Chapter 10- Final Bows

Harry knocked on the door of the girls' dressing room almost half an hour before the start of the show. A girl, younger… perhaps in her third year, answered the door. "Yes?" she asked snippily. "Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could see Ginny," he said. After finding out Lavender and Parvati had been around when Ron and Dean found out about what had happened, Harry had expected this kind of behavior from others.

"There's people getting dressed," she said. "You'll have to catch her in the wings."

"Wait," Harry said as the door started to shut on him. "Can you at least give these to her?" He held out a bouquet with snapdragons in the center, surrounded by an assortment of wild flowers.

The girl looked as though she were struggling between a female bond against cheating boys, and cooing over the gesture of the flowers. "Oh, all right then," she said, taking the flowers and shutting the door.

Harry let out a breath and walked back to where all the guys were getting on makeup. "Never again… never ever again," Seamus said as one of the girls applied foundation on his face.

"Nice act," Dean said. "I've seen you use it before."

"Not funny," Seamus said. "How would you like it if I started some rumor about you? How about a bad night time problem you never got over?"

"Fine, truce," Seamus said. "Anyone seen our Slytherin co-cast?" he added with a bit of distaste.

Harry looked around, realizing none of them had made call time. "No," he said.

"Good," Seamus said. "Ron told us what you heard last night, and we're all going to be on guard… we should probably pay attention to any Muggleborns."

"It's so nice to know that you care," Dean said sappily, walking over to Harry. In a whisper, he asked, "did you give them to her?"

"They wouldn't let me in, so I left them with the girl who answered the door. Shouldn't I have?"

"No," Dean said. "Please say you at least included a card of some sort… any…"

"Er—"

"Harry! I can't believe you!" Dean exclaimed.

"Where's Ron," Harry mumbled while looking down, feeling as though he had failed again.

"I'm over here," Ron said as he opened the door.

"Where have you been?" Harry asked.

"I was with…" Ron paused, going red. "I was with my parents."

"McGonagall took them to The Great Hall over an hour ago," Harry pointed out. Ron's only response was a mumble as he started to apply his own stage makeup.

In the girls' dressing room there was a mixture of responses to one bouquet of flowers. "You're certainly going to forgive him, aren't you?" the girl who had delivered them asked.

"I certainly am not," Ginny said, her red tresses up in curlers as she continued her attempts to ignore the floral arrangement being handed around.

"Did he leave a note with it?" Lavendar asked.

"I have no idea."

"Doesn't look like it," Parvati said. "You're right to make him pay, though. Give it another week and he'll be wrapped around your little finger."

Ginny didn't even dignify this with a response. The hurt and disappointment she felt right now went far beyond revenge and silly games. She didn't even know how she was going to handle being onstage with Harry all night, let alone look him in the eyes with any of the esteem she once held for him.

Hermione came in out of breath and a bit pink in the cheeks. "Sorry I'm late everyone," she said with a smile. "Can you help me with the twist today Padma?" she asked, sitting in a chair and attempting to get a brush through her hair.

"Oooo… can I put in some highlights?" Parvati said, wide-eyed.

"No, thank you," Hermione said as politely as she could manage. "It'll take long enough to get it done."

Padma, who was letting her own hair dry still, started combing through Hermione's mess of tangles, spraying some water to tame the waves. "Did you see the flowers Harry got for Ginny?"

"I wish you would all stop talking about it," Ginny said as Hermione looked over with a raised eyebrow.

"Why?" Hermione asked, looking at the flowers that had been shoved under her nose by Hattie Fuller. "They're lovely."

"Yes, but only given out of a guilty conscience," Ginny protested.

"That's one of the few reasons any girl gets flowers, Ginny," Hermione told her younger friend. "Ron told me Harry didn't mean for that to happen."

"No, I'm sure he didn't," Ginny said as she applied some blush. "I'm sure Harry would have much preferred me to stay in the common room so he could have continued on in private."

"I'm sure that's not what he meant," Hermione said.

"What happened then?" Ginny asked, looking over at Hermione with a dare to contradict her.

"I didn't get the full details, but considering your brother's calm about it—"

"Harry's his best friend," Ginny responded, looking back to the mirror. "I'm sure it wouldn't take much convincing."

Hermione let out a sigh. "You can't keep doing this… not talking to him… staying up in your room. Either way, you're going to have to face him."

Ginny didn't respond, but gave Hermione a glare before turning her attention once again to her make-up. Without a pause once she was ready, Ginny opened her book and started to read through a chapter on swelling solutions.

Harry stayed in the wings, his attention torn between looking out for anything Malfoy may be planning and waiting for Ginny to come out. It wasn't until he was on the stage, though, that he saw Ginny for the first time. Distracted, he delivered his lines, waiting for Ginny to come on. Their scene went as it normally did and Harry got the feeling from such that things would be fine offstage. Such was not the case, which became apparent the moment Ginny made her exit. Harry saw her pick up speed in her step. He did the same, but wasn't close enough as she shut the door to the girls' dressing room.

Harry kicked the nearest wall and limped over to his own post where he was watching for any mischief going on.

"I can't believe he hasn't done anything," Dean whispered to Harry towards the end of the final as they had just left the stage.

"Maybe he's noticed us," Ron responded. "Either way, at least Hermione's safe."

"Yeah," Harry said. They all shuffled onstage where the set was that of the diner. They went through their lines, Harry trying to concentrate on what was going on, but the fact that nothing had happened yet was bothering him. He knew something was planned… and Lucius would see it… so that meant it was going to be done in front of the audience. Maybe Malfoy was waiting until they were caught off-guard. Maybe he had chickened out, knowing he would be doing it in front of everyone else. Maybe he was waiting until curtain call. Hermione was in the dressing room at the moment, and Harry didn't see how Malfoy could get her there or why he would. There was still the fact that his father was there to see whatever he was planning.

He almost missed a cue with his thoughts running about, but managed to recover. Things continued on as normal as Ginny entered acting more like how she was offstage, as her character was equally upset with his as Ginny was with Harry.

Harry had never felt himself have a better performance in the entirety of the last few months of rehearsals. "But Adelaide," he said.

Ginny started to sing.

You gamble it here,
You gamble it there,
You gamble on everything, all except me
And I'm sick of you keeping me up in the air 'till you're back in the money again

As she was giving her own lyrics and melody, Harry interjected when necessary, but he noticed something in the wings. Draco Malfoy… standing smug off stage right. Harry knew he had never stood there before. All of the men came on from the back of the set for the next scene.

Call a lawyer and sue me,
Sue me,
What can you do me?
I love you…

Harry thought as he sung. He thought of his staging… and then Ginny's…

Give a holler and hate me,
Hate me,
Go on and hate me,
I love you!

At the end of the number he would move back, away from Ginny as she stood in the middle of the stage.

You're at it again,
You're running the game..

He had to do something… the song was going to end and he didn't have his wand with him. Even if he did, he couldn't attract attention like that. He looked up towards the catwalk. The light that would give Ginny her pool of light looked like it was waving a bit… Draco had his wand pointed at it.

Sue me, sue me,

Harry walked up to Ginny, grabbing her hands and pulled Ginny towards him, close to his exit.

Shoot bullets through me

Ginny followed, looking confused, and when they paused, she attempted to—in character—go to her flood of light, but Harry held her there.

I love you!

Ginny tried even more to pull away as Harry finished the song. In a moment of desperate impulse Harry wrapped his arms around her waist, dipped Ginny down so that she had no option but to put her arms around his neck to keep fromfallingand kissed her as the applause erupted.

Harry could hear the stage manager telling someone to change lights to be over them. He waited for the crash of the light in the middle of the stage, but it never happened. Was he wrong? Either way, when the stage blacked out, Harry lifted Ginny, who pushed him away and stormed off the stage. He ran up to her, cutting her off in her path.

"How dare you?" she whispered.

Harry looked over to the other side of the stage… Draco was gone. "Draco was going to drop a light—"

"Was?" Ginny said. "Does that mean you have to kiss me when it wasn't a part of the staging?"

"I was trying to—" Harry looked down at his feet as he heard the lines being given onstage. He was supposed to be ready to enter, but he had to clear this up. "Ginny… I didn't mean what happened with Cho last night."

Ginny's jaw tensed as she looked away. "I… I didn't know she'd come up to me."

"The thing is Harry," Ginny said suddenly, "I'm used to having things second hand. That goes along with being a Weasley… besides, I've dated others myself. But being an only girl, I'm not used to sharing. I'm not about to start with something like this either."

"Harry? Where's Harry?" he heard Ron calling from the back of the stage.

"You need to get on," Ginny said after taking a breath and calming her tone. "Break a leg," she said, then walked off.

Harry's brows furrowed as he walked onto the stage for one of the final scenes.

"That was magnificent!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, pulling each into a hug and handing out some home-grown flowers or chocolate treats to each one of her "Gryffindor players", as she had taken to calling them. "I didn't know you could sing so lovely, Harry," she said, handing him some chocolate. "And Ron," she said, standing on her tiptoes to give her youngest son a hug. "You've made us proud."

"Thanks Mum," he mumbled through a bite of his own food.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley, these are lovely," Hermione said, taking in the scent of her lavender and daisy bouquet.

"It was my pleasure, dear," she said with a smile. "Now I do believe Dumbledore was holding an after event?"

"Madame Rosmerta was going to bring some butterbeer and such for the families and cast members," Ginny said. "Tomorrow Hannah's throwing us a cast party of her own."

"That sounds lovely. I did want to tell her she did a wonderful job on producing it. I had always thought of doing a play myself, but the opportunity never arose." Molly started ahead.

Harry took a deep breath, then a chunk out of his chocolate before starting to walk. He felt a tug on his arm. "I wanted to thank you for getting Ginny away," Arthur whispered. "I was quite concerned for a moment there."

"Y-you saw that sir?" Harry asked.

Arthur nodded. "I thought it odd that Lucius would have come. He looked all too giddy when that scene was coming up. I told Molly that I had to go to the loo and went around to the back of the stage. Very Muggle-like, they made it."

"It wasn't for much anyway… it never actually dropped."

"Yeah," Arthur said. "I was able to get there just before he had fully loosened it. Good thing too… Muggle ekeltricy can be quite dangerous. I wasn't sure if Dumbledore made it truly authentic or not, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Harry nodded.

"So Ginny's in a bit of row with you then?" Arthur asked, his eyebrow raised.

Harry felt horrorstruck. "I… how did you…"

"I had a disillusionment on me," he explained. "Heard the whole thing. Not quite sure what it meant, but I heard. Ginny's always had a bit of a temperament… I'd just write her a note, if I were you," he said with a wink. "We better head off before all the butterbeer is gone. I haven't had Madame Rosmerta's in… well… nevermind how long."

Harry smiled as he and Mr. Weasley made to catch up with the group.

Sunday morning, Harry headed to the owlry. He couldn't use Hedwig… she might just toss the note aside. Stealth was Harry's best bet, and he knew it too. He had already written a request… hoping she might go along with it.

Dear Ginny,

I want to explain everything to you, whether you forgive me or not. Please meet me by the lake after the cast party.

Harry

He figured it was sufficient… it didn't look as though he were doing it for himself and it still got the point that he wanted to meet with her across the page. Hopefully she would accept the invintation.

A/N: Another chapter finished! I have a funny story… After writing the last chapter I kept getting reviews about how all ya'lls favorite part consisted of Ron kissing Hermione. Every time I got one I was like "when did he kiss her? I don't remember him kissing her? I didn't write that!" Finally, I went through and started to read it, finally catching onto what part that was! Hehehe so after that I shook my had and laughed, remembering why I put that in: Hermione couldn't go with them and had to get behind a bit… so something had to shock her into the same place long enough for them to get ahead. Hence, Ron kissing Hermione.

Funny how you can write something and completely forget you've done so… I wonder if it happens to Rowling.

Please read and review! You might jog my memory on something I wrote ;)

Thanks:

Phillipa of the Phoenix: I love Mrs. Weasley... she always cracks me up... so does Mr. Weasley... and I couldn't stop laughing when I was writing for Dean and Ron... hehehe they were just really funny when they were teamed up like that!

angelface58: Gaurd member! YAY! Actually, our winterguard season is all done now... finished up in April. We didn't do too poorly... made it to semi-finals at WGI. We were proud for that. I'm glad you like this story and I'm sorry to say, it will be open ended. I don't usually do epilogues and the point of the story is how they get together... not really how they act when they're finally dating... that would just get redundant. Still, I know sort of what you mean. Think about it this way: I'm letting your imagination dictate what happens after this ;) Thanks again for the review.

Tria Marie Val: lol perhaps a bit... but it really does just suck for him too, seeing as he was kind of thrown into a situation he didn't know how to react to, or couldn't react to before he was already seen by Ginny. So I still have a bit of sympathy for him.

Phoenixwings13: See ... ya'll blame Cho like she's trying to break them up on purpose hehehe. Although I do think she needed to be more decisive sooner if she wanted that...

Lynsey: You know... someone thought it was dumb to have him being good at acting... but I think he's got to be good at something, and I found the idea that the one thing he's really good at being artsy kind of a funny idea... considering it's Ron.

Rupertsgrl479: hehehe I liked Ron's move too... once I remembered that it was there. I'm glad you like this, and I particularly enjoyed adding Dean into that chapter.

dancerrdw: I'm trying to finish! I think I'll have it done by Monday or Teusday! (depending if I can manage to cram everything into one chapter of if I have to expand it to two.)

JulesFire: yes... yes it was... I don't think he realized he even did it... until maybe the next time he saw her. I enjoyed writing it too ;)

MsMissProngs: definitely, definitely. I'm glad you're getting into this story though!