Harry
(A/N alright i am sorry that it took me forever to update! how long has it been? two months, two weeks, and five days? wow. quite a while. alright this chapter is long. here we go.)
Ginny added the finishing touches to her reflection.
She dabbed make-up where it needed dabbing, brushed her hair where it needed brushing, and smoothed out her skirt where it needed smoothing.
She didn't care what Hector said. He was only thinking of himself. All he ever wanted was his own happiness. Though, who could blame him? He lost the love of his life through his own idiocy, nothing could hurt more than that.
Ginny checked her reflection one more time before leaving the bathroom and going to get her friends.
She found them in the common room; Knitter, Alyssa, Christina, and Rachel, all sitting there waiting for her. They thought it was best if Chloe didn't come, because Harry didn't know her. Alyssa was holding a small pot of floo powder, and when her friends spotted her, she produced a signed note from McGonagall out of her pocket stating they had permission to leave.
They got up and stood by the fire place, Alyssa holding out the pot to Ginny who went first.
She grabbed a small handful of powder, stepped into the fire, then yelled:
"Ministry of Magic!"
And she was off in a flurry of green flames, struggling to keep her skirt from flying up.
When finally Ginny stumbled out of the fireplace, she looked around at the beautiful lobby in the Ministry.
She looked at the fountain and sat on the edge, waiting for her friends to get there.
Christina stumbled out of the pit next, then Knitter right behind her. He came a little too soon after though, and they both fell over, struggling to get up.
Ginny grinned. When her friends had righted themselves again, Christina hit Knitter's head and walked over to Ginny and sat.
Rachel stepped out and lost her footing for a moment. She stumbled for an eternity before finding her balnce and taking a step away. Alyssa came last, but she stepped on her robe and fell to the ground, using Rachel's robes to try and steady her, but instead dragged her down with her.
Everyone turned to stare at them as they got up, and Ginny, Christina, and Knitter just walked away with their heads down trying not to let people know they were with them.
When they were all finally in the elevator, Ginny nervously pushed the floor Harry was on and they all anxiously waited.
There was a ding and a few people got out of the elevator when the doors opened.
Ginny walked in and her friends followed. They were the only ones in there until it hit the first floor.
At the ding the doors opened and a few people piled in.
They hit the second floor, and one person got out, and two more got in.
Ginny was nervous and her thoughts were roaming to anything but stomach-settling things.
What will he say when he sees me? Will he be happy to see me? Well of course he will, he sent you that letter didn't he? Everything will be fine.
Another ding as they hit the third floor. Ginny noted no one came in or out.
At least, I hope everything will be fine. What's the worst that could happen?
"Ginny?" Harry's confused voice sounded through his big office.
When they walked in, everyone was bustling around, and sending things flying through the air. Everyone was yelling and running back and forth, a few people bumped into the Wolves as they came in and out. It was chaos and all Ginny's hopes of a nice meeting went down the drain. Still, she tried to sound upbeat.
"Harry! Hi, now isn't a bad time is it?"
"What do you mean, I told you to make an appointment, any time other than that is a bad time! Especially now!"
"Harry, I'm sorry, you said-"
"And why did you bring all your little friends? What the hell Ginny, didn't you read my letter?"
"Yes I did, that's why I came-"
"What, so you could interrupt all my work right in the middle of the biggest crisis of the week?"
"Crisis? Harry, I'm sorry, I thought-"
"You know what Ginny? Just go wait in the hall or the lobby or something and I'll be down in a moment to talk to you."
With that Harry turned his back on all of them and continued his work.
Stunned and hurt, Ginny slowly turned to go. As she stepped out the door behind her friends, Harry called to her:
"And send all your little friends home!"
This stunned her and she tried to snap out of her shock at how it all went, but she couldn't.
In the elevator, on the way down to the lobby, Ginny was quiet, dazed, zoned out.
No one spoke.
When they reached the lobby, Ginny again plopped down on the side of the fountain and her friends each gave her a hug.
Without a word, for they knew she needed silence at this time, they left.
"But we just got here!" Rachel complained.
This was followed by Christina punching her arm, and pushing her into the fireplace.
---
It was at least twenty minutes later that Ginny heard the familiar ding of the elevator. She had heard probably about fifteen times since she had been alone.
"Ginny," Harry's voice rang through the lobby.
Tiredly, and a bit nervously, she stood up from her sitting position, straightened her clothes and looked at the oncoming persona.
"Ginny, what are you doing here?"
"Harry," Ginny sighed, exasperated, "I don't know what is going on. I don't know what miscommunication-" At this word, Harry scoffed- "went on between us, but I am here, because I got a letter in your hand writing that said to come at anytime."
"I would never write a letter saying that."
"I have it right here!"
"Show me."
Ginny pulled it out of her cloak pocket and shoved it into Harry's hands. He gave her a slight glare as he took it and opened it.
Harry seemed stunned that this could possibly be his handwriting. He noted the shape of the R's that he signed his name with, and the funny looking slant on his E's.
"Ginny," Harry said after a pause, "I don't know what to say. I didn't write this. I don't know who did, but it wasn't me. I'm sorry."
"What do you mean? It's your handwriting, that's your signature!" Ginny cried, the realization that Hector had been right all along sinking in, but not wanting to believe it.
"Ginny, I didn't write it!"
"That's impossible!"
"Apparently not!"
Ginny huffed and turned away. She paced a few feet and came back, biting her nail.
"That's impossible," Ginny repeated, more embarrassed than ever. Harry shrugged.
"I'm sorry. Look, I have to get back to work Ginny."
She was quiet. She wouldn't look him in the eye.
"Alright."
He handed her the letter back and she grabbed it, walking off.
Harry sighed and watched her floo away. He then started walking away.
He was stopped by Linda, the middle-aged receptionist, who saw the whole thing from her desk. She said:
"Not too smart, Mr. Potter, if you don't mind me saying."
"What was that?"
"I said, not a smart move on your part."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about firefly, the pretty gal who just left. Not a smart move letting her go like that. Don't think you'll find another one like her."
"What do you know about my life?"
"I'm just saying," Linda continued, "It's just my opinion. You won't find another girl devoted to you like that as long as you live. I would try and get her back if I was you."
"She's right you know, I would too," piped up a picture on the wall of the first Minister of Magic.
Harry rolled his eyes and walked off toward the elevator, just trying to forget about this past hour.
Ginny stepped out of the fire place in the common room to find all of her friends waiting there. They jumped up when she stepped out, waiting for a sign telling them how it went.
Ginny just looked at all of them and walked off slowly toward her dormitory.
Rachel made to follow her, and impulse told Alyssa to, but instead she stopped Rachel.
"Stay," Alyssa said, "Let her be alone. She needs it.
"I just want to help," Rachel said.
"We all want to help," Christina put in, "but the best way we can help her now is by leaving her alone."
Rachel nodded and sat back down.
---
In the dormitory, Ginny lay on her bed, waiting for the tears to come. She hated crying, but she seemed to do it so often now that she was almost immune to it.
She hugged her pillow close and as a silent tear fell, she fell asleep.
Cameron awoke in the tower room, this time, it was a sleeping chamber with a side bathroom, where he had spent the night.
He hadn't much wanted to be around people, and this was the perfect place to be for that.
He had been thinking. He decided that he wouldn't be a part of Leah's schemes anymore.
They were cruel, and they only hurt people.
Sure it had been fun in previous years to pick on others that were less than you, but only just recently had Cameron realized he had grown out of it.
He was done being mean, especially after he saw Ginny.
Oh, Ginny. Now there was a girl who had touched him.
His thoughts lingered on her for a minute, and how wounded she was.
Her pain shone through her so brightly that it seemed impossible she could still walk and talk.
He hadn't even known why she was crying and he still felt for her.
After lingering on her, he lingered more, and for a moment, he even thought of how he could try and help. Maybe give her a shoulder or lend an ear.
He then realized he had been lingering on her for longer than was comfortable, and shook his head, jerking his thoughts away just in time to not imagine himself wrapped up in her, holding her close...
Cameron's thoughts then traveled to Leah, and how much he now despised her.
Maybe it was the fact that she had been a gay man for a few weeks that completely turned him off to her, or maybe that she was so down right nasty.
He wasn't sure himself, so he decided to leave his thoughts in bed and go take a shower.
He looked at the clock. Almost noon.
Stretching, he got up and headed for the bathroom, where a clean set of robes were waiting for him along with a clean towel and washcloth. He turned on the shower tap to hot and tried his best to clear his mind and get ready to face the evening, where he would see Leah in the common room.
When Ginny woke up, she looked at the clock immediately and saw it was half past noon.
She felt her wet pillow and thought for a minute she had been drooling, then realized she had been crying.
She sighed, getting up and casting a drying spell on her pillowcase.
Ginny headed for the bathroom, where she rubbed off her smeared eye make-up and washed her face thoroughly.
When she looked up, Ginny was astonished at the sadness she saw in her own eyes. They were bloodshot, tired, and extremely emotional.
She shook it out of her, pinched her cheeks and woke herself up, brushed her teeth, then brushed her hair, then brushed her teeth again out of boredom.
When she left the bathroom, there was Christina in the dormitory looking for something in her side table.
"Hey," Ginny said upon entrance.
"Hey," Christina replied, "Just looking for that one thing. I remember I put it in that one place but now its not there. Have you seen it?"
"Why don't you check in the one place you haven't checked yet?"
"That's a good idea, I will."
With that, Christina left, leaving an amused and confused Ginny in the dorm.
She walked over to her trunk and pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black sweater.
After she changed and let her hair down for warmth, she came down to the common room where a few people were scattered here and there.
She slipped out of the common room unnoticed and tried decided to roam the halls. It was now almost one, so most people were either outside with their friends or doing homework in the library, or even grabbing a late lunch.
As Ginny walked around, she tried not to think of many things. She wanted serenity, to be thoughtless.
She closed her eyes. Inhaled.
She thought of things that wouldn't make her think. That is harder than it sounds, she decided.
Exhale. She opened her eyes and found herself an inch from a wall. Startled and annoyed at her own clumsiness, she turned around and leaned against the wall, sliding down slowly and plopping on the floor.
She sat there and thought of absolutely nothing for ages. She heard people walk by, she heard footsteps from corridors far away, and through the window, she saw the sun dim down until it was dusk.
When she decided that her butt was numb and that she was ready to go, she got up.
As she was steadying herself from a head rush, footsteps came closer to her, and as her vision went blurry then came back, the last person she really wanted to see was right in front of her.
"Hector."
He was silent. His hair hang over his eyes and his face narrowed as he looked at her, seeing what she would tell him.
She looked into his eyes again, but they showed nothing.
For a long while they just stared at each other, neither wanting to speak first, nor knowing what to say.
Finally, Ginny mustered up the courage she needed.
"You were right."
This was said with so much pain and a cracked voice, that Hector's eyes softened, but no other feature did.
"Aren't you happy? You were right. I was wrong, now you get to laugh in my face just like you wanted."
"I never said I wanted that," Hector spoke for the first time. His voice was deep, and he spoke in just above a whisper.
"You didn't have to," Ginny bitterly laughed.
"If I had wanted that, would I have told you and made an attempt to stop you?"
Ginny was silent.
"No," she finally muttered.
It was then that one silent tear fell from Ginny's face, one tear and one tear only, that then fell to the ground and splashed a mighty splash.
Hector gave in and stepped closer to her, embracing her tightly, which was just what she needed at that time.
"I'm sorry about what I said about you being jealous, I didn't mean it-"
"It's alright."
He pulled away and looked at her, poked her nose with his nose, and started walking with her to the Great Hall.
"Now let's get your girlfriend back."
"You know the other day I accidentally kissed her..."
After lunch in the Great Hall, Ginny and Alyssa left for the common room while Christina and Rachel weren't looking.
They had just turned around to get another helping of kidney pie when poof!, the pair had vanished.
Alyssa and Ginny had made it all the way to the third floor when Alyssa realized she had left her book bag in the Great Hall.
Exasperated with her friend, Ginny told Alyssa to go back and get it while she waited, but Alyssa insisted that Ginny go on without her and that she would meet her back in the common room later.
They agreed and Ginny continued to mosey along, taking her time and trying an awful lot not to think of those emerald eyes behind that black hair...
"Hey," she heard someone call, and her newest last-person-she-wanted-to-see was standing in front of her.
"What do you want, Cameron? I don't need your annoying bodice closer to me than it needs to be."
"Chill, Ginny, put away the claws. I just want to talk."
"About what? How your plan worked exactly how you wanted it to?"
"No. I wanted to say... actually, I'm sorry."
Ginny was frozen. That was the last thing she expected the last-person-she-wanted-to-see, to say. She kept quiet and waited for him to continue.
"Listen, and hear me out before you judge me." Ginny nodded, she knew everybody deserved that chance. "It was Leah's idea for us to steal the letter and copy his handwriting, and I'm sorry we ever did. I broke into your common room and dormitory via a tired Fat Lady and stole the letter. But then I-"
Cameron stopped. Should he really tell her that he had decided against it because of her?
Ginny had gotten the creeps at this part. He had been in her room, next to her bed while she slept, oblivious to everything. Then she thought, what was she doing the night before she found her letter missing?
"Then you..." Ginny urged him.
"I just... I left it up to Leah, because I didn't want anymore trouble."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Just like that? You just all of a sudden decided to turn noble?"
Cameron looked away. He looked back at her in the eyes.
Ginny tried to remember. That was only a few nights ago.
The realization hit her like no other. That night she hadn't gone to sleep until really late. She had been awake... she thought she heard something...
It was after this realization was in her eyes, in which Cameron was looking so deeply, that he realized he had been caught. He looked away again and put a hand to his forehead, running it through his hair before meeting her eyes again.
"So, what exactly made you change your mind?" Ginny asked, crossing her arms.
"It was..." he thought for a moment... how to word this... "Well, it was you. I mean, you were all sad and it suddenly felt wrong to-"
"So it only felt wrong to continue once you realized you had finally broken me down, and decided you had won?"
"Yes. I mean, no, of course not, I just- I saw you... and you were crying, and then it just got to me. When you got angry and fought back, it was different, because you stayed tough, and now, I mean, I saw you there at the window, and the moon... it had a thing and you were glowing."
Cameron was getting annoyed with himself because he didn't know how to say this. He didn't even know what he was trying to say!
"You're hardly making sense. You're saying that once I cried, your job was done and you could sleep happy."
"No! Woman, stop twisting my words!"
"Your words were already twisted!"
They were silent, both trying not to get angrier.
Ginny took a few breaths as she had before, inhale, exhale. She looked at him.
He looked back at her.
"So what happened after you got the fake letter?" he asked her. Ginny huffed.
"You have some nerve asking me that, don't you?"
"I was just asking. You don't have to say if you don't want."
It seemed impossible, but Cameron Malfoy, for once, had manners. He was being respectful and kind to her, unlike any other time they had come in contact. It mystified Ginny to no end.
They were quiet again.
Cameron reached up and ran a hand through his dark brown hair again, looking extremely attractive all of a sudden in that moment, and Ginny's stomach made a weird noise.
"Hungry?"
"No, I just ate."
"Then what was that?"
"Not sure, but I'll be fine. You know, I was supposed to meet a friend. I should go," Ginny said.
"Well, I'll walk you, if you want."
Ginny sighed. All she wanted was to be alone. She just didn't want to be around people, especially with the likes of Cameron Malfoy.
"Why are you so persistent?"
"Because I feel horrible about myself?"
"Understood. As long as you're being honest, I owe you back that much. I just need some more time to think about things. Not really ready to talk about them, you know?"
"Understood," he quoted her with a grin.
"Look," Ginny said after a short pause, "I really appreciate your apology. Though, I don't know yet if I accept it, but its always appreciated."
Cameron nodded, taking anything he could get.
"So I'm guessing you don't want to tell me what happened with the letter?"
"You guess correctly."
Cameron nodded and looked her in the eyes again, deeper than before. It scared her a little how easily she felt he could read her.
"But when you want to talk, if you want to talk, I mean, you know, I am here."
It was Ginny's turn to nod.
"I couldn't ask for anything more. So, I'll see you around, Ginny," he said, touching her forearm before leaving.
Ginny's odd stomach problem on her mind, she went the opposite way to take the long way to Gryffindor tower, and it was only after a while that she realized the weird noise was butterflies...
In the Great Hall, it didn't take long for Christina and Rachel to realize they had been ditched.
They got up to leave, and when they were out the doors, Hector came up behind Christina and held her back, telling Rachel to go ahead.
She looked at Christina, and she nodded, saying it was okay.
"Look," he said, after they were alone, "I don't know how to say this exactly. I am a bloody jerk and I want you back."
"Sounds pretty clear to me."
"So you'll have me then?"
"Not exactly," she continued. "You can't just do that. There's more to it, you know? You really hurt me. It's like this hollow pain in my chest that hurts worse with every heartbeat."
This wounded Hector, to hear that he had done this, but he recovered quickly and continued.
"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. It hurts me almost as much as it hurts you to know that I did that. I can't make promises, but I'll try and never hurt you again. I really will."
With that, he pulled her to him as she broke ouy in tears, and there was no other hug that Christina had ever received that had felt so good. This felt like it could make world peace, and Hector thanked Ginny silently for helping him with thinking this through.
In the common room, Ginny could be seen laying in a chair, with a blanket flung over her.
She felt bad because when she arrived in the common room, Alyssa wasn't in there- probably hanging out in the dorm.
She had quickly gotten over the fact that Alyssa had probably been waiting for ages, and got comfortable.
It was now dark, probably around eight.
She had had a busy day, and all that running around, getting rejected, and then finding kindness in the last person you expected to find it in really tired her out.
Without thinking that she had to be awake and ready for school early the next morning, Ginny made herself more comfortable on her chair and drifted off, the last image in her head was slightly different than the image that was there before: Cameron's bright blue eyes fixed on hers and dark brown hair hanging over them.
Is he really sincere, or am I being fooled yet again?
(A/N 4100 words! WOOT all done for now, and i always appologize for the wait, but this time two and a half months is just uncalled for. :D alright please review, let me know if you are happy with the current direction this story is heading, and gimme some feedback! byeeeee)