Author's Note: I'm writing this chapter the same night that I wrote chapter eight, mainly because I have time and I don't want to let it go for a while, so here you are. Unfortunately, that means that I won't be able to read the reviews of chapter eight before I write this, so I won't know any constructive criticisms or whatnot. I will go back and change anything if I see the need later, so please review!
Disclaimer: (I haven't put one up in a while, so I will now) I obviously do not own anything related to Harry Potter with the exception of this fanfic (plot, scenario, etc.) and if I did I would not be writing here, so rest assured, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise - not that you would reasonably assume that because she doesn't write about ballerinas and such...
Hermione did in fact buy tickets for the next night's performance at the ballet theatre.
What's more, she decided that she would get Harry to come along as well.
She had two motives for this plan of action. The first being that she owed Harry for the number of times that he had brought her to the ballet theatre for her birthday and such. He knew how much she enjoyed ballet, and he had probably spent a fortune on all of the tickets he had bought, she might as well pay him back a little.
The second was that she wanted to bring Harry to support Ginny because she was hoping that he had feelings for her, and watching her perform, knowing exactly which ballerina she was in the show, would only make him like her more. After all, from what Hermione could remember about the star of the show, she was really spectacular, and hopefully Harry would show his feelings more clearly while watching her perform so gracefully.
She had chosen to come on that particular night for a reason as well. Ron had to work that night and wouldn't be able to attend. Although he and Harry usually worked on the same cases, every now and then they would be split up, as was the case for what Ron was working on that night. Normally Hermione would want Ron to come watch Ginny, but she felt that the situation would go better if Ron were not there, because Hermione assumed that Ginny and Harry would feel more comfortable around each other without Ron in the background.
With all of this in mind, Hermione went to the Burrow early Monday morning (after Ginny left for rehearsal), to tell Harry the news about that night. She apparated to the front door as usual, and rang the bell.
Within minutes, a groggy Harry was opening the door and letting Hermione in.
"Morning 'Mione, watchya doin here so early?" Harry asked mid-yawn.
Hermione giggled. "Harry your starting to sound like Ron calling me Mione. Anyways, I came because I wanted to tell you that I'm taking you to the ballet tonight to watch Ginny."
For a second Harry's face lit up, but quickly it faded, almost like he was hiding it, and he said, "Oh, okay that sounds good I guess. I was thinking that I would go again soon anyway to watch Ginny now that we know her."
Hermione started to nod her head in agreement since that was the exact reason she wanted to go again, however Harry cut in saying, "Don't you think we should wait for a night when Ron doesn't have to work though? He only got to see half of the performance with his family last time I hear, he probably wants to see her."
Hermione froze. She hadn't exactly planned out what to say to Harry about why she had chosen to go without Ron. "Well, um, I just thought that..." she looked around for inspiration, but came up short, "well, I think that Ginny will probably expect us to come tonight to see her, and I don't want to disappoint her." she finished triumphantly.
Harry looked satisfied, and Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that he didn't really care whether Ron was there or not, but just for the heck of it she added, "We could always go watch her again with Ron when he can."
At this Harry formed a smile secret looking smile, as if he were quite pleased by the idea of it, and he quietly nodded his head in agreement.
Pleased with her work, Hermione handed Harry his ticket and told him to be ready by 5:45 sharp. She would swing by and they could apparate to the theatre together. With that, she left the Burrow and apparated to the Ministry in an attempt to get a few hours of paperwork done.
Back at the Burrow, Harry sat in the kitchen with his ticket out in front of him staring. He was excited about tonight since he had been planning something along the same lines, but for some reason he felt very guilty. He reasoned that it had something to do with going to the theatre without Ron. The truth was though, that he was almost glad that Ron wasn't coming.
It meant that he could spend a little time with Ginny without feeling guilty around her brother. It wasn't that he had a real reason to feel that way, but there was something about the way Ginny made him focus on her without even meaning too that made Harry uncomfortable with Ron there.
He picked his ticket up off of the table and put it in his wallet for later. He then finished getting ready for work and left for the Ministry office.
...
At 5:00 like usual, Harry left work and apparated to his temporary home, the Burrow. His mind had drifted all day at work back to the idea of the ballet tonight, and he was relieved to finally be out of the office and closer towards 5:45 when Hermione would be coming over.
He had sent an owl to Ron earlier in the day, to let him know of the plans he had for tonight, and to make sure Ron was okay with it. He was of course, saying that they would just go again soon, and Harry felt bad for the poor chap to be stuck at work until late that night. Normally he would just offer to go help him out to make the job quicker, but not tonight.
He headed straight for the shower, and 10 minutes later stepped out feeling fresh and energized, just like it said he would on the shampoo bottle. He then went into his room and tried to find an outfit to wear. Normally he didn't care at all what he wore, but tonight he wanted to look nice. Not for any particular reason he told himself, just so that Ginny would not be embarrassed by him... or Hermione for that matter, not that he ever wore embarrassing clothes but you get the point.
After careful consideration he decided on a green dress shirt and dark solid black dress pants. He noticed that Ginny wore a lot of green, at least lately. He looked in the mirror and glared at his unruly hair. It never really bothered him much, after all, how many years could he attempt to smooth it down before giving up? He messed with it a little, but like every other time, he eventually quit.
He glanced at the clock and noticed he had 5 more minutes, so he tied his shoes again and checked himself for wrinkles, not that he really cared but what else would he do to kill the time?
At 5:45 exactly, he heard a loud pop from outside, and he jumped out of his chair to greet Hermione at the door. He noticed that she looked nice as well, and together they apparated to a point that was less than a block away from the theatre.
They hurried towards the doors and were immediately ushered in by a very round balding man, who they presumed to be a hired doorman for the night. Once inside the main room, which Harry recognized as the place where he first met Ginny a few days ago, they crossed over towards the theatre room doors which were propped open.
They then had to show their tickets to a ticket collector, and they were shown to their seats by a Muggle hostess. They were a little early, so they sat in their seats and chatted quietly until the lights flickered symbolizing that people should take their seats and be quiet.
Soon the entire theatre was submersed in darkness, but that was soon broken when the curtain was parted to reveal a line of ballerinas, with a girl Harry and Hermione recognized as Ginny in the front center.
A pale blue headlight shown down on Ginny only, making her seem like the only person onstage, and to Hermione and Harry, she was. Calm, soothing music started from the orchestra pit in front of the stage, and soon Ginny was on her toes dancing beautifully.
She leaped around the stage so gracefully that it seemed natural. While watching, Hermione was even convinced that she too could stand on her toes and lift her leg up to her head, Ginny made it look so easy.
Hermione was in such a trance watching that she almost forgot to look at Harry's reaction when watching Ginny. She didn't though, and just before more light shone to reveal the other dancers onstage, she looked over and up at Harry's face. He wa just as entranced as she had been seconds ago, but there was some other emotion on his face.
Hermione was sure that it was an indicator of his feelings for Ginny, whatever the emotion was, but she wasn't sure because it was very dark in the room and she could not see his face very clearly. She tried again a few moments later when the other lights onstage turned on, making the room a little brighter, but she could still not determine much other than the fact that his eyes saw no one but Ginny.
This didn't say a lot though because anyone with eyes could see that Ginny was clearly the best dancer there, and anyone would prefer to watch her, and Hermione was most definitely not biased. Well, maybe a little, but regardless, Ginny was the best.
Hermione soon gave up and focused her attention back onto Ginny. She was once again pulled into Ginny's fluid movements within moments. For the rest of the performance she and Harry sat entranced, admiring their friend.
...
After the show, Harry and Hermione set out to the main room where Hermione had arranged to meet up with Ginny. Harry was relieved that this was a Muggle run theatre, because he did not want the attention to be on him by reporters and star-struck women like always when all he wanted to do was congratulate Ginny on her amazing dancing.
Across the room, Ginny stood with her friend Riley. She had just come from backstage and was looking for her friends when all of a sudden Riley squeeled loudly.
"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!" she shrieked while clutching onto a bewildered Ginny's arm. "Look Look! It's Harry Potter!! I think he's with his friend Hermione Granger from the war! Do you think he would go out with me if I asked him? It's not like any of the Muggle girls are in a rush to ask him out!"
Ginny held back a laugh as she turned to Riley and asked, "Would you like me to introduce you to the two of them?"
She started to giggle as Riley's face showed it's confusion. She was waiting for Riley's expected response and withing seconds, right on cue, Riley asked, "What are you talking about Ginny? Have you gone bleeding mad?"
Ginny smiled and replied, "No silly, it turns out, my older brother Ron has been best friends with the two of them since the first year of Hogwarts. He helped in the war too! He introduced me to them a few days ago." Ginny was going to add that they had become friends after spending time together, but she didn't want to rub it in Riley's face.
Riley stood gaping like a fish, her eyes going back and forth between Ginny, and Harry and Hermione. She then slapped Ginny on the arm very hard. "You mean to tell me that you were introduced to the Harry Potter and you didn't even owl me?! You great big sodding git!" she said with a smile.
Ginny could only grin before Riley started asking, "Is he as dreamy as he looks in person? Is he the nicest guy you have ever met? Does he have a secret girlfriend?The paper's haven't reported anything but you never know. What is his favorite food?..."
Ginny cut her off there. "Riley, stop. He's a very nice person and yes he's cute, but I don't know about the rest. I'm not as inquisitive as you," she said with a wink. She suddenly felt awful for Harry. If this is what her one friend thought, what were the other 500,000 obsessive girls like, and how did Harry deal with it all?
"Did you know that he has been voted the most eligible bachelor in the whole Wizarding World for five years straight?! Ever since the end of the war!" said Riley. "I read in Witch Weekly that he has dated several model now and then, and that he gives all of his girlfriends and diamond bracelet! One magazine said that they asked him and he said he preferred..."
Ginny tuned Riley out at this point. She now felt more sorry for Harry than ever. To have people constantly speculating on your love life, or what you bought, or your opinions on the most remote object. The constant obsession with him, even when he was trying to live a normal life now that he had the opportunity had to be awful.
Ginny saw Harry and Hermione across the room waving her over to them. She nodded towards her friends and turned back to Riley who was still chattering on about the "facts" she knew about Harry Potter, according to the gossip magazines. Ginny cut her off and said politely that she needed to go, but she would owl her soon to make plans.
Riley looked slightly disappointed, but her boyfriend soon came up to greet her. Ginny took this opportunity to escape to her waiting friends.
As she approached them, she saw Harry and Hermione both smile. As soon as she was within five feet of them, they both simultaneously grabbed her in a hug, very reminiscent of her mother's suffocating hugs.
Once they released her, they started pouring out they admirations and congratulations. Both kept saying how amazing she had danced and how beautiful she looked. Ginny was smiling so hard that she felt her face would break, but she didn't care. She loved having her two new best friends there, and it meant so much to her that Harry had come and surprised her as well.
She thanked him for joining Hermione and he said, "Gin, I will come whenever you want me too, I love watching you up there on-stage."
At this comment, Ginny blushed an outstanding red, and Hermione quickly looked over to Harry to notice that he was beaming with pride, whether it was in his comment or in Ginny she couldn't tell.
The three friends were making plans to go out to celebrate, when Ginny felt a hand tap her on the shoulder. Assuming it was Riley, she smiled and turned around. Instead of her petite hyper friend, she saw a very tall man with blondish spiked hair. Ginny thought that he would generally be considered handsome, although she didn't care much for blonds, finding she had a preference for darker hair.
"Hi, I'm Anthony Stewart," the man said with a cocky grin.
Ginny glanced back at Harry and Hermione and shrugged her shoulders. "Uh, hi, I'm Ginny Weasley," she replied, wondering what this man Anthony wanted.
"Ah, so your a Weasley, that would make sense with the red hair," Anthony said, glancing appreciatively at Ginny's hair which made her a little uncomfortable. "I was wondering if you were a witch since you seem to know Harry Potter and Hermione Granger," he said nodding towards Harry and Hermione in a way that was meant to be a greeting of sorts.
Ginny didn't like the way he assumed things, although he seemed harmless enough so far. "Yeah, I'm a witch, even if my job doesn't suggest it."
"Well the way you danced definitely charmed the audience," Anthony replied. Ginny rolled her eyes, that had to be one of the cheesiest pick-up lines she had ever heard. Hermione apparently thought so too from the way she snorted behind Ginny.
Ginny replied "Thank you, you know I really should go, my friends and I were about to head out."
Anthony stopped her, "Look I'm sorry about that awful line, I just got a little nervous I guess and that popped out."
Ginny softened, he was pretty nice. "It's okay, it wasn't that awful, we really do need to go though."
Anthony smiled and let her walk away, saying as she left loud enough for her to hear, "I'll see you around I hope."
Ginny looked around to reply, but he had already left her line of vision. She once again shrugged her shoulders, and the three of them went out to a local pub to celebrate the night's performance.
Hermione noticed that Harry was strangely quiet on the way there, and she thought with a smile that he must not have been too fond of the Anthony incident. His face had gone red back there and he seemed to be glaring at Anthony the whole time.
He seemed to calm down now though, and as the three drank and joked around, they all seemed to forget about the incident.
