A/N: Finally! The final chapter is here! Yeah, this fic took me way longer than it should have to complete. Hopefully my next fic won't present me with so much writer's block. Speaking of which, I have no idea what to write next. I will post a bunch of one-shots (including a Ron/Hermione, some Lily/James, and Harry/Ginny) as soon as summer break starts, along with the epilogue of Snapshots, and a round-robin type fic I'm trying to get started on. So, if you liked Snapshots, check some of those upcoming one-shots out. Yay for shameless advertising of my one-shots:D
As for THANK YOU TIME, I don't have the attention span right now to type out replies to everyone, so THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READ and/or REVIEWED Snapshots: Augurey Song, Talix, Nightwing 509, Moonhawkpebbly, frizzbizz, Ocean-Poweress, charmingly-holly, u, haydenrocks14, dave-gerecke, GiGiFanFic, dress-without-sleeves, mary-v, Thunder's Shadow, SOBs 4 Sirius 223, ronslilprincess, Amanda Lily Potter, lemonjello, JamieBell, SilverDragon14, mellowyellow36, skittish, Kat Solo, Sparkle Tangerine, Mep, dab, revitmjr, Annay, Kaseomelette, LilyP-Writer, Black Rose25, Madeca, I'm S.S.M., starlight-aurora, Keebler Elf, Jaime, maria, Tara, deity of death1, dementorchic, Miss Ginny, Drone 233248, Karen, toriisen, and Layce74
Getting such awesome feedback makes me love to write even more, so MUCHOS GRACIAS!
Disclaimer: Not own Harry Potter and Co. does Phaerie. Phaerie wishes she knew what 'own' was in Spanish because then she could write her disclaimers in Spanish, which she thinks would be cool.
Snapshots
Chapter Eight
Picture Perfect
Recap:
"Harry's in the infirmary!" Avery told them point-blankly.
"Col – What? What happened to Harry?" Ginny's tone instantly changed to one of concern as she finally turned to face Avery.
"Your brother, that's what. Ruddy git punched him in nose, totally shattered Harry's glasses," Avery spat out.
"Oh dear…" Colin whispered.
"But…why?" Ginny demanded.
"Hmm…let's think, shall we? Ron found some photo of you in a towel under Harry's pillow. I wonder what conclusions he jumped to, given the evidence?" Avery drawled out sarcastically.
Ginny was glaring at the floor, her right eye twitching slightly. "I'll kill him!" she exclaimed as she stalked out of the library, leaving two worried students and an irate librarian to stare after her.
And now, the rest of the story:
"Oh, Ronald!" Ginny called sweetly as she climbed through the portrait hole, her eyes narrowing menacingly as she spotted her brother.
Ron, who was being restrained by a locomotor mortis spell placed on him by Jake (who thought that stupefying him as Avery had suggested was a little extreme), looked up at Ginny with wide frightened eyes. Such a sickly sweet voice coming from Ginny could only mean one thing – trouble.
"What's this I hear about you punching Harry?" she asked calmly, her small fingers flexing at her sides as she resisted balling them into fists.
"I – I was protecting your honor!" he blurted, regretting it the moment it left his mouth.
"Protecting my honor?" Ginny seethed as every spec of calmness dropped from her countenance.
"Thomas," Ron hissed, "Now we be the opportune moment to cast a finite incantem."
"What's the point? You'll only be delaying the inevitable," Jake commented from his perch on the arm of one of the infamous common room armchairs, a fair distance from Ron, Ginny, and Ginny's oncoming wrath.
"You – you berk! You're an absolute prat, you know that?" Ginny finally exploded. Her cheeks were flushed and her ears burning as she attempted to hold her anger in.
"I'm the prat? What for?" Ron asked of her indignantly, "For protecting you from that perverted son-of-a-"
"He's your best friend, Ron!" she raved in response, "You know that Harry isn't some sexual predator out to rape me!"
"Do I?" Ron's tone was conspiratorial, and Ginny wanted to punch him immediately for it. "He could be the ultimate con man who's wanted in five countries including Madagascar for all we know!"
"Ronald Wesaley, you're being ridiculous! You do realize you just broke your best friend's nose over this, right?" Ginny was now massaging her temples as she felt a migraine coming on. Arguing with Ron was worse than trying to argue with an obstinate magical staircase.
"He deserved it!" Ron exclaimed, "He had that picture of you and you were – you were -"
Ginny looked at her brother in exasperation, "Naked, Ron."
"Exactly!"
Ginny sighed before her eyes glinted maliciously and her sickly sweet tone returned, "Colin's the one you have to blame for that. Harry was just an innocent pawn thrown into his evil, twisted scheme to make a porn star out of me."
"Creevey took that picture of you?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowing into thin slits as he began to struggle to break the full-body bind.
"Indeed he did," she told him, her voice carrying an edge of triumph. Turning to Jake she asked, "Would you be so kind as to remove your hex now?"
Jake, looking thoroughly amused, nodded and flicked his wand. Ron sprang up and bounded for the portrait hole immediately, muttering vicious threats and torture techniques he'd learned from the twins as he went.
+x+
"You don't look too bad. Avery had me expecting oozing blood and permanently marred features," said an amused voice somewhere to Harry's right as he lay in the bleached hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was in her office trying to fix his glasses, which were missing a few pieces that need to be transfigured into being. Harry let his eyes fall on the only colored blur in the infirmary and smiled as he recognized the long, red hair.
"That Pomfrey, absolutely magical, she is," he said in a teasing tone as Ginny walked over to his bed and became less and less blurry. Madam Pomfrey had given him a potion to numb the pain and had reset his nose and healed the small cuts in his face from the broken glass, though his nose was still prone to randomly bleeding, which it was doing right now. He reached over to grab a cloth from the bedside table to stop the blood with.
"Here, let me get that," Ginny muttered as she swiped the cloth from him and sat on the edge of his bed, gently dabbing at his nose. They stayed silent for a long while, Harry staring openly at Ginny (well, the blur that was Ginny) and Ginny trying to ignore Harry staring at her by focusing on stopping his nose from bleeding.
Finally, she sighed, it was time to get down to business. "Now, since you're shacked up here in the hospital wing, I'm willing to give your side of the story a fair listen before passing judgment," she began, setting the bloodied cloth back onto the nightstand and looking him in the eye.
"Ginny," he started earnestly, "I swear on any and everything that I was going to get rid of that photo. The second Colin gave it to me, I went up to my dorm to shred it, but Ron came in so I had to hide it."
"Under your pillow?" she inquired bemusedly.
"Alright, so in retrospect, it wasn't the best place to hide it, but considering the circumstances, I had little else to do," Harry admitted.
"Too true," Ginny agreed, "Though, that doesn't explain what you were doing in the girls' showers in the first place, O Captain, my Captain."
Harry was all too ready to explain, "Colin pulled me out, said he needed to speak with me. Next thing I know, we're at the girls' showers and…"
"And?" Ginny prompted.
"Well, you were there. Like in the picture. I sort of got distracted," Harry mumbled, averting his eyes to the interminable white mass that surrounded him as his face flushed.
"I'm sure you did," said Ginny sarcastically, "Well, taking into consideration these new facts brought forth through your testimony, I'm willing to settle for fair trade."
Ginny's lips quirked upwards slightly as she said this, leaving Harry to ask "Fair trade?"
Ginny nodded, "Since you have a photo of me in naught but a towel, it's only fair that I get one of you just the same." Her smile was purely impish now as she let her eyes rake over his body suggestively. Harry frowned and reached forward, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her down beside him on the rickety bed. Rolling over, he pinned her between his arms, holding himself up with his forearms resting on either side of her head.
"How 'bout we burn that rather indecent photo instead?" he suggested.
Ginny pouted, "But what about my compensation? I've been mentally scarred by this whole situation. Recovery doesn't seem likely."
"Will you settle for a snog then?" he whispered in her ear as he let his head fall down beside hers on the pillow. Ginny smiled brilliantly and brought her hands up from by her sides to pull his face toward hers. Pressing her lips lightly against his, she whispered, "What do you know, I'm getting saner already."
She let her tongue dart out to quickly wet her lips before deepening the kiss, pushing Harry over so that she was leaning over him. A little over two minutes later saw the two of them pulling apart to gulp down air as Ginny rested her head on Harry's chest. She listened to the rhythmic heart beat and soon fell asleep to the soothing sound. Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tightly, quickly drifting off as well.
It was about a half hour later that another patient arrived seeking healing from Madam Pomfrey. Ron had managed to give Colin a black-eye and a good punch to the stomach before he'd remembered he was a wizard and turned to hexing the poor bloke. After hearing that Ron was the cause of his current state, Madam Pomfrey scuttled off to inform Dumbledore about Ron's violent actions as of late, leaving Colin to find a bed to make himself comfy in.
Walking down the aisle of beds, Colin examined his camera, which had also been smashed by none other than a raging Ron Weasley. He pulled out his wand and muttered a reparo charm. At least his film hadn't been damaged. It was just then that Colin looked up and noticed the other two occupants of the hospital wing.
Raising his camera to his eye, he focused the image and snapped a picture. Slowly pulling his camera back down, he smirked at the image of Harry and Ginny napping together in each others arms surrounding by all the snowy white scenery. It was this image that Colin deemed as being picture perfect. He raised his camera again and took another shot.
Fin.
(Note: Phaerie will go back and edit the entire fic later, so ignore all mistakes, por favor. Right now she needs sleep.)
A/N: So? What'd you think? Did you love? Hate it? Tell me in a review! Expect the epilogue shortly. It's going to be fluffy Harry/Ginny goodness that ties up a few loose ends. Thank you all for reading Snapshots!
-Phaerie