Chapter 3- Simple Explanations
Ginny had avoided Harry, Ron, and Hermione for nearly three days. She went to meals early or late, left right after Quidditch practice, and stayed in her room, pretending to sleep when Hermione would try to talk to her. Ginny knew this didn't look good, but she just didn't want to face it. The one time Ron did manage to corner her, Ginny's only response was, "it's no big deal, don't worry about it." Honestly, Ginny knew she would get over it, but she also knew the three of them would talk her to death on the subject, and trying to tell them she was fine wasn't going to work no matter how many times she said so. Besides that, talking about it at that moment would just be pouring salt on a still open wound.
Either way, she couldn't quite avoid them anymore since the first meeting for Guys and Dolls started that night. The issue was one that couldn't be avoided any longer, but needed to be faced head on. This was something Ginny was good at directing others to do, but not for herself all the time. Still she took a deep breath then took one last look in her bedroom mirror before walking down the stairs to the common room. Harry was sitting on the couch alone. "Hey, where are the other two?" Ginny asked, as though nothing had been wrong.
"Prefect meeting. They're going to meet me… well, us there," Harry said. Things were quiet for a moment. "Are… are you okay?"
"Sure; why wouldn't I be?" Ginny stated nonchalantly.
"Oh, well," Harry said. He shut his mouth instead of continuing, since he didn't want to rock any kind of boat. "In that case, should we be going?" Harry asked instead.
"Sure thing," Ginny said with a smile, grateful that Harry at least pretended to accept her answer.
"Here we go then," Harry said, unsure to whether he should offer a hand or something. Ginny walked towards the portrait hole to answer that question.
"Wait up!" Dean Thomas yelled, stopping both of them. "Are you guys going to the auditorium?" he asked, mainly addressing Ginny.
"Yeah, you coming?" Harry answered before Ginny could. He knew how Ron would react if Dean continued this pursuit, and really didn't want to hear it right now, though Harry was of the strong opinion that it was Ginny's life and not Ron's.
"Sure," Dean said. "Seamus and Neville already went." In truth Dean had let the two go ahead, wanting to catch Ginny. He had hoped to catch her alone, but such was not his luck. Still, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to be around Ginny without Ron there.
The three walked towards where they had auditioned nearly a week before. "So how have things been Ginny?" Dean asked. "I haven't seen you around lately."
"O.W.L.s," Ginny explained. Dean nodded in understanding. "Among other things."
"Well, that's good, I guess," Dean stated. "What are the—"
"Are you two excited for tonight?" Harry asked, quickly adding himself to the conversation.
"I guess," Ginny said. "Not that much is going to happen. I think they're just giving scripts and scores out." Ginny looked down as she took a few steps. "At least for those who need a script or score."
"You should have had that lead," Dean said. "It's rotten luck."
"Yeah, rotten," Harry affirmed as he stepped between the two discreetly, though Dean didn't make it easy.
"You know, it was really type-casted," Dean pointed out. "Hermione got the role of the do-gooder who likes rules, Malfoy's the meanest of the gangsters."
"What about Ernie?" Ginny noted. "I know he's a prefect and all, but he's not exactly what I would call an 'enforcer'."
"Isn't that obvious?" Dean asked with a sly grin.
"No, why?" Ginny asked. Harry saw that this was getting dangerous, since they were nearing the auditorium quickly.
"It's the only non-singing part," Dean whispered loudly. Ginny laughed. Harry added in a few forced courtesy chuckles, but found himself quickly understanding why Ron acted the way he did.
"You know, you've got a point there," Ginny added as they arrived at the entrance to the auditorium.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked looking at Dean. Hermione was standing right next to him to the left of the doorway.
"Nothing," Dean said quickly. Ginny didn't exactly know what was going on as all of the heart-to-hearts between Dean and Ron had been in a less public setting. The one thing Ron was thankful for was that Harry was between his little sister and 'the offender'.
"We were just running a little late," Ginny said. "You know, you really should lighten up." With that she smiled and lead the way into where much of the cast was already sitting. Hannah Abbot was talking to Professor Flitwick on the front row. Harry noted the Professor Sinistra was also up there, but not in her normal attire.
Ginny led to an empty row of seating, Dean following behind for a moment before Ron moved quickly to get ahead of him. Hermione followed Ron's lead, leaving Dean between Hermione and Harry. Just as they were finally sitting, Hannah got up onto the stage to address the group as she had at auditions.
"Thank you to everyone who came," Hannah said with a large smile. "You all did very good at auditions, and I'm glad we have such a talented cast. Today we're just going to go over scheduling of rehearsals and hand out scripts."
"See," Ginny said leaning forward to see Dean.
"I would ask the chorus members, both male and female, meet up front on the right here, and I'll talk with everyone else over here to your left," Hannah explained. "Just discuss when the best time to meet for all of you and I'll be over to confirm a schedule," Hannah finished and everyone started to move.
Ginny felt alone as all four of her seating companions stood to make their way over to Hannah. "Hi, Ginny," Neville said happily.
"Hi, Neville," she responded.
"This is going to be fun, I think," Neville said excitedly.
"Yeah, fun."
Harry, Hermione, and Ron all clumped together as Dean sat with Seamus. Harry had seen Draco come over in a rather indifferent manner. Cho came by, avoiding eye contact with Harry as she sat a distance off, somewhat near Michael Corner, though she didn't talk to him either. Harry watched her until Hannah cleared her throat to talk once more. "I know you all are probably busy with Quidditch and other things, but we do need to come up with a coherent schedule," Hannah said. "First, there are Prefect meetings every Tuesday evening, but I'm not sure what other club schedules are."
"Gryffindor Quidditch practice is on Monday and Wednesday before dinner," Ron said quickly.
"And what about Ravenclaw?" Hannah asked after writing down what Ron said. Waiting for a response, Hannah looked up at Cho.
Cho was just sitting there, trying to act casually. She was fidgeting with the edge of her bag, which sat in her lap as though she was ready to leave as soon as she could. "Oh, we practice on Mondays before them and Tuesdays," she mentioned.
"Slytherin has extra practices on weekends," Draco noted. "Other than that, we have our normal practices early in the mornings." Not that Draco cared, but their captain wanted to keep their daily exercises top secret. Draco knew most people wouldn't bother getting up as early as the Slytherin team to spy on them.
"We'll only meet for a couple hours on weekends until the performance dates get closer," Hannah told the group.
"How many times are we performing?" Hermione asked.
"Twice," Hannah answered. "Once for students and an evening performance family and friends outside of Hogwarts are invited to."
Great, Harry thought. Harry had never really had family that would come. Mrs. Weasley had come right before the final task during his fourth year, but now she would have Ron and Ginny to be watching, so Harry would really have no one this time around.
"So how are Thursdays and Fridays before Dinner?" Hannah asked the group. Most everyone nodded.
"Also on Sundays from 2 to five in the afternoons?" she added. Everyone seemed to be fine with this arrangement. "Okay then. I'll post a list every Monday to announce what scenes we're going to be doing when."
"Can we go now then?" Draco asked snippily.
"Yes, once you have your scripts," Hannah said. "Check them out with Professor Flitwick." After making this announcement, Hannah stood and made her way up to the group of chorus members. "Making any progress over here?" she asked.
"Yeah," Justin Finch-Fletchy answered. "There are a couple hours between classes and one evening a week," he explained.
"Good, that works. Professor Sinistra said that she would teach choreography," Hannah told them. The Slytherins laughed. "She used to dance quite a bit," Hannah defended quickly. "Anyway, she'll probably teach you on the evening rehearsal and the rest should be review. Just give me those times and I'll be there to help run the practices," Hannah said, a smile still on her face. Once someone had copied their plan for a schedule, Hannah dismissed the group, but put a gentle hand on Ginny as she started to leave.
"Yes?" Ginny asked once everyone was gone. She noticed some Gryffindors waiting at the door for her.
"I just wanted you to know that I would have cast you as the part of Sarah," Hannah said in hushed tones.
"Oh," Ginny said, looking down at her feet. She wasn't sure she wanted to know this or not.
"It was just… I really needed Ron as Sky and I couldn't have you and Ron playing opposites," Hannah said.
Ginny looked up. She hadn't thought of that. "So it's not because Hermione's older?"
"No, no, of course not," Hannah said. "I just thought you ought to know you would have had the part otherwise."
Ginny smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate you telling me."
"Oh," Hannah said, stopping Ginny once more as she turned to leave. "I also wanted to ask if you would head up the chorus. I know some people don't take this serious, so I want to make sure someone will keep them in line."
Ginny's smile widened. "Sure," she said. "See you later?"
"Yeah," Hannah said, returning a smile before Ernie started to come towards her.
Ginny walked towards the door way where she saw Ron looking off towards where they would be going back to their common room. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Ron said grimly. "Let's go."
Hermione seemed to still have reserve towards Ginny. "So when are your rehearsals?""A few afternoons a week," Ginny said with a smile. This relieved Hermione.
"You know, Ginny, I might need some help with my lines," Hermione said, making a request she had been holding back on.
"Sure," Ginny said. "Anytime. How about dinner?"
"Sounds good," Ron replied enthusiastically.
"'I'm going to tell you the truth but you're not going to believe me'," Harry said, still looking straight into his script. For their first rehearsal, Hannah decided to have the main characters simply read through the script.
"'Nathan… why can't we elope?'" Cho asked. Harry felt a blush rising slightly to his cheeks as the question was asked.
"'I'm going to a prayer meeting'," Harry answered, trying to do his best accent. Hannah had also decided that they should try and do the accents without assistance for a while.
"Okay," Hannah interrupted before Cho said her next line. "Next is pretty much the song Sue Me, so we'll skip that for now, and onto the prayer meeting."
It took a moment for everyone to catch up. It started with some dialogue between Hermione and Susan. Susan, like Harry, was a bit withheld during this. Hermione, on the other hand, had been digging deep into her character. Ron and Hermione, in fact, had been having a lot of fun with this entire idea.
"'Welcome brothers, welcome, come in come in'," Roger said, still wondering why he had to play a good, upstanding, old man.
"'Okay, is everybody accounted for?'" Ron asked in an ever improving accent. He had been playing with it over the hour and a half he had been here. Hermione would every so often glance at Ron and smile when he would make a change in the dialect, trying to settle on the one he liked best. "'Where's Nathan Detroit?'" he asked again, giving a funny look over to Harry.
Harry, of course, didn't see has his eyes were glued onto the script in front of him. "'I'm here, right here,'" Harry said quickly.
"'Well, I made good my marker'," Ron said, looking over to Hermione. She looked up at him, following along the lines with her finger. "'I oughtta ask you to return it, but it would break up your pretty sets of thoughts of the day. When you get around to it, mark it paid in full.'"
It took Roger a moment as he had been attempting to flirt with Cho, though she wouldn't look up, but finally he caught on that it was his line. "'Would you gentlemen sit down?"
"'Sit down, do as your told'," Ron said in character.
Finally, something to say, Roger thought as he cleared his throat. "'On behalf of General Cartwright, Sergeant Sarah Brown, and the rest of us—'"
Here Draco was supposed to interrupt—which he did—with his line—which he didn't. "What the bloody hell is this supposed to mean?" he asked with a sneer. There were no teachers supervising most of these rehearsals, and Draco had made it very clear that he wasn't going to cooperate since this was the case.
"What do you mean?" Hannah asked, looking at the next line.
"Army? Red Cross?" Draco said. "These Mudblood jokes are ridiculous."
Ron and Harry restrained themselves. It was the first time he had decided to drop that word into his snide remarks that evening, and though it had been expected, it was still highly unwelcome.
"I would ask that you keep your language down or we might not have the privilege to practice when we'd like, and if you'll write down the words or things you would like to know, I'll let you know what they mean." Hannah had been extremely patient with Draco throughout the read-through, and most people were ready to tie Malfoy up by his feet onto the ceiling. Hermione, too, had done a spectacular job restraining herself.
Malfoy scoffed and they continued the scene. When they arrived at the end, Hannah gave a few last announcements, reminded them that the next rehearsal would take place that Sunday, and dismissed them. "I'll meet up with you," Harry told Ron, then waited until Ron and Hermione were walking away. Nervously he approached Cho. "I never really got to say congratulations," he said.
Cho startled. "Oh, well," she gave him a soft, yet forced grin. "You just did."
"I, er… I was wondering if we could maybe have some extra practices," Harry said, looking at his shoes. "I know I'm going to need it."
"I," Cho stopped and started to pack her bag. She turned back to Harry and smiled again. "I'll look at my schedule and get back to you."
Harry's heart leapt. "Really? Okay," he said. "I'll… see you around then," he said. Could this be possible? He thought. It certainly would seem that way. Harry, not wanting to seem too anxious, walked off and made his way to meet up with his two best friends.
A/N: First rehearsal….there it is. I am so tired now! Let me tell you! All the lines are taken from the movie version of Guys and Dolls, so those of you who have it memorized coughannacough, don't get on my case for it not being accurate… in fact, I might be needing some help later on (wink wink nudge nudge)
Thanks to all those who have reviewed… please do so if you're reading this.
Thank you:
VoicezWithin: Thank you for your review! We don't always get what we want in life… but don't worry about Ginny… fun things are about to happen to her!
Katkit: Why thank you m'dear!
JamieBell: It's always your fault, it will always be your fault, so just get used to it ;) That's what I told John… jk of course. Anywho, I'm glad you're liking this, and I hope you continue to like this story.
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Korah: That's wonderful! Can't wait to see!
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13fuzzyllamas: I think most people know that one. It's rather infamous… besides that, the movie just came out.
Guitarprincess: lol wouldn't that be fun? Musicals make any school better!
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