Ginny looked petulant, and she flopped on Hermione's bed heavily. "I can't believe," she said, "that Harry gets to go to Hogsmeade with Cho, and I get stuck practising Quidditch."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I thought you loved Quidditch."
"I do love Quidditch – I'd just like to be actually good at it."
"You are good." Hermione said stoutly.
"Tell that to Angelina – with the things she's been saying in practise I hardly know which way is up any more."
"What's she been saying?"
"Oh," Ginny said disconsolately, "All these things about strategy and timing and effective communication with the Beaters – as if 'communication' is their problem, not, you know, staying on the broom."
"Come on, Ginny – you've been watching…playing Quidditch all your life. You'll get the hang of it." After all, Hermione thought, if Harry could learn to be a Seeker with no experience and aged eleven, it could hardly be all that difficult for Ginny."
"It's not that simple, Hermione! I'm not a natural Seeker, I just don't have…I don't know – I don't think the right way…Harry better come back soon."
"You know," Hermione said, somewhat irritated by Ginny's attitude, "I'm sure Harry would love to still be playing."
"Well, he's more than welcome to it Hermione! As far as I can see, all I've got from this is half of Gryffindor looking at me like I've killed Bambi, Angelina boring my ear off and Michael being an utter git!"
Hermione stared. "You know who Bambi is?"
"Bambi's a real person?" Ginny said quizzically. "I thought it was some Muggle thing – Louise says it all the time."
"It's…it's a bit complicated. He's a cartoon character."
Ginny sat up, an Arthur Weasleyish gleam in her eye. "What's a cartoon?"
Hermione sighed, "I don't…it's a bit complicated Ginny. What's Michael done?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh, he's been the most annoying thing in the history of annoying! You should've seen his face when I told him I couldn't go to Hogsmeade."
"What did he say?" Hermione asked, curious – admittedly, she didn't know Michael well, but he seemed like a decent guy; very concerned with treating his girlfriend the proper way.
"Oh all this stuff about how if I really liked him, I'd skip practise – as if Angelina would let me! – and, people will think I've dumped him, and don't I have any idea how embarassing it'll be for him to be without his girlfriend on Valentine's day – like I'm a bloody accessory Hermione!"
Hermione winced – if that was how Ginny felt, she wouldn't have been particularly accomodating. "What did you say to him?"
"I said if he kept it up, I'd take the same attitude to his OWL study, and then we'd see who was a bad boyfriend."
Hermione looked at her friend. Ginny still looked highly uncomfortable, rocking back and forth in her chair – surefire signs that she wanted Hermione to pry, demand information she had no business demanding, and make everything better. It was an irritating habit of Ginny's that she could never seem to come to the point, but by now Hermione was more than used to it, and so she said, "Was there anything else?"
"Oh," Ginny said, bristling at the memory, "He only said I'd have gone if Harry had asked me."
"What!" Hermione, who'd been copying out some poorly written Runes notes while talking, looked at Ginny so fast she almost hurt her neck, and spilled ink all over her page.
"I know! Can you believe he'd say something like that – I'm telling you Hermione, he's really lucky I didn't hex him, and I would have…only Sprout turned up."
"Yeah," Hermione said uncomfortably, "It's pretty obnoxious." Speaking delicately, she said, "Does he…know how you used to feel about Harry?"
This was profoundly dangerous ground – Hermione was fairly sure that Ginny still had feelings for Harry, and that they'd been getting on so well since Christmas was certainly suggestive, but Ginny tended to react badly to any insinuation that she still fancied him, and on the whole Hermione had decided to let it lie. All things considered, Michael was extremely lucky to have got off with just an argument.
Ginny shook her head violently, her vibrant hair seeming to take up all the light in the room. "I don't know," she said, "I mean…I thought everyone knew, after that Valentine…" Both girls smiled involuntarily at the memory, and Ginny continued, "But he never mentioned that. He just kept going on about how Harry came to mine for Christmas, and something about the last DA meeting and…I have no idea what he was thinking."
"The last DA meeting?"
Ginny furrowed her brow. "I think I no what he meant," she admitted, "But it makes so little sense… Michael was just waking up from the third or fourth time I'd Stunned him – like it's my fault he gets Stunned so often, if he didn't let me win every single time…"
"Ginny," Hermione said, "the point."
"Oh, right. Anyway, Harry came over – he was complimenting me on the hex – nothing special about that, right? Nothing he hasn't said to everyone in the class at some time or another, and anyway Michael has a problem with it apparently."
"Michael…has a problem…with Harry…talking to you?" Hermione said slowly, positive she was missing something.
"Well," Ginny said, biting her lip a little, "He might have…the twins are so stupid Hermione! They hit me with a Trip Jinx while I was talking to Harry, and of course he caught me, you know Harry, obsessive catcher and saviour of damsels in distress that he is, and Michael saw it and thought 'Oh my god! My girlfriend, she must be cheating on me!'"
Hermione thought this over for a moment, not sure of what she should say. Eventually, she decided to take the plunge, and said, "Didn't it strike you that…Michael might not be wrong?"
"About what?" Ginny scoffed. "I think if I was snogging Harry in the seventh floor corridor I'd know about it."
"I know," Hermione said, "It's just…you're not the only one who thinks you and Harry have…'chemistry.' Parvati's convinced you two are going to end up together."
"Hermione," Ginny said, "Don't be stupid. Harry doesn't like me – Harry is never going to like me."
"That's not…Ginny, I don't mean it like that."
"Well I do." There was a hint, the tiniest hint, of tears in Ginny's voice as she continued. "Right now, I'm just barely on his radar – I'm his best friends little sister, and that's all I'm ever going to be."
"Ginny."
"No! I don't want to hear it, all right. Maybe if I'm really lucky I'll make my way up to being an independent aquaintance, but that's it. It. Is. Not. Going. To. Happen. And anyway," she said, "I wouldn't want it to. I don't want to wind up with the same boy I spent so long pining over – that's just sad, Hermione. Pathetic, that's the word for people like that."
Ginny's words might have sounded angry, but her expression told a different story. Her pretty face bore every sign of unhappiness – the set of her mouth could only be described as glum, and her posture radiated defeat.
"Ginny," Hermione said. "Tell me the truth. If Harry had asked you – would you have gone?"
"No! I'm with Michael now – you don't just pick someone else up willy-nilly Hermione. At least…I wouldn't. And, anyway…why are we even discussing this? Harry asked Cho, and he'll always ask Cho and they're going to grow old and have fat, freckle-less, dark haired babies together. I don't come into it at all."
Hermione barely managed to control her laughter – and had Ginny been glaring even a little less fiercely she would certainly have let out an undignified guffaw. "Do you feel better now that that's out of your system?"
Ginny laughed helplessly and said, "Actually yes. I just…I wish it didn't matter to me – any of it. I wish Michael was a nice guy, and Harry wasn't so…Harry, and Ron would pull his head out of his arse and ask you out, and Jules could make up her mind whether she likes Seamus or not… I wish a lot of things – but, you know, I think most of them will never happen."
Hermione nodded, though in the truth she wasn't sure what exactly she should say to Ginny. There had been that in her voice that made Hermione extremely uncomfortable – if Ginny did still have feelins for Harry, as Hermione was almost certain she did, she shouldn't despise herself for it. After all, Harry was a wonderful person – deep, deep down – and he and Ginny, it turned out, got on very well. They had the same sense of humour, and Hermione was fairly sure Harry thought she was good-looking.
Not that he'd ever said anything to that effect – he hadn't of course – but Harry's eyes had a way of following Ginny everywhere she went. Perhaps it meant nothing – so Ginny had said when Hermione, unwisely, had mentioned it to her – but all the same…
Ginny stood up, "Sorry for ranting at you," she said. "I only came up to explain about this weekened – I thought you might be wondering why Ron said he couldn't go downstairs."
Hermione flushed – she had casually, oh so casually, mentioned that maybe they go to Hogsmeade on Saturday (though she hadn't dared to suggest that they go together) but Ron had brushed it off without a second thought. It was a relief to know the reason why.
Ginny sighed heavily and said, "That's it. I'm going out to practise."
"What – why? The next match isn't for weeks."
"I don't care," Ginny said, "I don't care. If I stay here thinking about Michael and…I'll jump out of my skin. Flying will help – flying always helps."
Hermione refrained from mentioning that Harry believed the exact same thing.