughtful. "Well, counting the ten RSVPs I got today, I'd wager a guess of roughly three hundred people."
Hermione blanched. "Three hundred? But.but that's over a third of the school!"
"Aye." Tonks shrugged. "It was the 'guests welcome' portion that did it. I didn't realize you DA folk had so many blasted friends with nowhere to go for Christmas." She winked at Ginny, indicating the fact that she was only joking. "After all, I only sent out fifty or so invitations."
"Dear Merlin, it's like another Yule Ball." Hermione suddenly looked terrified and Ginny felt a faint flutter of anticipation herself.
Yes, it would be very similar to the Yule Ball, she thought, only thankfully not as dressy or as intimidating as that had been. Nor as painful. She thought back to Neville's enthusiastically awful attempts at dancing and wondered briefly if it would be a complete betrayal of their friendship to warn Luna to charm steel tips into her shoes ahead of time.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about space. That Room of Requirement is really one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen." Tonks then took the floor plan from Hermione's hands, made a few brief adjustments to it with her wand, and passed it back to the girls. "There now, what do you think of that?"
There were a few moments of silence as all three regarded the picture carefully. The choice of wood made the room a bit dark, but six fireplaces crackled merrily, lighting the space in a pleasant, homey manner. The dance floor was settled in the middle, and farther back along the wall facing the door were huge windows dripping with dark red velvet curtains. Running parallel to the windows was a table covered in white linen that was bursting with food. A few enchanted fir trees lined the left and right sides of the room and they drifted in lazy circles, their branches sparkling heavily from the silver ornaments that weighed down upon them. Ginny's favorite part of the floor plan, however, were the crowds of dark green and red sofas grouped intimately about the fireplaces. The ample furniture been her idea because she liked the notion that when dancers grew tired, they could sit and lounge with friends by the flames. It seemed so much more natural, especially for a party in honor of Professor Lupin, than making people sit at proper chairs and tables.
As if wondering what all the sudden silence was about, Maeven poked her tiny beak over the lip of the pouch attached to Ginny's waist by a sash and struggled until her wrinkled head emerged. She was covered in a shock of dark purple feather-like tufts that occasionally obscured her little blue eyes.
Tonks let out a strange trilling sound then and reached forward to stroke the chick's head. "Oh, Ginny, is this your phoenix? She's just so adorable!" Before Ginny could respond, the Auror started addressing the animal in an abnormally high-pitched voice. "Lookit the ickle birdie. Aren't you just lovely? Yes you are. Yes you are!"
Ginny looked down at Maeven, who simultaneously looked up at her. She had been worried at first that her ability to communicate with her Familiar would decrease when the phoenix hit her chick stage. Instead, she had found that the opposite was true. If anything, the lack of complexity in the bird's mind made understanding her just that much simpler.
Right now, for example, Maeven was under the distinct impression that Tonks was rather daft.
Staring unblinkingly at the Auror for a few moments, she unceremoniously popped her head back down into the sack, leaving the Auror in mid-coo.
"Cheeky little thing, isn't she?" Tonks said cheerfully.
"Not bad," Hermione finally said, addressing the comment at the floor plan. "We might need some more fireplaces, though. I also don't know if all that food is necessary."
"Of course it's necessary. We're going to have at least three hundred people dancing for Merlin knows how long. Do you know how tiring it is to dance?" Tonks suddenly bit her lower lip. "What we'll need, though, is someone to make sure the food gets to the tables. I've tried talking to that Dobby you sent me to, Gin, but I'm worried he's a bit crackers."
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Actually, I was thinking we could get some of the younger students to do that. I mean, the house elves are usually so busy helping everyone get ready to leave at that time of year." Ginny suddenly had a chilling mental image of what that particular scenario entailed, based on the way Fred and George 'helped' their Mum get food on the table.
It consisted of large kettles and platters chasing screaming first-years around the dance floor.
"You know, Hermione, why don't you let me handle the food? I'm utterly hopeless when it comes to all this decorating but I've always been rather good at drawing up menus for parties at The Burrow. "
"Great idea, Gin," Tonks said swiftly, as though she were afraid Hermione would attempt to push the house elf issue. Instead, Hermione merely nodded thoughtfully and made to pull out another magazine but Tonks put her hand out, stopping her. "Shall we call it an afternoon, then? Reconvene same time on Friday?"
Ginny shook her head. "I've got Quidditch practice then."
"Well, if you're going to be handling the food, then I reckon you needn't come to discuss the room. Hermione?"
"Friday works for me."
"Brilliant. I'll see you then. Ginny, owl me and let me know where you are with the menu by Friday night. We three can set up a time to get together again in a few weeks."
Murmuring their goodbyes then, the trio split up. Tonks hung back to clean up McGonagall's office with a few flicks of her wand. Ginny and Hermione made their way back to the Gryffindor Common Room to drop their things off before dinner.
"Say, Ginny." Hermione suddenly said, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant.
"Yes?"
"About the.the party..did you..uhm...." She took a deep breath. "I was wondering-well, no, that's actually not quite accurate. It's not as though I'm wondering, but see, I can't really say." Her voice trailed off into uncomfortable silence.
As Ginny had never quite heard Hermione make such little sense, she was unsure as to how to help her out.
"Uhm.well, Ginny, on terms of asking people to the dance and-and.dates and such." She stopped again suddenly. "Good gracious, I've stuffed it up already," she muttered.
"Hermione, is this about Ron?" Ginny asked, reckoning that if she could guess what on earth was going on, maybe it might ease her friend's ability to talk about it.
For a split second, a completely startled look crossed Hermione's face. "Yes?" She said it as though she were a bit too distracted at present to know for sure. "I-I mean yes." Her voice took on a much more definite tone. "Yes, it's about Ron."
Ginny smiled. "Listen, I'm thrilled he asked you, if that's what you're worried about. I was quite proud of him when he did it, actually."
Hermione looked touched. "Really?"
Ginny nodded vigorously. "Really. You're both so close and it's just that.well, it just seemed like such the right thing to do." She had been about to admit the fact that she'd always wanted a sister, but then she realized that she also didn't want to be the reason her friend panicked and broke the date with her brother as a result of being confronted with such a heavy sentiment.
Hermione opened her mouth suddenly but then snapped it shut again, a mildly perturbed look on her face. It took her a few more seconds to compose herself but once she did, she sounded relatively normal. "Ginny, I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Anything."
"I was hoping you would help me get ready for the party. I mean, on terms of getting dressed that evening." Ginny's face lit up as Hermione continued. "I already have a good set of dress robes, but I'm terrible at primping myself up properly for these things."
"Oh, but you looked so pretty at the Yule Ball."
Hermione cringed. "That was Lavender. She's a dear, but a bit heavy handed with beauty charms and I was hoping.since you always manage to look so nice."
Ginny looked at her, surprised. "Me? You think I look nice?" She hazarded a glance down at the worn school robes she was wearing that had once belonged to Percy and noted how they bunched a bit in odd places on her skinny, awkward frame.
"Well, your hair always falls so perfectly. Whenever I wrestle with mine, it just never seems to agree. And that rosy color you use on your lips is a very nice shade on you. I'm just so awful at picking out things like that, and I really do want to look presentable for the party." Hermione was blushing then, as though vaguely horrified to even be having this conversation in the first place.
For her part, Ginny wanted to tell Hermione that she only knew a few beauty charms and tended to use them sparingly, not to mention the fact that she wasn't wearing anything on her lips at all, but she kept silent as she rather liked the idea of the two of them preparing for the party together. "I don't know how useful I can be, but I'd be happy to try."
"Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you." Hermione seemed relieved.
And with that, the girls went up the stairs to their respective rooms before reconvening a few minutes later to make their way to dinner.
~*~
"So, who is everyone taking to the DA party?" Ron asked loudly, leaning across the table with an enormous smile on his face. It seemed to Ginny that ever since he had got up the nerve to ask Hermione, he was on some irritating quest to make sure everyone else was properly set for the affair.
"Lavender." Seamus said shortly before returning to his conversation with the girl in question.
"Justin asked me," Padma responded.
"I'll be going with Rufus Wilkes from Hufflepuff." Pavarti had a dreamy look about her when she said it and Ron rolled his eyes.
"How about you, Harry?"
"I'm going with Hannah Abbott," he said, barely looking up from the book Hermione was showing him.
In complete defiance to every scrap of sense in Ginny's body, she felt her heart plummet. It shouldn't have been any great surprise that Harry would so easily find a date to the party but it truly wasn't until that moment that she had fully given up the hope that somehow, some way, he would end up asking her.
"Neville?"
"I-I asked Luna Lovegood. She said yes." At this, Harry did look up. Neville's ears turned pink.
"Really, Neville? You asked Luna?"
"Yes."
"That's bloody brilliant. Good show."
Ginny, too, wanted to congratulate Neville but was so inexplicably irritated by Harry's sudden enthusiasm that she couldn't quite bring herself to chime in.
"How about you, Hermione, who are you going with?"
She gave him a withering glance. "You. I'm going with you, Ron. You know that."
"Oh HO, Finnegan, pay up." Dean reached over the table, palm up, while the Irishman rummaged around in his robe pocket grumbling.
"Couldn't have held out for just one more year, could you?" Seamus gave Hermione a dark look as he plunked the gold and silver coins into his dormitory mate's hand. She merely stared back at him, appalled, and luckily too distracted to see money exchanging hands at several different points down the table.
"And you, Gin?" Ron turned his attention to her. "What lucky bloke will I have to beat to a pulp this time?"
Having anticipated the question at some point, Ginny tried to recall how she'd phrased the response in her head. She was a bit annoyed that Ron was being so public in his inquiries, but on the same token, it might be best to get it all out this once so she wasn't continuously asked about it. Taking a deep breath, she braced herself for the stares she was sure to get. "Actually, Ron, I'm going alone."
"Alone?" her brother repeated, as though it was a word in some strange, foreign tongue.
"Yes. As in, by myself." She tried to block out what sounded like Pavarti letting out a mortified gasp and in doing so, her eyes accidentally darted in Harry's direction. He was staring at her with such a sympathetic look on his face that she fought the sudden flush of embarrassment.
Ron's confusion still hadn't abated. "But didn't anyone-"
"I think that's a brilliant idea," Hermione broke in, causing everyone to look in her direction. "That way, you're not tied down to any one person and can borrow other people's dates for dances. You'll be a free agent, Ginny."
"Yes," Ron began, "but who in their right mind is-"
"I'd love to dance with you." Neville cut him off smoothly, his blue eyes radiating eagerness. "I'm sure Luna wouldn't mind."
Ginny smiled gratefully at him while Ron looked annoyed. Before he could say anything else, however, Dean Thomas poked his date Katie Bell. "What do you say, will you lend me out to a friend for a good cause?" The request was delivered with such sly charm that Ginny reckoned Katie wouldn't be able to say no.
"Of course, though I doubt she'll want you," the blonde girl shot back and the table quickly erupted with laughter.
Dinner continued from there at a much more relaxed pace and Ginny graciously accepted the handful of offers she got from other boys to fill up her imaginary dance card. By the time it was over and she was heading out of the Great Hall towards the library, she was actually more excited to go to the party than before. Going alone had been Luna's idea. At first Ginny and found the whole notion rather mad, but Luna had been so convincing that the plan had grown on her. There were times when her friend said things in such a manner that she almost seemed to be imitating Professor Trelawney during a vision. Her blue eyes would go slightly unfocused and she would stare off into space while whispering the words.
In this particular case, it had happened during the Hogsmeade trip while at Honeydukes. Luna and Neville had met her there that afternoon after "running a few errands" together, and Ginny suspected that he had broached the subject with her, because she spontaneously brought it up shortly thereafter.
"Have you decided on who you'll be going with, Ginny?" she'd asked while they were browsing through the assorted sweets.
"To the party?"
"Yes."
"Actually, Dean asked me. I thought I might go with him."
"Have you told him you would?"
"No, not yet."
"When did he ask you?"
"Well, the first time he brought it up was about two weeks ago."
"Why haven't you given him an answer yet?"
She'd felt increasingly uncomfortable with the interrogation. "Well, I suppose it's because." Her voice trailed off. Because what? She didn't know.
"Go alone," Luna had said softly then, her eyes trained on some point to the left, near Neville's ear. "Yes. Alone. That's the best course." It always gave Ginny a bit of a chill when Luna acted like that, but then, it also made her heed the advice.
And so, she had approached Dean later that evening and gently told him of her plans. To his credit, he managed to cover his disappointment rather well and made quite the show of being supportive. He had also made her promise to dance with him at least a few times. In retrospect, it was really the only moment during that entire confusing period after he'd asked her to be his date that she truly regretted not having been able to say yes.
"Hey Ginny."
Jolting out of the memory, she turned and saw Harry jog up alongside her. Her heart fluttered in response and she couldn't quite fight the hopeful thought he might be coming to ask her if she would save a dance for him as well. She had been waiting for him to mention it while at the table, but instead, he had simply fallen silent and gone back to the book he was reading with Hermione. Perhaps that had been due to shyness and not indifference, as she had originally feared.
"Hi Harry."
"Listen, about the DA party."
Her heart raced merrily along. "Yes?"
"I.uhm.I'm really sorry that you're going alone."
The hopeful feeling shattered. Trust Harry to make her feel humiliated over something that everyone else felt was a grand idea. Sometimes he was so like her brother it was no wonder they were best friends. "Yes, well, I'm not too worried."
The hurt tone of her voice must have been a bit too apparent because he cringed. "Look, if I had known-"
A panic seized her then, and before she knew what she was doing she blurted out, "It's not like no one asked me, you know."
He stopped. "Oh."
The last thing she wanted to be told was that, had he known she was going by herself, he would have asked her to go as his date. This was partially because it would be an excruciatingly big brotherish thing to say and partially because she knew she'd feel an acute sense of loss that he might have asked her for any reason at all.
Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Yes, well Neville asked me once, as did Colin and Dennis. Oh, and Dean asked me twice, as a matter of fact." She didn't know why she added that last part. It was true, but seemed so blatantly unnecessary that she was almost certain Harry would discern the emotion behind the words.
Instead, he just looked at her. "Okay."
She tucked an errant red strand behind her ear and shifted her rucksack. "So, thanks for your.uhm.concern Harry, but I'm really glad to be going by myself." He just nodded at her slowly, his brows furrowed in thought. Eventually, it got to the point where the silence was so prolonged that she began to search her mind for something more to say. So intent was she on that particular task, that she almost had a seizure when he suddenly reached forward as though to touch her.
"Hello there."
For a split second, she thought he might be addressing her chest and felt rather annoyed with herself when she couldn't immediately decide whether or not that was a bad thing. Looking down, she realized he was actually speaking to her Familiar, who was sticking her head out of her pouch for the second time that day.
Mesmerized, Ginny watched as he rubbed his index finger gently alongside the phoenix's beak. His knuckles were almost touching her waist as a result of the action and the thought of it suddenly made her skin tingle under her robes. Maeven's eyes grew heavy and half-lidded as though with sleep and when he stopped, she abruptly slid back into her pouch.
He chuckled then. "Friendly, isn't she?"
But Ginny couldn't really respond because she was riveted by the notion that he hadn't taken his hand away.
He started touching the fabric of her robes absent-mindedly and she could almost feel the heat of his fingertips through the material. He had taken a step forward while talking and she fought the urge to step back. Something about his close proximity tended to make her feel lightheaded and she could never quite concentrate on what she was saying. "Are these.?"
"They were Percy's." She forced herself to maintain eye contact and not to stare at his hand as she so sorely wanted to. "Somewhat of an awkward fit, but we're closest in build so Mum just altered them a bit for me." It was the sort of stupid, useless comment she would normally never think to say aloud, but his presence was unnerving her and she was thrilled to have managed to say anything coherent at all.
His hand suddenly stilled on the fabric covering her arm and with a shock of surprise, she realized that he was staring at her, his green eyes searching. He licked his lips and her gaze caught on the tiny, flickering movement. She found her eyes shifting to his mouth, as her mind tried to weigh just how much trouble she'd get in if she were to just submit to the overwhelming impulse to kiss him right there. Perhaps if she did it fast enough, he'd be so confused she could convince him he'd imagined the whole thing.
"Ginny." He drew her name out in such a way that her eyes fluttered in pleasure before looking back up at him.
"Yes, Harry?"
"Your hair."
She bit back the urge to moan when she realized he was actually touching a piece of her hair. The gentle sensation of him holding it up was completely intoxicating. "Yes, Harry?"
"Your hair.is really."
She swayed forward.
"It's really..long."
And with that, the world snapped back into focus, the hazy, romantic feeling vanished and Ginny just stared at him. She nearly laughed then, but more out of happiness that mockery. It wasn't much by way of a compliment, but this was Harry, and she was enormously grateful for the fact that he even noticed she had hair at all. She was just about to thank him when the horrified choking noise in the back of his throat stopped her from doing so.
"I-I mean-I mean-that's not what I mean!" He dropped her hair abruptly as though burned and started backing away. "I'm sorry, Gin. Gosh, that was really."
"Sweet?"
He was giving her a mystified look. "No, actually."
She had valiantly tried not to tease him, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. "You mean you don't think my hair is long?" she asked, as though thoroughly disappointed.
"Well, of course your hair is long, but that's not what I." He threw her a look as though he thought she was mad. "I have to be somewhere else. I should go."
"Oh, well, okay." She was rather startled when he suddenly turned and walked away from her. "Bye," she said, aiming the farewell at his rapidly retreating figure. Torn between confusion and amusement, she was just about to head to the library when he suddenly spun around part way down the hall to face her.
"That sash, did you make it?" he called over the din of the other students. She nodded. "It's very nice." He shouted back before setting his jaw, turning around and continuing on his way.
Amusement stood in glorious triumph then and Ginny couldn't stop the smile that broke out over her face as she stared after him until he disappeared.
The prickling sensation in the back of her mind indicated the Maeven had an opinion on the matter she was trying to share, but Ginny resolutely blocked it out for fear that analyzing what had just happened would tarnish the strange beauty of it.
As a result, it wasn't until a good deal later when she realized that he had never asked her to dance.
~*~
"I-I can't do it. He just won't go."
Neville's face was flushed and he was breathing hard from exertion while staring at Trevor. The green toad was sitting in front of him, eyeing him balefully.
"Yes, you can. Come on now, you're very close, I can feel it." Ginny tried to keep her voice light in an attempt to mask her doubt.
"But this is hard," Neville said softly, staring at the library table.
"Which makes it all the more worth doing," Luna responded firmly. "Now, let's try it again." She put her hand on his shoulder as though to seal his resolve and Ginny watched in amusement as he obediently shook himself, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes in preparation to begin anew.
She, Neville and Luna were continuing their informal DA/Familiars debriefing sessions and this week's lesson found Ginny trying to teach Neville to use the same sort of concentration techniques she had learned to communicate with Maeven on Trevor. Given Trevor's tendency to hop off at the worse possible times, the notion of giving Neville a bit more control over the toad was not only based on wisdom, but safety. They had started off slowly, just trying to nudge the obstinate animal into hopping the length of the table from his owner to Ginny. Unfortunately, in the past two hours, they had met with little success.
"Perhaps he's just slow," he finally blurted in frustration after another failed attempt. "Makes sense, doesn't it? He's my Familiar and I'm slow so why shouldn't he be slow?"
Ginny felt a pang in her heart at his words because she knew how rare it was for Neville to ever voice such personal feelings of inadequacy and it hurt to know that he had them.
"Trevor is very clever, Neville, so you ought not say such things. It damages his confidence," Luna said quietly. "Instead, I think we should try lending him some encouragement, don't you?" She slipped her hand into his then, entwining their fingers before leaning over to regard the toad with a serious look on her face. "You're very bright, Trevor, and very agile. We all think so, don't we?" She prodded Neville gently. "Don't we now, Neville?"
"Yes, I suppose we do," he responded weakly, clearly more interested in the fact that she was holding his hand instead of what she was saying.
"Of course we do," she said to the toad.
Ginny just watched from afar, a wistful smile on her face. There wasn't really a term to describe how things had changed ever since her friends had decided to go to the DA party together, but they had. Beyond just an increase in physical touching, there was a sweetness between them that had become so much more pronounced. Sometimes she thought of the threads that Maeven had temporarily revealed to her that morning she had first met the phoenix. She found herself wishing that Luna had been present at the time so she could have seen how her friend was connected to Neville. If she had had the opportunity to view their connection back then, Ginny would have tried to repeat the experience with Maeven now to see if there was a visible change.
Returning her attention to the task at hand, Ginny noted that Neville's eyes were closed again. She felt a faint touch of trepidation over the thought that maybe they really were building things up too fast and that he really wasn't ready for this. For one thing, Ginny knew she was no Professor McGonagall and felt extremely ill at ease trying to pass along information that she herself had barely learned. She also knew with absolute certainty that Trevor had no blazing clue of what Luna had been saying, despite the girl's best efforts. Animals simply couldn't understand human speech.
As a result of these thoughts, Ginny felt a rather huge bolt of shock to suddenly see the fat toad come bounding towards her before leaping onto her lap with a disturbingly wet-sounding thud. Slightly numb, she looked down at it. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but there was something in his eyes that made him appear distinctly smug.
Still in a complete state of disbelief, she returned her gaze to Neville, who was staring back at her, his mouth hanging agape. So great was his surprise, that he appeared entirely unaware of the fact that Luna was clinging to him, her arms around his neck, as she kissed his cheek enthusiastically. Ginny knew this to be true because he suddenly turned to the other girl as though about to say something, inadvertently causing her to plant a kiss on his lips.
They sprang apart almost instantly, and Ginny looked down in embarrassment, immediately feeling as though she had witnessed something extremely private. She heard him mumble, "Sorry," to which Luna responded, "Don't be," and Ginny abruptly found herself wishing she wasn't stuck with a toad in her lap because she sorely wanted to make a hasty exit.
For some reason, her mind flashed to Susan Bones and she wondered, not for the first time, where her friend had run off to. Luna and Neville's increasing closeness aside, she sincerely missed her Hufflepuff friend and realized they hadn't properly spoken to each other since the day Maeven had reverted to her chick form. The Familiar's class had progressed to more advanced one-on-one study with animals so Ginny hadn't been able to speak with Susan then and her friend always managed to be the first to dash out the door once the period was over. Despite the fact that Susan had begged off of the last three debriefing sessions due to school-related stress, Ginny rarely saw her in the library and only glimpsed her briefly in the halls between classes. She was starting to suspect that Susan was avoiding her friends, but couldn't be sure. She wanted to ask Justin Finch-Fletchley if she was spending her study time in the Hufflepuff Common Room, but couldn't find a way to phrase the question so that it didn't cause unnecessary alarm.
Hufflepuff loyalty could sometimes slip into intrusiveness and the last thing she wanted was for Justin to stage a full-fledged intervention based on something that might be all in Ginny's head to begin with. Then again, there had been a time during her first year that Ginny herself had found cause to withdraw from her friends and the reason behind her decision was anything but innocuous. Even today, she wished she had been surrounded by people who cared enough to find out what was going on. Perhaps they could have stopped it.
"You're amazing, you know that? Just amazing!" Neville grinned at Ginny as he bent to lift Trevor off of her lap. "Isn't he amazing?"
His enthusiasm was so infectious that she grinned back before rising to stand, relieved that he and Luna had sorted out the awkwardness of a few minutes ago. "He is indeed amazing. Not entirely surprising, though, given the fact that he IS you Familiar."
"Quite right, quite an amazing fellow," Neville said distractedly, holding Trevor up and grinning madly in the toad's face.
Coming to stand alongside her, Luna linked arms with Ginny. "Thank you," she whispered, having caught the compliment that Neville had missed. "We couldn't have done it without you, though. You're a brilliant teacher, Gin."
"Really brilliant!" Neville said supportively, before Ginny could protest. Putting Trevor back down on the table, he grabbed the two girls, hauling them unceremoniously into a three-way hug, which rapidly grew so tight that she couldn't breathe. Her face squeezed rather uncomfortably against his robes, the Hogwarts crest roughly imprinting itself on her cheek, Ginny tried to disengage her arm from Luna's so as to push the girl's blonde locks away from where they were smothering her face.
"Neville, you're on my foot," she heard Luna's muffled voice say calmly, and his grip quickly loosened, allowing him time to briefly readjust before he abruptly yanked them together again.
Having freed her arms during the pause, Ginny was able to hug them both back this time with equal ferocity. She was struck then by a sudden rush of emotion that was decidedly unexpected.
For the first time in years, she felt really and truly safe.
It was the sort of thing that made her wonder if she should laugh or cry because she knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that these were the kind of people she would love for a lifetime.
Between the three of them, Tom Riddle never would have stood a chance.
~*~
End Part 7