"You should get out some more, Ginny. Meet new people, maybe go out on a date or two, just be yourself."
It had been said with a friendly smile and a pat on the back by the older (only a year!) and much wiser Hermione. Stupid girl. She could talk… well, yeah, that was the point, wasn't it? Hermione could actually manage to talk around him.
She remembered standing on the platform, wanting to go see him on the train before it pulled away from the station. She'd been transfixed by stories about him as long as she could remember: a real live hero! He was someone that other people looked up to, idolised, and her mother hadn't even let her see him.
It hadn't mattered though, because she'd seen him the next summer. First when he and Ron got back from school and then later when he walked into their kitchen that morning looking tired and dishevelled. You can't just spring something like 'Harry Potter's in your kitchen and you're standing there in your nothing but your nightgown' and not expect said person to squeak at least a little!
Sure, she'd only been 11 that year, but that didn't mean that she couldn't notice his eyes (those were good eyes to have), or his hands. They weren't big hands and they weren't soft by any stretch of the imagination, but they were strong and they were capable. She'd experienced them persoanlly, feeling him help her walk back to Fawkes at the end of that year. Sure, she'd been crying, but tears don't stop you from feeling someone's hands.
She remembered being left on the sidelines while He took Ron and Hermione on his adventures year after year. She'd just sat there, tears on her pillow, watching them laughing out on the lawn and fending off the Slytherin posse as they tried to take over. She'd sat breathlessly in the stands, year after year, watching him play Quidditch.
"Maybe go on a date or two…"
Those had been Hermione's words. So, since it felt like she'd tried everything else, she found Michael. He was sweet and liked to hold her hand while they walked. But old rivalries die hard and the Gryffindor win at the end of the year hadn't made him too happy.
She gave up somewhere in her third year as she watched him gaze with longing after Cho during the Yule Ball. 'He'll never look at me that way.' She'd thought, sure that he'd only have eyes for the Ravenclaw Seeker until she managed to get her head on straight and look back. Stupid girl didn't realize how lucky she was.
And it wasn't just because he was Harry Potter, the famous Boy Who Lived. It was more than that. She was lucky because he didn't mind taking the fall. Because he liked to let you use the books on Shrinking Potions first in the library, even when it was his O.W.L. year. Because he was the kind of boy who'd let you use him for stunning practise and would ask you if you'd like the spot closer to the fire just because you're shivering, even if it was his favourite chair. He didn't look at you like you were just someone's little sister, even if that someone was his Best Friend.
Ginny shook her head, looking across the table at Harry, suddenly realising she was staring.
"What's wrong with you today, Ginny?" Ron looked at his little sister, who seemed to be in a foul mood once again.
"Nothing! What would be wrong?" She was on the defensive. It was only natural to go on the defensive when someone catches you daydreaming at the breakfast table.
"Nothing, you just looked kinda glazed is all."
"Oh! Go bite a Lobalug! I need to find Dean." She spat at him and stormed off, grabbing her bookbag.
She could hear them, though, as she walked away. She could hear Harry wondering what a Lobalug was and heard the beginning of Hermione's explanation before she got too far away for casual eavesdropping, especially when 'casual' was somewhere in the middle of stomping out of the Great Hall.
Dean couldn't seem to understand why she'd dragged him into that secret passage that afternoon, an old piece of parchment being quickly shoved into her back pocket. He couldn't understand why she'd pulled him so close and started kissing him as if her life depended on it. He really couldn't understand how they were interrupted so quickly by Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Ginny took a kind of fierce pride that she'd gotten to Ron and hopefully Harry as well.
' "Meet new people. Go out on a date or two. Be yourself." Yeah, Hermione, but I think I'll stick with my own way of getting his attention, if you don't mind.' Ginny thought as she stealthily replaced the Marauder's Map in Harry's trunk before he ever knew it was missing.