A/N: Thank you to my betas Anne and Marian and thank you to everyone still hanging in there. I read every single email and review I received and I can't tell you how grateful I am to you all. Thanks to everyone who kept dropping me a line, keeping in touch, and asking gently about the fic. It meant a lot to me.
In related news, rest assured that Part 16 will not take six months to come out, I swear. (This is meant to imply it will be coming out sooner-not later.)
Chapter 15: Unspoken
Draco Malfoy was, Ginny realized, the biggest waste of a pretty face she had ever met in her life. There was more than one girl at Hogwarts who'd commented on the Slytherin's graceful, sweeping good looks, but very few outside of his House expressed any interest, given his outrageously rude and arrogant behavior.
He was also the unfortunate cause of her current predicament, which had her sitting by herself in the Transfiguration classroom and waiting for Professor McGonagall to come back and mete out punishment.
To a certain extent, Ginny knew she'd overreacted, but she was a far, far cry from any feelings of remorse. She, Harry and Neville had come across Malfoy intimidating a pair of first year Hufflepuffs for what appeared to be sport. This, naturally, came as no surprise. What was surprising, however, was that Neville had been the first to tell him to stop. Even Malfoy had appeared a tad thrown to see Neville asserting himself. So much so, in fact, that he missed seeing the first years beat a hasty retreat during Neville's brief intervention. Angered by his loss of victims, Malfoy had started throwing insults at her group even as they were already walking away from him.
The three teens were doing a remarkably good job of ignoring him until Malfoy said something particularly vicious about Neville's parents and the next thing Ginny knew, her wand was pointed at Malfoy's head, perhaps the largest bat bogeys in the history of Hogwarts were beating wildly at his face, and Professor Snape –who, in his impeccable sense of timing happened to be turning a corner just as Ginny cast her curse - was trying to corner a shrieking Malfoy to remove the hex. It took two tries before the Slytherin was returned to his normal, albeit haggard-looking self.
The only thing that saved Ginny from a dark fate indeed was the fact that Professor McGonagall had arrived on the scene at roughly the same time as Professor Snape and was standing behind the teens during the fiasco. It was with no small sense of relief that Ginny allowed herself to be taken into the custody of her head of house.
Although, given the dead silence that had weighed heavily on the walk to the Transfiguration classroom and the several minutes of waiting, Ginny wasn't quite sure that she wouldn't rather be with Snape in detention. While she expected Snape to think little of her (or at least pretend to), McGonagall's opinion mattered, and Ginny was starting to feel the slightest stirrings shame.
It was then that the door opened and shut abruptly, and Ginny stiffened in her seat, bracing herself for what was to come.
"I do not need to tell you," McGonagall said, her voice grim, "that what I witnessed today coming from you was behavior completely unbecoming of a Gryffindor."
Ginny stared silently at her head of house.
"I'm deeply disappointed, Miss Weasley, and grieved to see one of my top pupils setting that sort of an example in the corridor. I suspect you know better."
The feeling of shame intensified and she hung her head slightly. "I'm sorry, Professor."
"Twenty points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said sharply. "And Professor Snape is demanding an apology to Mr. Malfoy."
Anger flared unexpectedly and Ginny's gaze shot to her teacher. "Professor-"
McGonagall's eyes narrowed. "You'll do it, Miss Weasley, or suffer a week's worth of detention."
There was a long pause before Ginny finally managed to respond.
"What was that?" McGonagall asked, leaning forward."I said, Miss, that I'd rather take the detention."
At this, McGonagall pursed her lips in disapproval. "I see."
There was nearly a minute of silence before her professor spoke again. "You know, Miss Weasley, you're one of the most talented Charms students I've come across. It would a pity to see such talent wasted on that temper of yours."
"Thank you, Professor. I-I'm sorry, Professor." Ginny sighed, "But I can't apologize to Malfoy. You didn't hear what he said about Neville's parents!"
At this, McGonagall's gaze softened somewhat, "Quite to the contrary, I heard exactly what Mr. Malfoy said about Mr. Longbottom's parents." She raised an eyebrow. "I also know that you don't feel much remorse for what you did because, let us both be honest, Mr. Malfoy had it coming."
Ginny stared at the older woman in disbelief.
"But that, Miss Weasley, is hardly the point. Drawing your wand over the slightest insult is not the proper way to respond to such things and, furthermore, I'd also like to point out that your haste deprived Mr. Longbottom of the well-deserved satisfaction of defending his parents by himself."
This was an interesting point. And one she hadn't considered. Ginny frowned somewhat.
"You know, Miss Weasley, in some ways you remind me of a former student of mine. She didn't have the good fortune of growing up in as large a family as yours so she was considerably less, shall we say, spirited than you are. However, she was always willing to draw her wand on behalf of those who could not defend themselves. That's a good quality to have, but one which must be exercised with some mind to restraint."
Not quite sure what else to do, Ginny managed to nod deferentially and genuinely felt a little more sorry than she had before.
McGonagall appeared submerged deep in thought for a few moments, but then quickly retrained her gaze on the redhead. "Now that we've got that business aside, Miss Weasley, I wonder if you would be willing to assist me in a bit of an experiment related to the Familiars class."
Somewhat surprised by this unexpected turn of events, Ginny took a moment before responding to the affirmative.
"You see, Professor Lupin and I have decided to conduct what might be considered a rather informal challenge between a member of the Familiars class and a member of the DA class. We'd like to see how one fares against the other."
"A duel?" Ginny asked.
McGonagall paused. "Yes, one might call it that." Taking Ginny's stunned silence for trepidation, she quickly continued. "You'd be paired against someone of comparable skill, naturally."
Ginny smiled slightly, warming to the idea.
"We'll reconvene tomorrow afternoon before lunch," McGonagall continued. "You can invite a guest to come along if you'd like, but we'd like to keep spectators to a minimum."
Ginny nodded in response, mentally making a note to ask Neville. "Professor, are you trying to decide whether or not to continue the class for next year?" she asked, suddenly worried about her role as representative, especially given what little time she had to prepare. "I think you absolutely should, Professor, no matter what happens at the duel."
McGonagall nodded briskly, "Indeed, I agree, Miss Weasley. In a way, this is about revising next year's Familiars curriculum, so you're right in that respect. But, you see, I've been advocating for a Familiars class for a very long time and I'm as eager as you are to see our little pilot program expanded."
"Why haven't we had one before?"
McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Working with Familiars is rather complicated and not entirely safe, Miss Weasley. Furthermore, not all students are equipped to handle a Familiar. That's why, outside this program, the training is specialized and limited to Aurors. However, as I'm sure you've already noticed, there are immense benefits to the training. It sharpens and refines one's sense of magic. The ability to bond and communicate with a sentient being is very useful because it affords access to magic humans cannot normally reach by themselves." McGonagall turned slightly then, and Ginny could see a strange sadness reflected in the older woman's eyes. "But perhaps most importantly, Miss Weasley, Familiars can afford an incredible degree of protection."
Dumbledore had discussed that with her once, in fact. He had even shared a simple shielding spell she could teach Maeven. Ginny reckoned that even Susan's mouse could be trained to have unexpected abilities.
"This class is something very…personal to me." McGonagall continued. "Those of you who are in it were chosen for your potential and because we knew your parents would be receptive to the idea of your working with Familiars. And now, given the character of the time we live in, I have great hopes that more parents will be willing to allow their children to benefit from it. We have already lost too many young people to this war."
Ginny nodded and watched silently as McGonagall turned around and walked to one of the classroom windows, a sure sign that the discussion was over. Preparing to rise and return to Gryffindor Tower, Ginny was rather surprised when McGonagall failed to dismiss her. Instead, her head of house simply stood at the window and stared out of it, an uncharacteristically distant expression on her face.
"You see, Miss Weasley, the first thing we're told, as educators, is never to play favorites." McGonagall turned and met Ginny's gaze suddenly, her eyes bright with memory. "And I can assure you, that I never ever did." She looked away again. "But that does not mean that I didn't have any."
Scarcely certain of what to say, Ginny stared at her professor in silence.
"Lily Evans, Harry's mother, was one of those favorites," McGonagall continued. "She showed enormous potential from the moment she arrived and, unlike many Muggle-borns who get bogged down by the technicalities, magic always came very naturally to her. She had incredible control at a very young age. At the end of her sixth year I told her that she should come back to Hogwarts and teach. Even after she'd married James and had young Harry, we made plans for her to come settle here." McGonagall glanced back at Ginny again. "We haven't had any young professors with families here at Hogwarts since well before the war, but Hogwarts can be a wonderful environment in which to raise a child. I believe that's what Harry's mother wanted for him." McGonagall shook her head then, as though trying to dislodge a particularly painful memory, "Her…passing…was extremely difficult. On all of us."
Ginny closed her eyes against the melancholy that followed her professor's words. It was difficult to comprehend how many lives one person's death could touch and she was surprised she'd never thought of how McGonagall or Dumbledore must have reacted to what happened to James and Lily Potter. She wasn't sure Harry even knew that McGonagall had taught his mother. She wondered, briefly, if any of her teachers would have mourned her own passing had she died that night at the Ministry. Perhaps Professor Flitwick, as he was the one professor who was kindest towards her and made the most effort to encourage her academically. She frowned at the rather morbid thought.
"I wonder, sometimes, Miss Weasley, what would have happened if Lily had had the benefit of a Familiar that night. I know your mother shared with you the story of how it was she who shielded Harry from the death curse, but to do it she accessed a great power that no one, save Professor Dumbledore, has ever been able to access again. In doing what she did, she must have known that she would not be able to protect herself." McGonagall suddenly took a deep breath, paused, and stood up a bit straighter. "A Familiar might have changed that," she said simply, before turning to face Ginny.
Unsure of what else to do Ginny, lowered her eyes in response.
McGonagall walked towards the front of the room but continued speaking. "You're very different from Harry's mother, Ginny, but the one thing that remains strikingly similar is your potential. You have talent that I would rather not see wasted on unnecessary quarrels with Slytherins in the corridors." She took a seat at her desk.
"I'm sorry, Professor."
"I trust that this will be a one-time incident."
"Yes, Professor."
McGonagall nodded then, satisfied. "That will be all, Miss Weasley. I expect to see you tomorrow afternoon for our experiment and then again in the evening for detention."
Ginny nodded. "Thank you, Professor." Taking a deep breath, she rose and walked out of the classroom, sparing a glance over her shoulder at McGonagall who suddenly appeared very much absorbed in writing something.
Ginny was careful to shut the door behind her.
In the end, aside from an hour-long discussion of strategy with Maeven, Ginny decided not to go through any formal preparation for the duel.
When she arrived in the DA room, she wasn't altogether surprised at who her opponent was and somewhat regretted not having strategized more.
"I didn't miss anything, did I?" Neville asked, breathless from his ten minute sprint from the Tower. He plopped down on the floor. "Sorry, I'm late, but I was just heading out wh-"
Harry Potter and Hermione Granger shushed him.
"Fear not, Neville." Ginny responded calmly, her eyes never leaving her brother's as they circled each other slowly, wand arms outstretched. "You haven't missed a thing. I'm just about to whip Ron."
"Not bloody likely," Ron responded. His voice sounded irritated, but Ginny could clearly see the mischievous sparkle in his blue eyes.
"Focus!" Remus Lupin shouted sharply from a darkened corner of the room where he stood with Professor McGonagall, and the two redheads sprang to attention.
Rearing back suddenly, Ron shouted, "Expeller-,"
"Refractus!" Ginny cut him off, knocking him back a few steps and almost causing him to lose his wand. "Coahero."
Ron dodged the sticking charm expertly by drop rolling to the left, before training his wand back on Ginny. "Aquium Contendo."
With a shriek, Ginny fell on her rear, struck by a face-full of water. She pursed her lips in anger and narrowed her eyes.
"Well, that certainly didn't take long d-"
"Rictusempra."
Ron's cocky swagger was brought to a rather premature halt when he was suddenly thrown back several feet and lay on his back, howling with laughter.
Ginny, hair sopping wet, stood and smiled smugly at her brother as Maeven alighted on her shoulder from where she'd been hovering above. "You were saying?" she asked.
"Oh, for Merlin's sakes, Miss Weasley, a tickling charm?" Professor McGonagall called sternly. "Do you plan on tickling all of your opponents into submission? Really. I think we can do better than that," she admonished. "Something a bit more appropriate for a fifth-year, please."
Somewhat ashamed, Ginny waved her wand at Ron. "Finite Incantatem"
Ron instantly shot to his feet, and, with his back turned to his teachers, stuck his tongue out at her mockingly.
Ginny sneered, "Furnunculus." It was a rather uncalled-for move on her part, but if McGonagall questioned it, she'd just say it was to put her opponent off guard. Ron grimaced, his face covered in strangely familiar green and purple warts.
"Turbo Truculenter!" he shouted and Ginny's eyes widened as she felt her body helplessly lifting into the air and spinning dangerously close to a stone wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Professor Lupin move to soften her blow, but he was stopped by McGonagall.
"Alterum!" Ginny said sharply, which caused her body to start spinning back in the opposite direction, but the pause in between the shift was just long enough for her to break out of the curse and drop to the ground.
Ron proved ready for such a move. "Motusus Brevis," he yelled, pointing his wand at her feet, and the brief explosion almost knocked Ginny onto her rear yet again, but the helpful shove from behind, thanks to an artfully cast charm by her phoenix, had her landing back on her feet. It also reminded her of the point of the exercise.
Time for a little strategy. The first thing she needed to do was to buy herself some time.
"Confundus," she said, hitting Ron square in the chest with a streak of orange light.
Ron blinked at her and stumbled backwards. "Orchideous!" he shouted, and a purple flower shot out of his wand, smacking Ginny in the forehead, causing her to start laughing. "No… no, wait…" Ron shook his head, fighting to clear the hex.
Ginny stopped giggling long enough to enunciate properly. "Locomotor Mortis!"
"Densaugeo," Ron blurted out, eliciting a gasp from Hermione who reflexively ducked behind Neville's shoulder.
The curses clashed in mid-air, causing a brilliant burst of turquoise light.
"Sorry, Hermione!" Ron called.
"Focus, Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall prompted, cutting off Hermione's response.
Closing her eyes, Ginny took a firm hold of the connection between herself and Maeven.
"Everto Sterno," Ron said, sensing a moment of vulnerability.
A new curse. And one Ginny didn't intend to acquaint herself with. "Diffindo!" She shouted, and, with a swish of her wand, split the ball of pale blue light heading in her direction in two, causing them to pass by her on either side. Ginny heard Ron sigh in frustration, but then he gasped when the two balls seemed to bounce off of an invisible shield and come hurtling back towards him. He barely managed to dodge the first, and the second singed the bottom of his robes. Maeven, who had cast the Refractum half of the spell from her position in the air, hovered protectively. Ginny was proud to sense only a keen alertness from the bird, absent of any triumph or fear. There was a time for that later on. "Illuminous Protego," Ginny said, causing two warm beams of light to swirl around her as she advanced on Ron's crouched position.
"Petrificus totalus!" Ron barked, and the curse hit one band of light, extinguishing it. "Expellariamus!"
Ginny's barely managed to get out a tripping hex before she felt Ron's curse strike through her shield and cause her wand to go flying out of her hand. The red sparks that issued from the piece of wood missed him altogether and Ginny had no choice but to duck at the barrage of curses now issuing from her brother's lips as he advanced on her. Maeven had flown off instantly to retrieve her lost weapon, but Ginny was too busy trying to stay out of Ron's path to keep her concentration on the bird.
After a few lucky dodges, her brother's jelly leg jinx struck her just as she tried to leap out of the way. Ginny went down in a flash, her legs suddenly wobbly and uncontrollable.
Gasping for breath she found herself looking up the business end of his wand.
"Yield?" he asked, smirking at her.
In the middle of the litany of rather shameful language that flooded Ginny's brain, she felt something strange. Almost like a twinge. No…it was closer to a buzzing, scratching sort of feeling that was calling her scattered attention together. Through the mist of fear and frustration that clouded her mind, Ginny thought she saw something.
No, she did not yield, she thought, gazing up at her brother. She felt the twinge grow stronger and narrowed her eyes, trying to hone in on its source. If she could just draw it closer...Whatever it was, it was strong…if she could touch the power, it was just within her reach...
She felt the tendrils of thought meet and merge with the power, sizzling brightly. She strained to sink farther in.
Focus. Focus...
"Stupefy!" Ron said, causing a wave of energy to hit Ginny square in the face.
And then the world went black.
When she came to several seconds later, she was a bit surprised to hear the end of what sounded like a reprimand from Professor Lupin.
"...almost had you, you know. If she'd just had two more seconds, she would've done you in. That was luck, Ron, that saved you."
"Excellent instincts, Miss Weasley."
Ginny squinted up into the wizened visage of Professor McGonagall who had come to stand over her and was startled when a hand suddenly appeared in her line of vision. Grasping it, she was hauled to her feet by Professor Lupin.
"Good job there, Ginny. Good effort. He might've bested you this round, but you two are actually fairly evenly matched," Lupin said.
"But I disarmed her!" Ron broke in. "How was that luck?"
McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "That was skill, but you should never wait so long to subdue an opponent-even if it is your sister."
"But she didn't have her wand," Ron insisted, "it's not like she could've done anything."
"And therein lies the luck factor, Ron," Lupin said with a rather cryptic smile. "Ginny, if you had had your wand, would you have cast Impedimenta?"
Ginny's mouth fell open, "Why...y-yes. I would've."
"Fascinating," Lupin responded mildly.
"But Ron's right, I mean, she couldn't have done anything once she'd lost her wand." Neville said, walking up to the group, flanked by Harry and Hermione.
McGonagall nodded. "Partly true, Mr. Longbottom, but not quite."
It was a rather disturbing moment when Hermione's hand suddenly shot up vigorously from behind and it took the dark-haired witch a few moments to realize that everyone was simply staring at her. The hand came down slowly.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" McGonagall said, a bemused expression flitting around her eyes.
"Wandless magic, Professor," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. "Could Ginny have cast Impedimenta without using a wand?"
"My dear," McGonagall said, "if Miss Weasley had been able to cast Impedimenta wandless, I can assure you she'd be taking over as headmistress of Hogwarts by tomorrow afternoon. I should think not."
"Ginny wasn't disarmed," Harry said thoughtfully, causing the other two teens to turn around.
"What? You're packing a double?!" Ron looked at his sister, outraged. "That's cheating!"
Ginny bristled. "Of course not! Where on earth would I get hold of two wands, Ron?"
"And how was she not disarmed, Harry?" Lupin asked, ignoring the quarreling siblings.
"Maeven had her wand," he said, in that same thoughtful tone of voice, his eyes still glued to the bird. "She can still access her wand even though she isn't holding it."
Ron looked up at the bird, who was still holding said object in its talons. Ginny watched Maeven do her best impression of a menacing look and grinned.
"How did you figure that?" Neville asked.
"The wand was glowing right at the end," Harry said. "When Ron had Ginny on the ground, Maeven was overhead and the wand was glowing until Ron used Stupefy and then it stopped."
"She might've struck you dumb from above and you wouldn't have seen it coming," said Lupin.
Seeing her brother's confidence falter, Ginny quickly stepped in. "But you won anyway because I don't know half as many curses as you do, Ron. If you'd had a Familiar, you would've beaten the stuffing out of me right from the start."
Ron looked about to protest, but Hermione cut him off. "You know, Ginny, you're right," she said, her face flushed with excitement. "That's a brilliant idea. Combining curricula...it'd make students unstoppable."
"Hmm, yes, quite a fine idea," Lupin responded dryly, casting a humorous glance in McGonagall's direction. "Glad it's catching on."
"Is that what this was about, Professor? To see if we could combine the two courses into one?" Neville asked.
Lupin nodded slowly. "In a sense. It'd be difficult to offer such a course as a part of the general curriculum. We'd have to cut the ranks of the DA by quite a bit if we just combined the two courses. Not everyone is well suited to dealing with Familiars, you see. However, Professor McGonagall and I thought it might be worth it to incorporate DA training into a broader Familiars course. It's quite one thing to discuss merging syllabi, and quite another to see the...well, shall we say, the fruits of our labor, in action." He put a comforting hand on Ron's shoulder. "Good show, Ron. We've only practiced Everto Sterno once and that was a fine use of it."
Ron beamed and exchanged a sly look with Hermione.
"You HELPED him?" Ginny asked in mock-outrage.
"Only in the beginning….to train and whatnot." Hermione's admission was greeted with silence. "Well, I didn't know he was going to be fighting YOU."
"Yes, Gin, and that would've made a world of difference," Neville said, in a voice only Ginny recognized as sarcasm.
It was enough to see Hermione mistake the comment for support and nod authoritatively to make Ginny smile again.
"Hey, Hermione," Ron called.
As the girl in question made her way over, Ginny turned to see her brother stooping to pick something up. She sighed and looked at Neville. "If he gives her that flower he shot out of his wand and then trampled all over, and I bloody well might gag."
Neville grinned. "Then you might not want to look." Sure enough, Ron was presenting the somewhat beaten blossom to Hermione who managed to look simultaneously embarrassed and touched.
"Feeling jealous?" Harry piped up. "Orchideous." A purple flower shot out of his wand. He stomped on it once, picked it up and handed the crushed bloom to Ginny. "Here."
At this, Neville started laughing so hard that Ron and Hermione looked over and Ginny hastily hid the duplicate flower from view, throwing Harry a wicked look over her shoulder. She was a bit surprised to see Maeven fluttering beside him.
Ginny beckoned to the phoenix, but it took the bird a long moment to comply. She didn't miss how, despite his easy smile, Harry's eyes seemed to follow Maeven. A questioning glance in his direction, however, drew little response.
He had been quieter lately. It had started two weeks ago - ever since Dumbledore cancelled all remaining scheduled trips to Hogsmeade and the prefects were suddenly kept very busy doing twice as many patrols of the castle as normal. No amount of questioning would get Ron or Hermione to budge as to what that was all about and Ginny had to wonder if there wasn't some connection. But Harry's silence wasn't the sort of silence that spoke of depression. Instead, it felt more like pensiveness. Ginny reckoned he'd talk to her if and when he needed to, but sometimes she'd catch him in an odd moment like that one and the urge to question him grew stronger.
She was about to turn away when he unexpectedly caught her eye and gave her a slight nod. Not quite sure what to make of it, she smiled at him before Neville drew her attention away to inquire after lunch.
"You know, I just don't understand them," Parvati said, gesturing wildly in the air, in what Ginny considered to be dangerously close to Hermione's face. "Like clockwork, they're all like that."
Hermione managed a sympathetic look, but said nothing. Parvati didn't seem to notice. She had been ranting in a hushed whisper about her recent break-up with Rufus Wilkes for the past ten minutes, effectively trapping Ginny and Hermione in one of the more obscure stacks in the library.
Ginny reckoned that since Parvati had already been through roughly one third of the girls in Gryffindor, it had only been a matter of time before it was their turn. She just wished it'd been in a more public place as Parvati was easily distracted and that might've afforded them some means of escape.
"Honestly, they deserve each other," the Indian girl continued bitterly, referring to the blonde Ravenclaw he had been spotted with recently. "I give her three weeks before she turns him loose." She looked expectantly from Ginny to Hermione and back again before Ginny had the presence of mind to nod somewhat supportively.
Tossing her glossy dark hair over her shoulder, Parvati took that as a cue to keep going. "And I tell you, those Helena Spiffing robes she wears aren't real." She sniffed. "I've seen them up close. They cost her 3 Sickles, if that. Stupid boys."
The one-sided conversation had stopped making much sense several minutes ago, and Hermione's eyes were already wandering curiously over the surrounding books, but Ginny still felt the urge to be polite.
"I mean, I wish I didn't care. You know?" Parvati's eyes sparkled suddenly with a light sheen of unshed tears. "I wish I could just forget about them altogether. Boys in general, I mean."
Ginny felt a pang of sympathy for the other girl. Even with six older brothers her success with boys had been fleeting at best. "I know, it can be awful."
"You know, Ginny," Parvati said seriously. "I really admire you. So self-assured and confident. I wish I could be more like you sometimes."
Ginny's cheeks warmed at the unexpected compliment. "Why thank y-"
"I mean, it's amazing how you can just walk around and not care what people think, you know? Who cares about fashion or beauty? Not Ginny Weasley. You're too good for it, Ginny, and I admire you for that. There's nothing worse than being a slave to your looks." Parvati let out a dramatic sigh.
Her burgeoning sympathy abruptly extinguished, Ginny noted, with mild irritation, that Hermione looked suspiciously close to laughter.
"Well," Ginny managed, "I suppose that what those of us lack in looks we make up for with our sparkling personality and rapier-like wit."
Spotting the heat of Ginny's gaze, Hermione quickly jumped in. "Yes, you know, Parvati, looks aren't everything," she began, diplomatically. "After all, it's the substance of the person that matters as well. Intelligence and character factors in to attractiveness."
Parvati nodded vigorously. "So true. But I must say that I'd rather be a beauty than a brain." She paused. "No offense, Hermione."
Hermione's mouth fell open and it was Ginny's turn to suppress laughter.
Parvati's gaze strayed over Ginny's shoulder and her eyes lit up. "Harry Potter." She said, authoritatively, "You're a boy. Come here."
Ginny turned around partway and spotted him walking up the aisle. The brief look of horror that crossed his face was enough to make her feel a little better. She gladly stepped aside to allow him his own glorious time in Parvati's spotlight.
Hermione made a graceful and silent exit when the Indian girl started grilling him on what part of the female anatomy he noticed first, but Ginny was much too entertained to part ways just yet.
"I think you're lying," Parvati said bluntly.
"I am not." He sounded somewhat offended.
"Neck?! Who on earth says neck?"
Harry cast her an unnerved look. "Well, what do you want me to say?"
"The truth, Potter! All I ask for is the truth!" Parvati responded. "And what about all this tripe about character and intelligence? Admit it, Potter, boys are very visual creatures. A girl has to be pretty first, doesn't she?"
Harry shrugged. His eyes flickered towards Ginny for a moment. "I-I don't know."
Ginny felt a little bit of her good humor diminish at his response.
Parvati smiled triumphantly. "Uh huh. I knew it." Parvati narrowed her eyes at Harry and shook her head. "All the same. The lot of you." She turned her head abruptly and peered through the space between the books. "Is that Katie and Dean?" Without any explanation, she quickly darted down the aisle. "Dean Thomas, come here. I'm taking a poll…"
Harry stared after the retreating girl in confused silence before glancing over at Ginny again. "What was that?"
Ginny shook her head. "No idea." She dutifully pushed away her mild disappointment over his response to Parvati's question and decided she'd rather not think about it. "I wonder where Hermione's run off to?"
"I imagine she's with Ron. I left him on one of the sofas in the back end near the windows."
Ginny nodded. "She was helping me research my Potions paper," she said mildly, "I reckon I should go fetch her now that Parvati's moved on."
Harry nodded and Ginny and threw him a smile. "I'll see you back there, I suppose." She hadn't got more than a few steps before he called her name and she glanced back at him. He said something that she didn't hear at all, despite their close proximity, so she turned back, and, taking one step forward, asked him to repeat himself.
"Well, " Harry said quietly, "I uhm, I said that, you're…uhm….you're beautiful."
She stared at him for a few moments in dead silence and blinked a few times, still not quite able to believe she was hearing him correctly. The words sounded familiar. Like an echo of something he had said to her once before, but that felt like a time and place so far back in her memories that it hardly seemed real.
"Y-you know that, right?" Harry stammered on, awkwardly filling the silence between them. "I-I mean, I wasn't eavesdropping but I heard what you said to Parvati about lacking looks and…and…that was just to shut her up…right? You don't really believe that…right?"
And Ginny flinched slightly because, she realized with rather blinding clarity, she did believe it. She'd never openly dared to consider it, but as much as Ginny truly and genuinely loved herself, it had always been because she trusted and respected the type of person she was on the inside.
Truth be told, physically, she'd always found herself to be rather plain looking.
Certainly, her mother had always told her she was beautiful and even Bill had said it once or twice, but that was to be expected. They were family. And, to be entirely honest, she knew that Harry had said it once, had even admitted being physically attracted to her at first, but Ginny hadn't thought much of it because it wasn't quite the same. Inspiring lust was not quite the same as being beautiful in her mind. Besides, he had said he'd found her attractive during their Wizarding Chess matches so a part of her had always assumed-and rather happily so-that it was her character and intelligence that had ultimately won him over.
But now, now that he was saying what he was saying…well…it made her yearn for something she never thought she would. Ginny knew she didn't need to be beautiful to be happy, or to feel good about herself or even to attract the attention of boys, if Michael Corner and Dean Thomas were any indication.
But this was different, somehow. Suddenly she wanted very badly to be beautiful, if to no one else but Harry. The idea that the sight of her could stop his heart in the same way the sight of him stopped hers was entirely foreign and almost impossible to comprehend.
And, at some point, lost in her own thoughts, she realized that Harry was blathering on.
"…and really lovely hair. Which smells like grass…but it could also be some sort of flower or something. I…uhm…I guess it's your shampoo…or something…"
Ginny stared at him, unable to think of a single thing to say.
He continued, looking thoroughly embarrassed and stricken, "And your freckles go very nicely with your face…"
She was starting to feel uncomfortable.
"And you're eyes are so…well…big. And that's nice. Big eyes."
Ginny's 'big eyes' widened slightly and she gnawed nervously on her lip, mentally willing him to stop.
"And you're really soft," he blurted out and Ginny's mouth fell open. "Which is important…for a girl…"
She fought the urge to close her eyes in embarrassment. He had to be somewhere near the end.
"And the way you move…"
Ginny's heart sank.
"Well…I was…at the zoo with the Dursleys once…"
At this, she couldn't help herself, and let out a short, harsh sound halfway between a burst of laughter and a sob.
Harry stopped short and stared at her, as though not quite sure of what to do.
Ginny was too busy fighting a sudden and fierce internal battle to notice. All at once, she felt angry and suspicious and more than a little appalled. Up until that point, what he had been saying…it made her feel strange inside…almost weak. It was like she had been holding her breath, deep down in the center of her heart. And if he had just been joking the whole time - well, Ginny wasn't sure if she could handle a friendly jest. Especially one like this.
She tightened her arms around herself and eyed him warily. Annoyed that she was sniffling slightly, she sighed. "The zoo, Harry?"
"A swan," he said gently, and furrowed his brow. "I was just going to say that you remind me of a swan."
Something about the way he was looking at her and what he was saying broke her heart, but in a good way. Unable to handle this strange pull between sadness and joy, she just nodded her head and fought the tears that threatened to surface. "Oh," she said hoarsely. "Thank you."
Harry paused. "You don't believe me."
She shook her head, not quite sure how to make him understand. "It's not that…" Although, she had to admit, to a certain extent, it was. "Harry, it's just…" The words were hard to say but she forced herself to say them. "People don't…they don't notice me that way, is all."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
Yet again, she found herself in a position to feel sympathy with his frequent inability to find the right words. "They just don't…people don't say things like that to me. And, well, I always reckoned they didn't because…you know…because I'm not like that. And I never really felt like I needed to be."
There was a long silence, and Ginny didn't even bother trying to fill it. Nothing she could say could make the matter any better.
"But Michael…"
Ginny shook her head sharply. She had expected him to go in this direction. "It wasn't like that with Michael. I-I made him laugh."
Harry looked at her, confused. "What?"
"Michael once told me that he asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him that first time because he thought I was fun to be around…I made him laugh…" The openly expectant look that Harry was sending her, spurned her on. "I mean, it's wasn't as though it was…well…." She gestured vaguely at herself and, in a rare moment, felt somewhat wretched and pathetic clothed in Percy's hand-me-downs.
"Corner's an idiot," Harry said stiffly. "And no boy dates a girl just because she makes him laugh."
"But-,"
"He should have told you," Harry said firmly, and Ginny was surprised to discern sadness and regret in his gaze. "Corner should have told you. I should have told you…because it's true and you shouldn't believe that it isn't."
Unable to respond, she tilted her chin slightly in what she hoped he would take as a nod.
Instead, he stepped forward and grabbed hold of her arms in a way that flooded her with memories and filled her with longing. She looked up at him, too shocked to say a word, but instead of pulling her against him, he just shook her slightly.
"Listen to me…you're….well, you're so beautiful that you…sometimes I look at you and it's like..." His words were soft but had a hard edge to them vaguely reminiscent of desperation. "It's-well, it's just impossible to…to…" He trailed off in frustration.
Ginny smiled slightly in sympathy. "It's okay, Harry. I know. The words aren't coming."
"No," he responded, locking his gaze with her own. "It isn't that they aren't coming. It's that they don't exist."
Ginny wanted to do many things in that moment. She wanted to laugh, to tell him he was crazy, to kiss him senseless and to tell him she loved him, to run away because she was embarrassed, to tell him she'd never thought he could be so beautiful as he was to her at this very moment, but instead, all those words and actions got stuck in place, and all she could do was stare at him. Stare at him and wonder what on earth she was doing, how she was ever going to get out of it, and why she would ever want to.
What happened next was a bit odd and, for Ginny, difficult to explain. Standing locked in Harry's grip for those few seconds, staring into his eyes, a strange sensation ran through her. She would normally put it off to nerves and emotions, but it made the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end. Faintly, at the edge of her hearing and almost too low for her to believe she wasn't just imagining things, she thought she heard a woman screaming but then the sound evened out and all she heard was laughter. It was a gentle, comforting sound, and one that sounded familiar somehow.
She wondered if Harry heard it too.
Abruptly, he released her arms and took a step back. Ginny felt the energy between them dim with his increased distance, and it was almost a relief. She felt dizzy both physically and emotionally, and watched with a sort of detached amusement as he gathered himself together and snapped his walls back into place. But she didn't feel sad. He had reached out to her on his own accord and he had been…well….so kind.
"I'm, uhm…" Harry took a deep breath and glanced at her sideways. "I should go find Ron. I promised Neville we'd help him with some DA homework."
Ginny nodded weakly, lightly rubbing where he had grabbed her arms.
His eyes caught on her activity and he looked as if he wanted to say something, but instead looked at the ground. "I'll send Hermione back here."
Ginny nodded again.
He made to walk past but stopped abruptly alongside her, so close she could feel his breath on her neck come in hot, fast spurts. It made her shiver - a delicious sensation - and she closed her eyes, because it would be so easy to lose herself right then.
Unable to look at him, she silently willed him to go on, to keep moving and to take with him the almost unbearable tension only he had the power to make her feel.
When she heard the slight rustle of his robes, she nearly sighed with relief.
Ginny's eyes flew open in shock, however, when, instead of hearing him walk away, she instead felt a gentle but steady stream of air against her ear.
She stared up at Harry in surprise and he rewarded her with a slow, mischievous smirk, his green eyes dancing playfully behind his glasses.
Her stomach clenched and she felt her face flush, but, unwilling to let him get the best of her, she returned his smirk and, somehow, found the nerve to add a wink.
He stepped back, his face breaking into a full fledged smile and he nudged her in the side, his fingers lingering a beat too long against her hip, before continuing on his way.
Ginny stared after him, unable to stop herself from laughing and wondering what in the world, exactly, she was supposed to do next.
By the time Ginny and Hermione had returned to Gryffindor Tower it was just about curfew. Ron had already left for patrols and Ginny felt a little bad that she'd made Hermione hurry to make it to her own post on time.
The common room was mainly empty, barring a few third years reading by the fire. Not seeing Harry or Neville anywhere, Ginny trudged up to the girls' dormitory to unwind and try to sort out what had transpired a few hours earlier. She couldn't ever claim to understand boys, much less Harry, but that didn't mean she couldn't give it a try.
He'd left her feeling puzzled and off balance and yet, strangely happy. There was a joyful edge to her anticipation in seeing him next and she relished it.
Maeven's eyes followed Ginny's movements around the room and when Ginny reached out to the bird, she was pleased to sense that her phoenix was in a similar good humor.
Settling into bed after a quick shower, Ginny considered reading a bit of a book on Egyptian magic Bill had sent her, but the weight of her eyes soon convinced her that it was best to turn in. Bidding Maeven a good night, she turned off her light, pulled her curtains shut and settled under her comforter.
Within minutes, she was asleep.
For the next several hours, she dreamt of gleaming phoenixes with long, slender necks and shimmering white plumage. They danced and swooped in graceful circles above her head and she could hear their silvery chiming echoing all around her.
Just as one was swooping close enough for her to touch, she awoke to find herself curled in a ball, shivering rather violently.
Amazed at how cold the room had suddenly become, she fumbled for her wand and cast a haphazard heating charm, which, in her bleary state of semi-consciousness, wasn't terribly successful. Her fingers almost numb, Ginny tried burrowing deeper under the blankets, but the cold air seemed to penetrate even the heavy down comforter tucked around her shoulders.
While the castle tended to get a bit drafty now and again, it was never like this. Someone, she realized, must have left the window open. Annoyed at her careless dormitory mates, Ginny knew that she'd be forced to get out of bed to shut it herself. It was times like this that she wished she knew a useful charm to do the trick and decided to ask Professor Flitwick in the morning, if she remembered.
Poking her head outside of the curtains draped over her bed, Ginny spotted the offending window and made a mad, silent dash across the freezing room to shut it.
The window was old and heavy and stuck, but with a little bit of force, it slid shut with a dull thud. Ginny latched it quickly and made to run back to the welcoming warmth of her bed when she noticed what she had failed to notice before.
Across the room, half bathed in moonlight, lay a limp milky white cushion partially hanging off of its intricate golden stand. The entire area was decidedly empty.
Ginny's phoenix was gone.
End Part 15
A/N 2: For those of you wondering, this part of the story was written from the beautiful, exotic and increasingly hot Middle East, which is where I am for the summer. Bill Weasley says marhaba (hello), and to all of you in the region reading this fic, shukron (thank you).