Chapter 2: The Real Story
As the trees of the Forbidden Forest rippled in the morning breeze, an owl veered slowly down through the sky toward Gryffindor Tower. The last occcupant of the fifth year girls' dormitory was sound asleep, unaware of the blustery weather or the students already leaving the school for a day out. But not for long.
The old owl swooped down toward the window, trimmed his wings, swept out his tail, and-
WHAM!
- flew into the, regrettably, closed window.
"... Don't wanna go to school, Mum," Ginny mumbled, and then as she woke up, "Oh, Erroll, not again!"
She threw herself out of bed and dashed over to said window, where Erroll was barely managing to cling onto the sill. She quickly undid the latch to the window, which, regrettably, opened outward. A hooting Erroll was thrown from his precarious perch to fall down the side of the tower.
"Oh my gosh!"
Ginny stuck her head frantically out of the window and saw that Erroll, instead of falling all the way down the tower, had landed on a scaffold running around the tower a few feet below the window. She whipped out her wand and summoned the bewildered owl up into the empty dorm room. Sighing, she untied the now very crumpled letter from his leg and immediately recognized Mrs. Weasley's handwriting. She knew that telling her mother about the breakup with her latest (ex-) boyfriend (what was it, number eight?) might elicit a startling reaction, but she wasn't really sure how to take this.
Dear Ginny,
My poor little girl! I know how horrible it can be to have your heart broken by someone you love, and feel as though a piece of you is missing and will never come back. All the same, if the idiot boy couldn't see how special my baby is, he was obviously utter rubbish, and you're very well out of it. If he gives you any more trouble, just you tell Fred and George, and they'll sort him out. I think the best thing you can do right now is give your poor heart time to mend. Chin up, and don't let anyone get you down. By the by, are there any new possibilities right now? Love,
Mum
Ginny read the letter twice before deciding that it simply had too many contradictions to understand, and that she might as well give it to Ron to figure out. Instead, she thought once again about how Dean had said that they needed to talk, and sat her down and quietly told her that he was in love with someone else. She had responded in only three words:
"Okay… bye, then."
She hadn't been able to resist making the whole thing sound more dramatic in her letter, but now her mum sounded more upset about it than she was. She had liked Dean, but rather in the same way that kids like having Beanie Baby collections: it's fun to get them, but after the novelty wears off, they just sort of clutter things up.
It was with this untroubled thought that she heard the noise from outside. She stuck her head out of the window once more and saw that someone was standing on the scaffolding several yards away and shouting.
"Open the stupid window, Seamus, or I swear there'll be no tomorrow!"
A certain messy-haired, green-eyed someone.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Ginny called.
He turned sharply, and then saw her leaning out of the open window. He walked over and said, "I cam out here in the morning to finish a star chart, and the bloody prat locked the window on me."
"A star chart? You must've gotten up pretty early. Why did Seamus lock the window?"
"I couldn't sleep, so I just decided to get a little air. Seamus claimed that someone had stolen his 'Quidditch' magazines. If Ron's been digging through his collection of Playboys again…"
Ginny snorted. After a pause, Harry looked furtively at her.
"Well, seeing as I'm kind of stuck out here, could I come in?"
She smiled a little but pulled her head back inside and stepped back. "Does that spell only work on the stairs, then?"
Harry paused in the window frame. "I'm not sure." He cautiously set one foot down, and then the other and then looked around.
He made a face. "Wow… I definitely prefer the scarlet curtains. How'd you guys get stuck with gold?"
"You girls," Ginny corrected, laughing, "and I kind of like it."
Before any more could be said, the dormitory door rattled and voices sounded outside. Harry darted a panicked look at Ginny, who hissed, "Hide!" He crouched behind the last bedstand, and Ginny sat on the bed just as the door flew open.
Madison, Violet, and a dark-haired girl named Sophia stampeded in. They were all laughing about something Violet was holding.
"Where were you guys?" Ginny asked casually.
"Oh, we were just talking to Seamus. He's gone mental and decided to search the whole boys' dorm because somebody stole some magazines of his or something. But anyways, I asked him what he'd found so far and he said he'd give me anything 'interesting,'" Violet said with a smirk, holding up a small laundry bag. "Would you care to do the honors?"
Ginny got up and opened the bag. "Oh good grief," she muttered.
"What is it?" Sophia asked. She reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of black boxer shorts.
All three of the girls burst out laughing.
"All I can say is that I hope those are clean," Ginny said sardonically.
Sophia shrieked and threw the shorts, which landed right on Madison's head. She pulled them off and held them at arm's length while the other three girls tried to keep from laughing. "They smell clean," she said finally.
"Yuuuuck!" Sophia replied maturely.
Madison dropped the shorts on the nearest bed. "We could always give these to Helen," she said mischieviously. "I'm sure she'd want them."
Still giggling, Sophia, Violet, and Madison herded out of the room, made strangely quiet by the receding voices.
"Well, it sounds like that's over, so you could probably go back now and save yourself going down those stairs. Just as well, it's probably pretty crowded in the common room." Ginny turned back to where Harry was hiding. Harry stood but didn't move. "What's up?"
Blushing furiously, he stumped up to the front of the room, snatched up the abandoned boxer shorts, and ran over to the window.
"Then those are yours," Ginny said, again fighting back laughter.
"Maybe," Harry muttered, now as red as a tomato.
"Poor Helen will feel so deprived."
"Who's Helen?"
"This girl in our dorm who subscribes to Witch Weekly. She filled out one of those quiz things about her ideal boyfriend, and left it lying around. One of the questions was 'Boxers or briefs?' and Madison could never pass up the opportunity to tease her about something as good as that."
"Is there much of a debate there?"
"Apparently."
"…"
"Well, I guess I should go. You probably have plans."
"Oh, that's right. It's a Hogsmeade weekend. Yeah, I was meeting Violet."
Harry stepped over to the window and awkwardly tried to balance on the windowsill while holding the boxers in one hand.
"Here," Ginny said, and offered her hand for him to hold onto. He stepped up onto the sill, and as he turned around, ducking slightly, to say "Thanks," and smiled at her, Ginny felt her old crush rushing to resurface. The morning breeze blew toward her his scent of vaguely tangy pine and wood smoke. Without entirely knowing why, she stood on tiptoe and leaned forward to kiss him.
However, he had already let go of her hand, and he wobbled a second, careened wildly, looking as though he was a fledgling attempting to fly, and then toppled out of the window, somehow managing to miss the narrow scaffolding, and fell for what seemed like an eternity down the side of the tower.
Transfixed in horror for a moment, Ginny stared out the window. Then she whirled around, ran out of the dormitory, and took the stairs two steps at a time, emitting a continuous shriek of "OH MY GOD!"
Several nervous first years took flight at the sound of her approach, and many more at the sight of her hurling herself down staircases in apparent disregard for anything in her way, like a small, ginger-colored cannonball. She dashed out the front doors and ran around the castle to where Harry was somehow standing after the fall. He was doubled over, leaning on his knees for support, but luckily he didn't seem to be seriously hurt.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked timidly.
He straightened up and turned around. "Yeah… I'm okay."
"Um, sorry," she trailed off awkwardly.
"That's alright. Listen, I was supposed to meet someone at Hogsmeade, so, so I'd better go," Harry stammered. He walked off through the sunshine to the school gates.
