Was It Something I Said?
Chapter 7 --"Match against Hufflepuff this Saturday—" Harry began but was interrupted by Ron who snorted.
"Nah, it's on Wednesday, of course it's on bloody Saturday Harry." He said, leaning against the back of the couch he was sitting on and Ginny sighed gently. Thinking how rude he was to Harry who didn't bat an eyelid.
She wondered mildly what would happen if she were to do something of the sort. All hell would break loose. She thought with a mild smile.
"Something funny Ginny?" Harry asked looking down at her, as she was the only member of the team sitting on the floor as when she had arrived for their impromptu meeting, there had been no seats left though Ron was taking up two. Not that he offered me one. Ginny thought bitterly. Git.
"No Harry. Everything's—"
"Good." He said cutting her off and she shut her mouth with a snap. "I want you all to be on your alert. Hufflepuff have a new keeper and I hear he's really good. We can't afford to lose to them…well we can but we don't want to look bad do we?" he asked and waited as the six of them shook their heads. "Right. Be there a half hour before the game. You can go now."
Ginny stood up and walked back to her small table in the corner, which she was currently occupying by herself. She was working on an assignment that Hermione had set her. As though she didn't already have enough work to do with her O.W.L.S. What was she supposed to be? Better and faster than Hermione at school work? Well it certainly wasn't going to happen, no matter what the brunette hoped for.
Ginny was finding that her homework load wasn't too bad as she had plenty time to herself and she used that time to complete her star charts and to transfigure insane objects into other insane objects. She was proud to report that she was definitely showing improvement in Charms. She had found a new compassion for it since she had told Professor Flitwick what was going on. Snape was still being as nasty to her as possible but for some reason now she didn't care. She tried to forget his lessons existed and she found that if she was quiet and did as he asked, he left her alone though he still managed to comment on her and Colin's Potion every week without fail. This was old news and even the Slytherins were failing to laugh though she noticed that Monique's eyes sparkled when it was mentioned though she wouldn't make eye contact with Ginny who could not fathom why. Monique had always tried to make Ginny feel uneasy by glaring at her and once it had worked but now Ginny wasn't affected by things like that. She had her O.W.L.S. to concentrate on and she figured that even if she had her friends talking to her, she wouldn't have the time for them anyway.
As she thought of them she looked up to see Harry, Ron and Hermione laughing over something Ron had said. She saw him shooting looks at Hermione who was openly laughing with him and he relaxed. She couldn't figure out what they'd be laughing at but she was glad to see that they, at least, were happy. If anything she wanted them to be happy, not to be feeling what she was at that moment.
The week passed by fairly quickly and before Ginny knew it she found herself standing on the edge of the Quidditch pitch, staring at all the people that had turned up for the game. She wheeled around and as she watched, she noticed that even some of the Hufflepuff supporters were sporting red and gold scarves. Frowning she looked to Hermione who discreetly turned her head and stared determinedly in the other direction. Ginny then remembered that Hermione wasn't talking to her for a reason unknown to her. Looking down again, Ginny shoved her hands into the pockets of her Quidditch Robes and stood silently waiting for the signal to begin play.
"Annnnnnd they're off!" Dennis Creevey shouted a few minutes later as the shouts of the students in the Quidditch stands reached a deafening roar. Ginny rose into the air with the other players and took up her usual position of Chaser, hovering mid way into playing height, hanging back until she was needed. Which, she hoped desperately wouldn't be the case.
As Ginny hovered in the air, she heard her name being chanted from the stands. She looked around at the Gryffindors and they cheered and waved their scarves energetically, calling out encouraging things to her. Ginny sat dumbfounded on her broom though she offered a weak smile in return. She turned her head slowly back towards the game and tried to ignore the chants increasing in volume as she floated lazily. Ginny soon found herself listening, as usual to the commentary coming from Colin's brother, Dennis. Though she certainly wasn't expecting what came out of his mouth.
"I'm sure a lot of you have turned up today to watch the stunning Miss Ginny Weasley do her stuff! I know I sure did, not just 'cos I'm commentator either." Dennis said and Ginny whipped her head around to look at him and shot him a confused look and he waved. She waved back slowly, wondering why on earth he was waving to her in the first place.
"Look at that folks, I got me a wave from our own little celebrity." He said and coughed slightly no doubt due to a look from Professor McGonagall and began to commentate on the game at hand. Ginny shook her head and turned back to watch the game. Strange. She thought as she watched the Quaffle being passed back and forth between Amanda and Sandy and Ginny soon found that she was listening to Dennis rather than paying attention to the game.
"And Noonan throws the Quaffle to Scott and Scott passes to Weasley who---shrieks and drops the bloody thing! That is to say Quaffle Sorry Prof. McGonagall." He said though he couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice. "What is Weasley doing? She can't have dropped the Quaffle. She better not have dropped the Quaffle." He said and Ginny could tell that he must have been shaking his head in disbelief. Sneaking a quick look in his direction, she found that she was right.
Ginny flew down, red faced to fetch the Quaffle and threw it off to Amanda who looked at her in shock. If anyone had the right to be shocked, it was Ginny. She had no idea why they would suddenly include her in the game, as though she was capable of helping the team in anyway. When had she shown any skills that were worth using in a game like this? Sure, she practised fine but she still liked to stay in the shadows, the team knew that. She was only a back up…only to be used in dire circumstances…wasn't she?
The crowd that had been previously cheering her name, booed loudly and she found herself trying very hard to hold back the tears that were getting dangerously close to flowing down her face. She looked up and saw Ron call out something to Harry who merely shrugged and shot Ginny a disappointed look. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, flying to the other end of the pitch.
"Ginny! Look out!" Ginny turned in the direction of the voice and was forced into a Sloth Grip Roll. She hung upside down in shock until she was sure the Bludger had kept going in the opposite direction. She climbed onto her broom again and sat very still, trying to ignore the people in the crowd that were now booing.
I nearly fell to my death but do they worry? Of course they bloody don't! Ginny thought to herself angrily but she didn't give any indication if thinking such things.
The crowds booing began to ring in Ginny's ears. They wouldn't stop chanting, it was continuous. It hurt her ears. She wouldn't be able to keep playing if they kept it up. She had no idea how Ron had survived through the whole 'Weasley Is Our King' ordeal. That was positively awful. She knew this wasn't nearly as bad, but to her it felt ten times worse. She had enough trouble playing as it was in front of an audience. Didn't they understand? It was so awful.
The game continued on as slowly as time could possibly go. Ginny kept checking her watch and she was sure that she could hear the ticking of it above the shouts of the crowd. Each second seemed to take twenty minutes. Why was this happening? Ginny ducked her head so she didn't have to look her teammates in the face. Just as she did so, she was shouted at again but before she could look up, she was hit in the hand by a bludger and Ginny felt the bones in her fingers shatter. She held her hand to her chest and bit back her yell of pain. It wouldn't do for her to yell out loud. Besides, it would surely draw more attention to her and that was the last thing she needed.
Luckily the game ended soon afterwards and the team descended to the ground, Harry having once again, caught the snitch in record time. Ginny was just glad to have the game over but instead of heading to the change rooms she ran and hid under the stands at the edge of the pitch. She knew what would happen if she headed back there. Harry would bombard her with questions, demanding to know what had happened. He'd yell at her for being so stupid. She just knew he'd want her off the team, though she didn't have a problem with that at present. All she wanted to do was hide from the world. How could the team have humiliated her like that? She never played…she could but she didn't, she didn't want the crowd cheering for her like they had been…though why they had been was still a mystery, though she realised soon that they hadn't cheered for long.
"Hiding, Weasley?" a voice said into her ear and she jumped and turned to see the sneering face of Draco Malfoy.
"No." she said defiantly and crossed her arms across her chest, jutting out her chin and turning away from him.
"Dismal game today. Really awful. Worst you've done in ages." He said stressing the word ages and Ginny grimaced. He was right; the last few games of Quidditch had been normal but this one…absolutely dreadful.
"Weasel is even playing better than you now. That must lower the self-esteem…having that git better than you at…well anything really." He said smirking and Ginny felt her face heat up. Soon after, she felt dizzy and felt the extreme need to bring bodily harm to the boy standing next to her but she held back and instead of hitting him, walked in the directions of the change rooms. She figured that the team would be gone by now. It had been an hour since the game and none of them hung around for longer than ten minutes.
She walked as fast as she could, ignoring the taunts that Malfoy threw at her as she sped towards the small rooms situated at the side of the pitch. She pushed the door, revelling in the resounding noise it made as it banged open. She walked over to her side of the room and pulled off her robes and shoved them in the locker that had her name scrawled on it and slammed it shut.
"Stupid git." She muttered and slammed her fist into the locker, banging it open again. She cursed at it and heard a noise from the other side of the room. She popped her head around the corner and smiled.
"Well hello Potter." She said, leaning against the side of the lockers and looking Harry Potter up and down.
"Ginny! What are you doing in here?" he asked standing stock still, a towel tied loosely around his waist. He saw that her eyes were fixed on it and he clutched it tightly to himself with one hand. Ginny watched delightedly as he flushed. Though he didn't look as embarrassed as she would have expected.
"If you ask me if I like what I see…I'll have to say…yes." Ginny said grinning wickedly and after a moment Harry grinned slightly. He walked over to his locker and opened it and looked at Ginny expectantly. "What?" she asked, still smiling like a Cheshire cat.
"Turn around." He said and twirled a finger in the air.
"Oh, I don't think so." She said shaking her head and crossing her arms. "The view's fine from where I'm standing." She said nodding appreciatively.
"Ginny…" he said and walked towards her and she mimicked his movements.
"Harry…" she mocked and they soon found that they were standing very close. Harry looked down at her and he picked up his glasses from the bench and made to put them on but Ginny took them from his hand and held them and looked at him with her head cocked to the side.
"You should get your vision magically corrected…its such a shame for you to hide such beautiful eyes behind these." She said, waving his glasses in the air. Harry merely coughed and held out his hand but Ginny shook her head. "Allow me." she said and placed his glasses on his nose, and using one finger, pushed them up slowly so that they were back in place on his face and Harry adjusted them himself, though from habit rather than discomfort.
"Well…I uh…" Harry stammered and cleared his throat though as Ginny waited, he didn't seem able to say anything more.
"Mmm?" Ginny asked absently, tapping her fingers on his chest and staring into his eyes questioningly.
"I…need to…erm…kinda change." He said, indicating the towel and Ginny nodded, grinning once again at the sight of it.
"Sure. See you later Harry." She said, stepping away from him and heading towards the door. Harry raised his hand in a wave and began to pull his shirt over his head slightly disappointed but was soon assaulted from behind and found Ginny standing next to him again and before he could respond, she'd stood on the tips of her toes and with one hand to his face, kissed him solid on the lips. Harry gaped at her and began to stammer again, feeling the taste of Ginny against his lips. He settled for touching his mouth with his fingers and grinning widely as she left the room at a run. The last thing he heard was a triumphant giggle that he knew belonged to the girl that tasted of honey and sugar.
Ginny sat in the Library, reading through her Transfiguration textbook and mimicking the wand movements in the air with her wand absently. She started as she produced a rubber duck out of mid air when she was trying to work out how to transfigure a bat into a rat. She picked it up and squeezed it, making it emit a loud 'Quack!' needless to say she dropped it rather quickly and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. They hadn't.
Getting frustrated with the fact that she wasn't getting any of her homework right, Ginny stood and packed her things and headed back to the Common Room alone.
Walking through the Common Room she saw many eyes turn to her and figured it had something to do with the Quidditch match. She kept her head bent and headed straight for the stairs. She made it to her dormitory without being stopped by anyone but she didn't really expect anything else. She threw her school bag so that it slid across the floor and came to a stop under her bed and she threw herself upon it and lay still with her face in the pillow and screamed. Really screamed. Then she flipped over onto her back and sighed happily.
"Feel better?" a voice asked and Ginny's head snapped over to see Sachelle sitting on her bed.
"Oh…I um…I'm really sorry. I didn't realise anyone else was in here." She said, smiling apologetically.
"No problem. Quite amusing to watch really." She said, flipping a page of her magazine.
"I thought you didn't like to read those superficial things?" Ginny asked her, pointing to the magazine and Sachelle dropped it with a grin to reveal her Charms textbook. Ginny smiled and nodded. Lying down crossways on her bed, resting her head on her folded arms.
"So what's bothering you today?" Sachelle asked putting her book down and laying the same on her bed so that she was facing Ginny.
Ginny just shrugged and offered no more information. Sachelle laughed and spoke "Like that is it?" Ginny nodded and Sachelle slid her tin out from under her bed over to Ginny who took a Chocolate Frog and slid it back and mumbled her thanks as she bit the Frog's head off aggressively, grinning.
"So…are you going into Hogsmeade this weekend?" Sachelle asked Ginny and she shook her head then she stopped mid shake.
"Actually…I think I might. I could do with a treat." She said and shook her head positively this time.
"I'm going. With my charming posse." Sachelle said rolling her eyes.
"Should be fun." Ginny said, biting the leg off her frog and watched as it squirmed uncomfortably.
"Yes…anyway. So how's the progress with Harry, Ron and Hermione?" she asked Ginny who frowned.
"Non existent." Ginny said and Sachelle gave her a sympathetic look.
"I'm sorry Ginny. I know how much they mean to you and it's simply awful that they are doing this to you…I wish there was something I could do to help." She said and studied her nails then looked at them with a frown on her face. "Stupid posse." She muttered under her breath and Ginny smiled, knowing that she was obviously cursing them for her looking at her nails, something all of them did constantly. A habit Sachelle had obviously picked up by mistake.
Just then a giggling group of girls entered the room and Sachelle sent Ginny a look and Ginny nodded swiftly.
"I'll just b-be going then." She muttered, pretending to be shy as they only knew her to be and she left the room in a flurry of red hair. Once outside the dorm she sighed.
Now where am I going to go? She thought as she wandered down the stairs. She ended up sitting on a lounge chair by the fire and staring into the flames, watching them dance lazily in the fireplace. She sat for a long while and when she finally tore her eyes away from the fire; she was met with the eyes of Harry Potter.
He was sitting with Ron and Hermione who were talking in hushed voices. Harry looked at her a second longer and snapped his attention back to the conversation at hand. Ginny frowned, wondering what he possibly could have been looking at her for. She shrugged to herself and drummed her fingertips on the edge of the chair. She looked around the Common Room and observed each person closely.
Colin was sitting with his brother Dennis who was talking animatedly to which Colin was nodding at the right intervals though at closer inspection Ginny could tell that he wasn't listening to a word Dennis said, though he didn't seem to be bothered by this at all. Ginny caught Colin roll his eyes and sigh, leaning his chin on his hand he caught her eye and rolled his own again and smiled then seemed to realise that he wasn't supposed to acknowledge her he looked away and gave his complete attention to Dennis. Ginny sighed, her head drooping and turned her eyes to the next person.
Neville Longbottom. Her Yule Ball partner. She smiled. Neville was such a nice person it was a shame that he didn't have more friends. In a way he was like Ginny, people didn't seem to notice them but were perfectly happy to tell them off when they did something that wasn't appropriate. Neville was currently holding his Quill between his teeth and poking a strange looking plant. Something like a cross between a flower and a weed. Ginny wasn't sure which but Neville seemed to know as he smiled when the plant snapped at him and covered his out stretched hand with a sticky looking substance. He scribbled something down on a piece of parchment in front of him and turned back to the plant.
Seamus and Dean were involved in a heavy competition of Gobstones and Seamus had just been hit in the face with foul smelling liquid from Dean's set of 'stones. He spat out a mouthful of it and vanished the liquid with his wand without a second thought and they continued to play, laughing as the other was squirted in the face.
A shriek of laughter drew Ginny's attention to a group of first year girls who were laughing and pointing at a piece of parchment and shooting glances a group of first year boys sitting a few tables away.
"Shh!" they'll hear you a small girl with dark hair said urgently and sliding down in her seat, obviously hoping to hide.
"Oh Tommy!" one of the girls called out and as Ginny watched, a boy from the next table grew steadily redder though he didn't look over.
"Nice letter!" one of the others said which set them off into another round of laughter.
Ginny smiled, wishing her first year had been like that, care free, not having to worry about anything but whether that boy who smiled at you fancied you or not. Her smile falling from her face, Ginny realised that she had never had that. She'd had to grow up so fast, after the Chamber events. She didn't feel like she'd really lived her life at Hogwarts, always in the shadows. As she watched, the boy called Tommy stood up bravely and walked over to the girls and spoke to the brunette.
"All right! I fancy you! So what?" he said the last part to the giggling girls who shut up immediately. The brunette sat up a little in her chair and smiled.
"Really?" she asked, her cheeks very rosy.
"Yes." He said and he bent down to her height and pecked her rather quickly on the cheek and turned and left.
Of course, seconds later the girls were laughing once again. This time including the girl that had just, by the look of her, received her first kiss from a boy.
Suddenly Ginny felt very old.
"--and then she had the audacity to say—Harry, are you listening to me?" Hermione asked the boy who was sitting opposite her but didn't receive an answer. "Harry….Harry!" she said a little louder and he looked at her at once. "What is wrong with you? You've been so distant tonight." She said, worry evident in her voice.
Harry merely waved her off and said that he was fine though he knew he was lying to her. He just couldn't get that moment in the Quidditch Change Rooms out of his mind. He hadn't told anyone about it for the simple fact that he wasn't exactly sure what had happened himself. One moment he was stepping out of the shower, the next Ginny Weasley was kissing him! She'd been acting so strange lately; he didn't know how to handle it. He had enough trouble trying to decipher Hermione sometimes and she was one of his best friends.
He tuned back into what Hermione was saying but found his sight wandering to Ginny again who was sitting in an armchair, her chin in her hands looking very upset. Feeling sorry for her he stood up and Ron and Hermione looked at him questioningly.
"I was just…nothing." He said as he saw Ron throw Ginny an annoyed look. Harry sat down again, sighing as he did so.
"You want to talk to her don't you Harry?" Hermione asked quietly, looking very much like she wanted too herself.
"Well—"
"No! She needs to be taught a lesson!" Ron said grumpily. "She can't say things like that and get away with them, Hermione." He said a little more nicely but it was easy to tell that he was miffed.
"It's been weeks Ron! This is getting ridiculous, you know it is. Look how unhappy she is, it's not healthy!" she argued and Ron looked at his sister, seeming to melt though apparently it wasn't going to happen.
"I don't care." He said folding his arms defiantly.
"Ron, it's very sweet that you want to protect me. I appreciate it dearly and I—"
"I'm not doing this for you." He said, looking annoyed again.
Hermione huffed though she just shrugged at Harry. It was obvious to both of them that Ron was doing it for her, even if he didn't want to admit it. Hermione thought it was rather sweet, though she wasn't about to announce this to Ron who had pulled out his Chess set.
Harry looked over at Ginny again who met his eyes and stood up. For a split second he thought she was going to march over and ask him why he kept looking at her. His heart pounding, he braced himself for her biting words but they never came. She walked passed their table silently and climbed the stairs to the Girl's dormitories.
Deflating like the ball Ginny had punchered, Harry followed her up to his own dorm minutes later.
Why was he staring at me like that? I didn't have anything on my face, I checked. Ginny thought to herself as she climbed into her bed that night. Maybe he wants to talk to me. Though I don't know why. Perhaps he's beginning to forgive me. Perhaps he—Oh stop it. It doesn't matter what he was doing. I don't have time to worry about Harry. It's my O.W.L. year, that's all I should be concerned about these days.
Ginny rolled over and fell asleep almost instantly, looking forward to the next day. She really did need something to cheer her up.
A/N: Hey guys! I realise it's been absolutely ages since I last updated. There is a reason for that. I wasn't going to continue posting this story as I'm not completely happy with it. I seem to have lost my knack for writing, but I am in the process of trying to get it back so I decided that a step on the way to getting it would be to post a chapter of this story. I am on holidays at present, so I will try to get a few more chapters up and get people interested in the story again.
Cheers,
Nesserz.