Chapter Two

Ginny stood in the hallway, rigid in confusion, fear, and shock. What could he have meant by that? She hoped it wasn't meant hostilely, that he could sneak up behind her at any time and humiliate or hurt her...then again, this was Malfoy. She knew he'd get her for insulting him the way she did, but she prayed he wouldn't do anything drastic.

She straightened her robes and picked up her scattered belongings. 'When had they fallen on the floor again?' she wondered. 'Probably when he scared the living daylights out of me.' She rushed to the common room. She only had – she checked her watch – 10 minutes to get her cloak, get to the game, and find a seat where she could see Seamus...and Harry, of course.

She dropped off her backpack, grabbed her old cloak, and headed out of the Gryffindor dorms. When she reached the entrance to the pitch, she found Colin Creevey, who was waving his arms at her.

"Ginny! Over here!" His camera, on a strap over his shoulder, bounced on his side as he jumped, trying to get her to see him. He had never been very tall, and was now pushing 5'7", only an inch taller than Ginny. "Ginny!" he yelled again, even though she knew he must have noticed that she was approaching him, with an exasperated look on her face.

"Colin," Ginny said as soon as she got within hearing distance. "Don't make such a scene." But no one was actually looking at either of them, she saw; everyone too busy awaiting the start of the game.

Colin took Ginny's arm and pointed towards the stands. "We're over there, seventh row, left side."

She nodded. 'Not a bad spot really, glad he got here early,' she thought. They climbed up to their seats, making their way through the already seated people. Hermione and Ron were a couple rows down to the right, and Ron looked more than a little fidgety. Hermione was pointing at Harry and Ron was nodding excitedly.

"So what did you do today, Ginny? You go to the library with the trio?" Colin gave her an innocent smile as he adjusted his omnioculars to focus on Harry.

"Yeah, well, sort of...not with them per say..."

"Oh Gin, you didn't sit out again did you? You know they wouldn't mind you joining them!"

"I know, I just feel like a fourth wheel with them, you know?"

Colin smiled at her patiently, as though she were five years old, and spoke slowly. "Most wheeled things have four wheels, Ginny. Four wheeled things are stable. Like cars, and trains, and –"

She gave him a look. "You know what I mean. They're so wrapped up in themselves, it wouldn't matter if I sung "I'm a Little Teapot" while dancing on their table! Hermione is so busy with her schoolwork and Ron is busy fawning after Hermione, and Harry's just so troubled half the time that he clings to the two of them. Throw me in there, and that's all you've done. Just thrown an extra person in, who has no purpose whatsoever." She buried her head in her arms. "And Ron told Harry I wasn't even a girl! I'll always be just Ron's little sister to everyone. Why can't they see me?"

Colin put his arm around her and hoped she wasn't crying. He never was good at comforting people, as people spent most of their time trying to comfort the charity case that was him. He patted her shoulder cautiously and shifted uncomfortably on the bench.

Ginny took a deep breath. 'It's okay,' she told herself. 'People believe in me, and I believe in myself and what the Dream Team thinks of me is of no consequence.' She slowly regained her composure and brushed away at her eyes. 'This is the last time I let myself get upset over whether they like me or not.'

Ginny smiled at Colin, and took the omnioculars. She refocused them from Harry to Seamus, who was mounting his broom. The two teams were ready to start. The whistle blew, the balls were released and Ernie Macmillan reported from his stand. Ernie had taken over for Lee Jordan after Lee had left Hogwarts.

"They're off, folks! Laura Madley, fourth year chaser and Hufflepuff star, has just outrun that bludger! She zips to the left...Watch out Hannah, it's coming at you now! Hufflepuff has the quaffle again...Hufflepuff scores!!!"

Ginny ignored the commentary and watched Seamus. 'Yeah, that's right... forget about Harry. Seamus is a great guy...' When he saw her looking at him, he pulled a stunt move, diving down for no specific reason, then making a sharp right turn and pulling the broom up. He beamed at her, then rejoined the game. Ginny grinned. '...but a show off...'

Hufflepuff had become harder to beat since Laura Madley joined the team, but this game was no break from Gryffindor's winning streak. Harry had caught the snitch, and the game was over. Scarlet and gold banners flashed and the Gryffindors cheered as the teams left the field. The fans poured out of the stands and the Gryffindor team went off to celebrate.

Ginny remembered that Seamus had asked her to meet him in the common room after the game. She turned to Colin, who was taking photos of the cheering fans.

"Colin, I'm going to go now, I'm supposed to meet Seamus soon. All right?" She wondered if he had heard her, until he turned to face her, snapping a photo. She tried to block her face with her arms, but Colin's quick photo reflexes and her slow defensive ones allowed the picture to be taken. She had stars in her eyes now from the flash, and got a disorientated feeling because of it. Colin still pretended he hadn't heard what she'd said.

"What was that, Ginny?" he asked, poised to take another picture. "You said you're going to meet Seamus?" -Click- Ginny reacted quickly enough this time, her hands were now blocking the camera's view. "Did he invite you to the team party?" -Click- She got up and started walking out of the stands, toward the exit.

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Colin," she called behind her. She worked her way through the crowd, and somehow managed to make it back to the common room. Upon entering, it was impossible not to notice that the scarlet and gold flashing banners had been moved from the field, and some of the cheering Gryffindors that filled the room even wore their old "We love Harry" pins from years ago.

Nearly everytime Gryffindor won, someone would throw a party like this back at the common room. It would have been a free invitation party, but some of the sixth and seventh years had decided against that in order to keep it on the smaller side and because of the younger students that could come in. After all, they couldn't have that, as things would sometimes get a little too crazy for a little first year's liking. Therefore, it had been set up, for the past few years, that each team member was allowed one invitation to a non-team member, providing that they didn't invite anyone too young.

It was obvious Ron, who'd been invited by Harry, had snuck in some things from the twins' shop. A couple of people's hair had flashing scarlet and gold hairstreaks, and small confetti firecrackers were exploding in various corners of the room. At least those were the tamer ones.

Dean Thomas called out to the group. "We're going down to the kitchens...what do we want?"

The crowd shouted different answers, and he ended up shrugging and leaving the room with Seamus, who had given her a wink and a look that said "I'll be right back." Hermione (on invite by an extra Lavender had) called after the boys, going with them to make sure they didn't mistreat the elves. Ginny smiled when she noticed Hermione was wearing her S.P.E.W. pin instead of the typical "We love Harry".

Soon the boys were back, and with large amounts of food. They settled bags of chips, dishes of puddings and cakes, leftovers from yesterday's banquet, and a rather large self - refilling punchbowl with a cloudy pinkish-blue liquid in it.

Lavender Brown pointed at the drink and wrinkled her nose. "What IS that?"

George Weasley gave her a proud smile. "That," he said with a flourish of his hand, "is Kool - Aid."

Fred was suddenly at his brother's side and with an equally proud grin. "It's amazing! It doesn't even come in a bottle or anything!" He waved a packet. "See? It's from an envelope!"

Parvati and Lavender stared bright-eyed at the packet before latching onto Fred and George's arms. The boys winked at Ginny. She gave the liquid an inquiring look.

"What flavor is it? It's a rather odd color..."

Fred shook his head, lost in the euphoria of being surrounded by two enthusiastic girls. "I don't know... I just added five packets or so... Different kinds I'd guess."

Ginny shrugged and took a small cupful of it. After taking a sip, she winced. "ALL you added was the powder?!"

George nodded happily. "Yep! Great, huh?"

"It's horrible! There's supposed to be sugar in it, you twits! Why didn't the house elves make this?"

"Hermione wouldn't let us...house elf liberation and all that. So we figured it couldn't be too hard..."

Grumbling something about the stupidity of teenage boys, Ginny took out her wand and muttered a spell she used regularly on her tea. She was about to get an un-bitter cup of punch when a hand rested on her shoulder, getting her attention. She whipped around to find a smiling Finnigan in front of her. His boyishly cut sandy hair and wholesome smile personified the character that was Seamus. He was still wearing his Quidditch robes and his cloak which, Ginny noticed, had a little green shamrock embroidered by the clasp in the front. She smiled at that.

"Hi," she said, moving her stare from the shamrock to his eyes.

"Hiya, Ginny. Like me Irish pride?" He quit his forcibly heavy Irish accent. "My mum put it there. Supposed to remind me of home." He imitated his mother, "'Stay true t' yer roots Seamus dear, and yer home and yer family will never be far from yer heart.'" He made a goofy grin at the sappiness of it, but she thought it was cute. She didn't get too much sappiness with six brothers. Seamus continued, "They're playing cards over there, or we can play chess, or Exploding Snap, or..."

"Cards will be fine," Ginny smiled. She looked over at the card table where Fred, George, Dean, and Harry were about to start a round of poker. Lavender and Parvati were hanging on Fred and George respectively, though Ginny didn't think either girl knew the two of them apart well enough to know which boy they were clinging to. Dean was shuffling a red deck of cards and Harry was poking at a small crack in his glasses with his wand, apparently trying to fix it.

Ron and Hermione were playing a game of chess. Ron stopped to laugh evilly as his knight stomped hers to bits, not realizing his queen would be taken by her bishop.


"Ronald Weasley! I refuse to beat the pants off you if you're not trying! Now start focusing!" Hermione demanded indignantly.

"But 'Mione, I am focusing!"

'So he's letting her win,' Ginny realized.

Ginny decided to focus on her game as well. She had taken a seat between Seamus and Dean and now waited until Dean had finished dealing the cards. She looked at her hand and called the bet of ten Bertie Bott's Beans when it came to her, hoping she might end up with something after the draw. Damn her brothers for not allowing wild cards...

 
She looked at Seamus, who was studying his cards now, but had previously been sneaking glances at Ginny. He saw her looking at him, and smiled confidently. Obviously, he thought he stood a chance. Harry fiddled with the glasses still on his nose, looking dismayed at his new cards. He folded, leaving everyone else to show their cards. Lavender kissed Fred on the cheek when he won the hand, eating one of his betting beans, then grimacing at the horrible flavor...

An hour later, when Ginny was full of multi-flavored punch and Bertie Bott's Beans, the game ended, Ginny only behind George's win by 25 beans. Harry had lost everything within twenty minutes, and had joined Ron and Hermione, who had been talking on the couch after Hermione's win. The group of people who had played Exploding Snap had paired off and were in various darker parts of the common room or on "walks". Seamus left Ginny to talk to Dean ("Back in a minute, Ginny!"), and the twins were off with the Parvati and Lavender. Ginny was alone.

'I might as well just go to bed, no one seems to need me here.' She got Seamus' attention. "I'm going to head up for bed," she told him. "Thanks for inviting me, Seamus."

"Are you sure, Ginny? Do you want me to walk you upstairs?" he asked.


"No, I'll be fine. Good night, Seamus. You too, Dean." Dean nodded pleasantly at her, and Seamus kissed her cheek. She waved goodbye to Harry, Hermione and Ron and headed up the stairs.

'They didn't mean to ignore me,' Ginny rationalized. 'Seamus was just talking to his best friend and the trio, well... I'm tired anyway.'

So everything was fine. She'd had an afternoon with Colin, Gryffindor had won the game, Seamus had been a perfect gentleman, and she'd had an evening full of cards. So why had she felt something was missing? Everything was fine...