Chapter 9 – She loves me, she loves me not
Hermione was sitting in front of her desk, "Wooing Witches – The Ultimate Guidebook [Lesbian Edition]" in front of her. Her face was even redder than it had been in the library as she kept on reading and reading. There were so many interesting things she had not known. Like how to meet other witches, what to do on dates and how to flirt. There was also a section about erotic stuff, but Hermione had skipped it, because she felt it might be too much information. The damage was done, though. Inappropriate images of Ginny had already started to form in her mind, making her feeling guilty and embarrassed.
Hermione turned to the next page and finally reached the section she had been searching for: "How to find out if she likes you". Following the introduction, a number of possible hints, along with explanations were listed. Hermione copied them to a fresh role of parchment, leaving some space between every headline.
She enjoys talking to you more than necessary
She sends you owls first
She touches you more than necessary
She tells you that she is still single
She looks at you intently
She compliments you a lot
She seeks your attention
She tries to look pretty and/or sexy in front of you
She shows off her spells to impress you
She tries to be alone with you
She talks about you a lot in front of others
Hermione mustered the list she had just made and tried to get her thoughts straight. Pretty much the same as muggle dating, with the exception of owls and spells, she noticed. She picked up her quill again and carefully started to fill in the blanks while trying to remember every moment she had spent with Ginny over the last couple of months.
One hour later, she finally wrote down the last word. Usually she could write half a book in an hour but today she had not written much, because she had spent most of the time thinking. Slowly, she reread her text to come up with a conclusion.
She enjoys talking to you more than necessary
Ginny is my friend
Friends talk to each other a lot
What is the meaning of 'more than necessary'?
She does not talk more or less than before
More information needed
She sends you owls first
True
but it's because I was too busy to send them first
She touches you more than necessary
Define 'more than necessary'
Touches me sometimes, but never unpleasantly
Never touched me inappropriately
Friends can touch each other (to a certain extend)
No idea about this one
She tells you that she is still single
True
But Harry and Ron also told me
Are they interested in me? NO!
I asked them about it, so of course they told me
She looks at you intently
True (I think)
Have to pay more attention to that
She compliments you a lot
True
But friends do that as well
Does it more than others though
She seeks your attention
No
Ginny's no attention-seeker in general
Useless advice
She tries to look pretty and/or sexy in front of you
She is pretty in general
Don't know how she looks if she is not in front of me
Stupid advice
She looks sexy (scratch that)/ cute, but is it important?
She shows off her spells to impress you
Flying skills rather than spells
To save my life, not to impress
She tries to be alone with you
Called Luna and Neville when we were alone
Not really
She talks about you a lot in front of others
Investigate!
Does she like me?
Hermione stared at the question she had written at the end of the list. No matter how much she thought it over and over, she could not come up with a definite answer. According to the list, the chance of Ginny liking her was quite low. Too many things did not match or were unconfirmed. Writing 'No' as the conclusion, would be the most logical answer. But somehow, Hermione could not bring herself to do it. Exhausted, the young woman ruffled through her hair, messing it all up, but she did not care.
There was only one option, she concluded. She had to start a thorough investigation to gather more facts.
A short while later, Hermione had arrived at the Holy Harpies' Quidditch pitch. She had used the well-tried Galleon to let Ginny know that she would visit her training, but she had not waited for an answer, because she somehow knew that Ginny would be happy about her presence.
Now Hermione was sitting all alone on the spectators' ranks, shivering in the cold December air. Her eyes were glued to the sky where the players were flying on their broomsticks like there was no tomorrow. Hermione shook her head; she would never understand what people liked about Quidditch so much.
Her eyes found Ginny and they followed her every movement. The redhead looked stunning in her emerald green uniform. Hermione had used to dislike that color because it reminded her of Slytherin, but seeing Ginny racing on her broom from one side of the pitch to the other like a green canon ball changed her opinion. Emerald green was a beautiful color. And Ginny was a beautiful woman. So beautiful in fact, that Hermione was unable to avert her eyes from her. Ginny's movements were kind of hypnotizing and Hermione could feel a long-needed relaxation spreading through her limps as she watched her.
Suddenly, the redhead flew over to where Hermione was sitting, slowing her pace as she approached the other woman. "Thanks for coming, Hermione!", she shouted as she passed by, a wide and happy grin on her face. Hermione smiled and showed her a thumps-up.
Ginny flew one more round on her broomstick before approaching again. "Just ten more minutes!", she called. "I will-!" Hermione could not understand the second sentence, because Ginny had passed by already. She was flying over to the team captain, whose name was Marina Bishop as Hermione had found out by now. The two women were discussing something, smiling at each other understandingly. As she observed their intimacy, Hermione suddenly felt the urge to shoot a jinx at Bishop.
"Would you like some hot tea, Miss?", a voice right next to her suddenly asked.
Hermione shrieked and almost fell off her seat. She wanted to let out a curse, but then she recognized the house elf Minky, who was holding a tray with a teapot and a cup on it, looking up at her with the most adorable expression on her face. Hermione's curse got stuck in her throat, causing her to cough while she said: "M-Minky! N-nice to-to see you!" She cleared her throat and smiled at the elf. "Thank you so much for the tea!"
"It is my pleasure, Miss", Minky replied handing Hermione the steaming tea. Just when the elf was about to leave, an idea crossed Hermione's mind. "Minky, would you spend me some company please?", she asked putting on the sweetest smile she had. "It is quite boring just to sit here all by myself, you know."
Minky looked at her hesitantly for a moment, apparently she had never been asked such a thing before. Finally, she sat down next to Hermione, nervously clenching her fists into the fabric of the towel she was wearing. "Does Miss not like Quidditch?", the elf asked her.
"I like it as long as I don't need to be up there", Hermione replied. Minky nodded obviously satisfied with this answer.
"Minky, I want to ask you a few things", Hermione said, her eyes not on the elf but on the pretty redhead flying several dozens of feet above their heads. "But you mustn't tell anyone, can you do that?"
"Minky is not sure, Miss", the elf replied insecurely. "You can ask Minky anything you like, but if the mistresses want to know about it, Minky has to tell them."
Hermione pondered over this for a few moments. Sure, she was not Minky's owner, so she could not expect her to keep quiet only because she wished so. She decided it would be worth trying though, since the possibility of someone asking about their conversation was really low.
"That is okay as well, Minky, don't worry", Hermione said, giving the elf a reassuring smile. "You know Ginny, right? The seeker?"
"Miss means Mistress Weasley?", Minky asked.
"Yes, exactly", Hermione replied. "Do you happen to know if she talks about me sometimes?" Hermione felt her heart pounding faster as she was eagerly expecting the elf's answer.
"Yes, Mistress Weasley does talk about Miss Granger sometimes", Minky answered after a thinking for a few seconds.
"So what does she say about me?", Hermione asked, dying of curiosity.
"A while ago, Mistress Weasley told the other Mistresses, that she cannot join the team dinner, because she was going to see Miss Granger instead. And once, me has heard her talking about Miss Granger's brilliant mind and excellent skill to Mistress Kim. Mistress Weasley is really proud and happy to be Miss Granger's friend me thinks. This is all I can tell you, Miss."
Hermione felt a wave of relief rolling over her. Ginny was talking about her, when she was not around and she had even skipped team dinner to be with Hermione. She thanked the elf and pulled out the list she had made earlier, scribbling the newfound information under the corresponding headline.
"Minky, I have one more question", Hermione addressed the elf again. "Is there one Harpy Ginny is really close with? I mean closer than with the others?"
Minky just stared at Hermione, obviously not understanding what she was getting at. How could she ever ask a house elf if Ginny was romantically interested in one of her teammates?
"Me does not think so", Minky replied hesitantly. "Mistress Weasley is equally friendly with everyone."
Okay, so Ginny had no interest in Bishop, just as she had told Luna and Neville. The information Hermione had received from the elf slowly started to tip the scales. The possibility of Ginny having a crush on her seemed a little higher than before. Wait, but why was she feeling so happy about it? Could it be, that-? Hermione shrugged off the thought as soon as it tried to enter her head. No way! She only was happy about it, because she would be able to come up with a conclusion for her 'essay' soon. Before she could delve more on the thought, someone approached the ranks where Hermione and Minky were seated.
"Good evening", Luna said dreamily. "I was in the area, so I decided to come by and- Oh, Hermione! That's a quite an amount of Wrackspurts you have clinging to your head!" She eyed Hermione interestedly.
"Might be", Hermione laughed and gestured the blonde to sit down next to her.
"Since when do you watch Quidditch in your free time?", Luna asked.
"Uhm, I just…I just wanted to say hi to Ginny, that's all", Hermione replied nervously. Luna stared at her in suspicion, then a knowing smile spread over her face. "Well, if you say so."
"It's not what you think!", Hermione suddenly exclaimed, causing Minky to shriek in surprise.
Luna just laughed as she swung her long dirty-blonde hair over her shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about", she said and winked at Hermione. She knew it!, Hermione thought in desperation. But there was nothing to know, was it? It was not as if she liked G- No, stop! Hermione straightened her shoulders and looked up at the sky, her eyes almost immediately finding Ginny. Soon, she was hypnotized by the seeker's movements again, forgetting everything around and inside her.
Shortly after, the players landed and everyone went into the changing rooms, except for Ginny who flew straight over to Hermione and Luna. "Thanks for coming, that's amazing", she greeted them and hugged both girls. Hermione tried to count for how many seconds Ginny did hug each of them and she was sure that she had been hugged at least two seconds longer.
After a few minutes of small talk, Ginny disappeared into the changing room and Hermione and Luna waited for her outside. Hermione hesitated a little, but then she finally addressed the blonde: "Listen Luna, can I ask you something?"
"Sure", Luna said and gave Hermione an encouraging smile. "I thought you would do so."
"You did? Are you a fortune teller now?", Hermione laughed nervously.
"No, but you look like something is on your mind", Luna replied and fumbled on her eggplant earrings to untangle them from her hair.
"Well, I just wonder if Ginny sometimes talks about me when I am not around?", Hermione finally asked.
Luna just mustered her contemplatively for a few moments without saying anything. Hermione hoped she would not ask her why she had asked such a question, because answering it could only end in a really awkward situation.
"Yes, she does a lot", Luna eventually replied and smiled. "Especially when you did not contact her that often until a while ago, she talked about you almost every time we met. Like how much she missed you for example."
"How about now?", Hermione asked curiously.
"She still talks about you of course, but not as much as about Quidditch", Luna replied. "There are some things she is worried about, but these are things you better ask her yourself."
"Worried about what? About Quidditch?", Hermione inquired.
"Like I said, ask her yourself. If you want to get closer to her, you should be more interested about what Ginny does and what she's concerned about." Luna gave Hermione a knowing look. Before Hermione could reply anything, Ginny had come out of the changing room, grinning at them. She seemed really happy about their presence which made Hermione's heart flutter a little.
They went to the Italian restaurant they had been to the last time and Hermione ordered the same weird combination of spicy pasta and butterbeer, because it had grown on her for some reason. Hermione wanted to tell Ginny about the situation with Pansy, but that would have meant she had to tell Luna about the prediction too and she was really tired talking about it, so she decided to tell Ginny another day.
Hermione and Luna listened to Ginny ranting about today's training session and what went well and what did not. If Harry had talked about it, Hermione would have zoomed out after three seconds, but now she absorbed every word the redhead said, while trying to figure out if Ginny was looking at her more than at Luna. But to her disappointment, she seemed to look at Luna way more. Checking if Ginny was touching Hermione more than necessary was also out of the question since the seeker had sat down next to Luna, which meant that Hermione had to sit by herself at the other side of the table.
"And right after Christmas we have to play against the Montrose Magpies", Ginny said, letting out a deep sigh. "If I don't catch the snitch first, Marina will kill me."
"Why is that?", Hermione asked her.
"First of all, the Montrose Magpies are one of the best teams in Great Britain", she explained. "But if it was just that. If I don't catch the snitch I might become a reserve player." Ginny leaned back in her chair and rubbed over her face.
"Reserve player? But why?" Hermione did not understand anything, which made her feel really stupid.
"Because the Magpies' current seeker wants to transfer to the Harpies and if she turns out to play better than me, she will become regular seeker of course", Ginny explained unhappily.
Luna put a hand on the girls' shoulder to comfort her, but she said nothing, leaving the conversation to Hermione and Ginny.
"But that's unfair!", Hermione said agitated. "The Harpies love you, they wouldn't do that, no matter how good some other seeker is!"
Ginny let out a humorless laugh. "Hermione, don't you understand that Quidditch is a professional sport? You might think of it as a stupid game, but it's not. And if someone with better abilities gets my position, there is nothing unfair about that. Your skill is more important than whether your teammates like you or not."
Hermione lowered her head and said nothing, because she felt more stupid than ever. Not because she did not understand Quidditch, but because she had not even tried to understand it. It was the thing Ginny loved the most and Hermione had never even seen a league game nor had she had the faintest idea of the pressure Ginny was suffering from.
Before she could say anything, Ginny leaned forward, looking right into Hermione's eyes. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I sounded a little rude, did I? I didn't mean it, really," She smiled slightly.
"No Ginny, listen, I am so sorry", Hermione said. "I should have asked you to tell me about this sooner, I should have shown more interest in Quidditch and I should-"
"It's okay, Hermione", Ginny laughed. "You have enough concerns of your own to deal with."
"No, really, I am sorry", Hermione said determinedly. "And I will watch your next game and cheer as much as I can, I promise."
An expression of amazement spread over Ginny's face as she heard those words. "Really?", she asked, smiling happily.
"Yep, really", Hermione said, smiling as well.
"I'll lend you my fan-robe", Luna said and winked at Hermione. What was that stupid wink supposed to mean?, Hermione thought a little annoyed.
"Oh before I forget!", Ginny suddenly exclaimed. "My mum allowed me to invite as much friends as I want for Christmas, so I would like to invite you two. And Neville of course, remind me to send him an owl. I hope you'll be there?" She looked at them expectantly.
Christmas at Weasley's? Hermione was not sure what would await her, but she agreed.