Disclaimer- I'm disclaiming the last disclaimer. Oh, and I don't own anything, not even the HPx86 I wrote this on.
A/N: Okay, this chapter is a little long for my liking and didn't turn out how I expected. I didn't put everything in this chapter that I had planned either. Nonetheless, it works and sets up what it needs to. This is also the halfway point. Unless I split chapter 8 into two chapters there should only be six more.
Sunday morning the students wandered out of the castle towards Hagrid's hut. There were seven silver coaches with the hippogriffs tethered to them in teams of four. Students piled into their coaches, four per vehicle. Hagrid and Krum took the lead coach to themselves.
And they were off. The hippogriffs pulled the coaches into the air.
They arrived at the Beauxbatons palace in the early evening. A beautiful sunset silhouetted the coaches as they arrived from the west.
The palace was every bit as beautiful as Fleur Delacour claimed. Sparkling crystal spires topped the east and west towers while a gold bell hung in the courtyard tower. The windows trimmed in silver, reflected the last golden rays of the sun.
As they entered the palace wood nymphs erupted into song. It was the most beautiful music Harry had ever heard. He even started to sing along, unsure of the words he was singing.
Ginny noticed the sound coming from Harry's lips. He seemed to be happier than he had been in many months. This brought a smile to her face and she joined in song.
Harry entered the dining hall last. Students from each of the schools were freely mixed about the tables. There were three tables for students and another at the far end of the room where the staff was sitting. The tables were placed at the walls of the room with ice sculptures separating the tables from the walls. Harry glanced about looking for an empty seat next to someone from Hogwarts. He didn't see one, but a girl with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes beckoned him. He ignored her at first, but he felt an uncontrollable urge to sit next to her. He didn't resist.
"'arry Potter!" exclaimed the girl. "Is good to zee you again."
Harry was confused for a moment. He then realized that the girl must be Fleur's younger sister. "Gabrielle?" He asked quizzically.
"You remember." She said while blushing.
How could it be though? Cleary this girl was older than eleven and Harry thought she was no older than eight when he pulled from the lake during the second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
"It is zee veela in me." She said seemingly reading his mind. "When we are young we age slowly, zen we mature rapidly and zen slowly grow old. I'm in my third year."
"You look older than that. You are the most beautiful girl here." Had he just said what he thought he said? He didn't need another pot on the stove. Not with Ginny and Hermione needing tending to.
"Why zank you." Gabrielle returned.
"You're welcome." Harry answered. He then cleared his mind hoping occlumency would counter Gabrielle's veela powers. His mind cleared, Harry began to eat and peer about the room.
There were twenty-six ice sculptures throughout the room. Half were human while the others depicted magical creatures. One of the sculptures resembled Madame Maxine though smaller and better proportioned. Harry thought it might be a relative. He then surmised that the human sculptures were past headmasters. Though he still had no idea what the creatures represented. Gabrielle spoke.
"Each creature represents zee spirit of zee 'eadmaster opposite of zem." She said.
Obviously he wasn't trying hard enough to clear his mind. So Harry resigned himself to idle chit chat while finishing his dinner. A short while later Madame Maxine stood and started to speak.
"It is getting late we shall all go to our rooms. Girls pleese follow me and boys go weeth 'agrid."
Hagrid led the boys to the west tower while Madame Maxine led the girls to the east tower. When Harry reached his bed he collapsed instantly. Sleep quickly followed.
To Harry's surprise he managed to find a quiet spot to get away from everyone. He had been spending most of his days in the bell tower. The beautiful song they emitted on the hour matched his feelings so perfectly that most of the time he didn't do anything but sit and wait for their hourly chime.
Christmas Eve Harry ascended the tower. When he got to the top he noticed someone was already there. It was Ginny; she appeared to be waiting for him.
"So you finally found my hiding place." Harry said sheepishly.
"Nah, I've known about it since our second day here." She stated feeling kind of guilty. "I followed you out of breakfast and watched you come up here."
"Oh, so how have you been?"
"I'm fine. But the real question is how are you, Harry?" Ginny said in a soft voice. "Have you come to grips with your problem?"
"I'm good." Harry answered. "And yes I figured out what I needed to do and it is in the past." Harry only hoped this last bit would remain true after talking with Ginny. "Have you made any new friends?" Harry added.
"NO!" Ginny answered angrily. "The Beauxbatons are all stuck up. The Durmstrangs are quite secretive and all but the oldest of the Whizbang students seem to be afraid of anyone with a wand. They don't learn magic like we do. They don't take charms, transfiguration, or defense against the dark arts. With the exception of potions they don't learn any magic."
They talked well into the night, finally conceding to the call of their beds around midnight. They climbed down the bell tower. As they reached the ground the bells began to chime.
"Merry Christmas, Miss Ginevra Weasley."
Her heart fluttered at the way Harry said those words. "Good night and Merry Christmas Harry Potter." She said a smile creeping across her face.
They both turned and headed towards their respective rooms. Harry didn't believe what had just happened. He just started boiling the wrong pot. He decided he wanted to be with Hermione. Now it was obvious his feelings for Ginny were still quite strong as were hers for him. Harry drifted off to sleep.
Harry woke to a tremendous feeling of love overcoming his body. It was the love of Hermione. She must have opened her gift he thought. He had given her a gold bracelet with Friends Forever engraved on it. But it wasn't a regular bracelet. When the person wearing it clutched it with their hand and concentrated about something it would be conveyed to the person who gave them the bracelet.
Harry decided to open his presents. He started with his gift from Mrs. Weasley. Along with the usual sweater which he immediately pulled on over his t-shirt there was a gumdrop cake. Harry had slept through breakfast and lunch wasn't for another two hours so he ate a bit of the cake. Next he opened his gift from Ron. It was a wizard's chess set. One set of pieces were dressed in the colors of Gryffindor while the others wore the colors of Slytherin. Next he opened his gift from Hermione. It had been shaking about. When he opened it shot up and started hovering at head level its wings flapping wildly. It was a scarlet and gold colored snitch. Last was his gift from Ginny. When he opened it he started to cry. It was a picture of his parents and Sirius. But it had been charmed. Alongside the three of them stood a young man waving back, it was Harry.
Until lunch time came Harry alternately chased the snitch about the room and bawled at the picture. Two great gifts from the two women he loved the most. This certainly didn't make things any easier.
Harry left for the dining hall a little early. When he got there almost no one had arrived so he took a seat as close to the door as possible. He hoped this seat and the glum look on his face would deter anyone from trying to talk to him. He was not so lucky. Ginny sat down beside him. At least it wasn't Gabrielle. He didn't need another girl clouding his mind.
"Harry?" Ginny said quite concerned, "are you glum because of my gift?"
"No, it was wonderful." Harry said. "I just have so much on my mind. Last night, your gift, this morning." Then he felt a slight warming in his heart and heard a voice in his head. Oh I wish you were here with me. It was Hermione. At this he broke down and started to cry.
The room was now full with people eating. They stopped and turned to stare at Harry. He was crying so loud that the entire room heard him.
"Harry it's okay." Ginny said, holding the boy sobbing into her hair. "Come on. Let's get you somewhere that you can let it all out." She said pulling to his feet.
"Ok." Harry sobbed.
They grabbed some food and headed towards Harry's room. When they got there Harry sprawled out on his bed. Ginny climbed up beside him. He climbed into her arms and started crying again.
"You are such a good friend." He began. By the time he had finished crying he had told her everything. His feelings for her and Hermione, his almost feelings for Gabrielle, how the gifts affected him. The only thing he left out was his gift to Hermione, he knew that would hurt Ginny as he had only given her a Quidditch themed charm bracelet.
Suddenly everything made sense to her. He was avoiding everyone to protect the girls from his feelings. He didn't want to hurt them when he didn't know what his true feelings were. He was trying to sort out his feelings. She even surmised that he had decided that Hermione was the girl for him. Then last night and this morning happened. She felt a slight twinge of guilt.
"Harry" she spoke solemnly.
He looked up, tears clouding his emerald eyes.
"Don't ever hide your feelings like this again. It hurts you too much and I don't want you to hurt."
"I won't" He answered. "I promise it will never happen again." He then lowered his head back to Ginny's lap and fell asleep.
She drifted off to sleep herself. Thinking about what had just happened made her wonder if they could ever just be friends or more than just friends. They might just be stuck in some kind of limbo in between.
A/N: Please review this. I haven't gotten many and this is my first story, so please. Oh, and there will be more Quidditch in the next chapter. Some how this fic has taken a turn from being Quidditch based to a love story.
The pots on the stove reference is something I stole from a friends Live Journal. She stopped using it and I decided that I would use it instead of a more hackneyed phrase.