Author's Note: Dear God! I am so sorry for taking so long to update! I don't want to make excuses or anything but it was the end of the school year, and you can guess how hectic it was. I promise that updates will be quicker, with longer chapters from now on! Also, I would just like to add that I will also be updating my other stories frequently, so if you like the Phantom of the Opera, check them out... they aren't brilliant but I'm somewhat proud of them thus far. Anyway, on with the story cough cough, chapter.
LOVE Bella
That night, after the three friends celebrated at the pub, they returned to their respective homes. Ginny said goodnight to Harry and went upstairs to her bedroom, dying to jump into bed and sleep for 20 hours... at least, if not more.
Upon entering her room though, she noticed a large owl that she did not recognize sitting on her open windowsill. She crossed the room wondering if Hermione borrowed another Ministry owl, but not finding a reason why she would send a letter.
She took the letter from the bird, fed him a treat, and watched as he flew away. She then looked at the letter and found that there was nothing written on the envelope.
Deciding that she might as well open it, she ripped open the cream colored parchment and found writing that she did not recognize as well. She quickly skimmed the letter and discovered who the writer was; Anthony Stewart!
She was slightly shocked that he had written her, and how did he know where she lived? Then again, owls could pretty much find anyone as long as they knew the name.
She took a calming breath and reread the letter, this time focusing on the words.
Dear Ginny,
I'm sorry about our meeting at the theatre today, in case you don't remember, I'm the tall guy that stuck his foot in his mouth. I meant to casually introduce myself, but I'm afraid I scared you away. I promise I just wanted to be friendly. You were really great tonight on-stage and I wanted to congratulate you. By the way, I didn't get the chance to tell you earlier that I'm an investor in the ballet theatre, not that it matters much, but I didn't want you to think that I was stalking you or something, because chances are you will see me again at the ballet (I'm sort of required to attend most of them). Maybe you and I could get something to eat sometime? If you don't want to though, or you have a boyfriend, I completely understand. See you soon hopefully.
Anthony Stewart
Ginny held the letter somewhat dazed after finishing reading it. Her general impression of Anthony was positive, he seemed like a nice guy, although she would prefer to have him as a friend than anything else. Maybe she would invite him to dinner with Harry and Hermione, that way he would know she wanted to be friends.
She decided not to owl back because she would have to borrow Harry's owl and it was late. She would probably see Anthony tomorrow anyway, especially since she now knew he was an investor in the ballet.
Content with her decision, she changed her clothes and climbed into bed.
...
The next night after the show, Ginny found Harry, Hermione, and Ron all waiting for her. She quickly said goodbye to her friends in the ballet and walked over to greet them, glad that Ron was able to finally make it.
Harry had noticed during the performance that Ron had never looked prouder than he did when he was watching Ginny dance. He was glad that Ron had the opportunity to finally watch his favorite sibling, and only sister, shine.
As Ginny walked up to the group, she saw Ron smiling with pride at her. After he congratulated her, and the four had made their plans to go to a local restaurant, Ginny looked around for Anthony, eager to invite him along.
She found him over on the wall near them talking to a group of men. She caught his eye and waved in a friendly way, hoping he would come over to talk to her.
Ginny quickly turned back to her friends and explained how she wanted to invite Anthony along for dinner, saying that she wanted to be friends with him. She wanted to make sure that everyone seemed okay with the idea before she forced Anthony on them. Everyone voiced their consent, although Hermione noticed that Harry's eyes had grown dark, and his face had become somber. He did not look very happy at all, but in a weird way, this made Hermione very happy. Maybe he did have some feelings for Ginny after all, why else would he look so jealous?
Hermione looked away from Harry to notice that the Anthony fellow had approached Ginny, and the two were talking. Ginny pulled Anthony's arm gently and led him directly in front of her friends and brother to introduce everyone. Ron seemed a little hostile towards Anthony at first, mainly because he was a guy and he was interested in Ginny, and in Ron's opinion, no one was good enough for his baby sister. Ron soon covered his bad feelings though when he saw the glare Ginny gave him.
Ginny then introduced Anthony to Harry and Hermione. If Ron's greeting was a little hostile, then Harry's was murderous. He appeared to take an instant dislike to Anthony, although truth be told, he could not for the life of him say exactly why. It was just something to do with the way he acted towards Ginny. The man obviously liked her, and Harry didn't want to see her get hurt by some idiot like this Anthony fellow, even if they were just friends.
Harry reasoned with himself that his feelings were simply that of a friend watching out for another friend, after all that's all they were...friends.
The introductions were made, and the group huddled out into the summer night to head off to dinner.
They chose a small restaurant several blocks away from the theatre. After all five were seated, Ginny set out to make everyone comfortable by breaking the tension that was apparent between the three men. She started up a conversation with Anthony, and quickly found that he was a very funny and attentive man. She had to admit, she liked him a lot, although not as anything more than a friend.
Harry and Ron seemed to have come around as well, Ron slightly more than Harry, and they were talking with Anthony comfortably soon enough. Everyone had to admit that Anthony Stewart was a nice guy, and easy to get along with. Ginny could already see her enjoying his friendship very much.
...
Two months had passed since Ginny had first met Harry and Hermione, and they had quickly become her best friends. She and Ron had become very close as well, and the four generally spent their time together. Ginny often spent time with Anthony as well, who was another good friend of hers now, although she clearly preferred Harry and Hermione.
Hermione had noticed a change in Harry. In the past couple of months he seemed to have calmed down around Ginny, not enough to make Hermione think he no longer fancied her, but to the point where he wasn't looking at her every other second; or at least he hid it better now.
As far as Harry was concerned, he and Ginny were good friends, and he didn't want to ruin that. Besides, he felt that he had gotten over his crush, and now he was merely attracted to her, and what red blooded male wouldn't be?
He and Hermione had made it a habit to attend most if not all of Ginny's performances. They had become Ginny's most loyal (if not only) fan base, and they were well known by the other ballerinas (although none but Riley knew that they were famous).
Many of the girls had even asked Harry out after they found out from Ginny that he was just her friend. Apparently his charm and good looks were not lost on Muggles, and secretly he was glad that he attracted women for something other than his fame (although he didn't really care for any of the girls).
Ginny on the other hand was annoyed whenever a girl from the ballet approached Harry. At first it amused her because she knew how much Harry hated the attention, and she knew that he would turn them down. Soon though, when it became apparent that more than one girl was going to make a move on him, and to be honest some of the girls were quite attractive, Ginny decided that enough was enough.
She soon resorted to telling the girls that he was extremely gay, and she even got Riley to go along with it. Harry laughed very hard when she told him this, and she calmly explained that it was for his own good because most of the girls probably had an S.T.D. or something anyway. This just made Harry laugh harder. Hermione was amused by this because it showed a new side to Ginny, a side which might have feelings for Harry, or at least a side that was protective of Harry.
Not to say that Harry wasn't protective of Ginny in return. Hermione noticed that Harry started attending ballet performances nearly every night, at least whenever he could. He seemed determined to spend more time with Ginny than Anthony could, or at least that was Hermione's opinion.
Anthony and Ginny spent time with one another frequently. Ginny would often be seen after a show laughing and talking with Anthony before joining Harry and Hermione. From what Ginny told Hermione, Anthony consistently asked Ginny out, and it was well-known that he wanted to be more than friends, but Ginny always refused him. Her reasons were that he was just not the kind of guy she wanted to date.
Those were the reasons she told Hermione at least. They were partially true, but the whole truth was, Anthony wasn't Harry.
Ginny had come to the realization within weeks that she definitely had a crush on Harry. Hell, she had always had a crush on Harry. The point was, it was not going to go away anytime soon, much to Ginny's dismay. With her intense crush though, any other guys that asked her out were just not that appealing.
...
It was Friday evening. Ginny had been able to leave practice early due to the ballet director coming down with the flu. Luckily there were no performances for another week.
Ginny was in the kitchen making herself a small dinner. She didn't expect anyone to be home yet. Harry and Ron were supposedly still at work, and her mother had gone out to Diagon Alley for a rare day of shopping, courtesy of Ginny as a birthday gift to her mother.
In fact, Harry was not at work any longer. He had apparated back home to the Burrow after completing his work for the day, and he was about to head up for a shower when something caught his attention in the kitchen. He moved closer to the arch that connected the kitchen to the den and realized that he could hear Ginny quietly humming.
Ginny had been unconsciously humming the song from the Nutcracker, the ballet she would be performing soon, for the last 5 minutes. Harry peeked his head in the doorway where she couldn't see him to observe her. He was about to move away and head for the stairs, when she once again caught his attention.
She had started to move as she hummed, and Harry could make out distinct ballet moves. Her foot would point and extend out in front her, then move to the side, and her arm followed in a similar motion. Harry watched entranced, amazed at the grace with which she moved.
His mouth fell open slightly as she proceeded to stand en point on the toe that had been extended to her side. One minute her leg was out with her toe pointed on the ground, and the next she was on the tip of her foot, almost as if some force had lifted her gracefully into that position. Her other leg was extended out at her side with her toe pointed at the end, and she would bend it at the knee and extend it once more.
Harry had seen her do this many times onstage before, but the amazing part about this was that she hardly seemed to realize she was doing it. She was still stirring soup for Merlin's sake!
Ginny seemed to be pulled back into attention as her soup was finished cooking. She removed it from the heat of the stove, and poured it into a bowl. Instead of bringing it to the table however, Harry watched as she placed it on the counter and placed a heating charm on it to keep it warm.
Harry smiled to himself as he watched her bite her lip and look around to see if anyone was watching her. Ironically enough, she was being watched by Harry, but she didn't see him. Harry felt badly for spying on her, and tried to force himself to leave, but he was curious as to what she was doing, especially now that she was putting her long vibrant red hair into a messy bun atop her head.
Harry couldn't help but notice how unbelievably cute she was with her hair like that. Wait a minute, did you really just think that? Um, no, why would you think that? Are you serious? Your having a conversation with yourself, I can read your thoughts, therefore I know that you just thought that Ginny looks cute. Unbelievably cute, I mean... Yeah, don't bother denying it. Well would you, I mean let's face it, she's always gorgeous, but now with those tight sweat pants and her hair up like that...STOP LOOKING AT HER LIKE THAT!
Harry's thoughts were interrupted as he heard Ginny mutter a spell. He watched confused as she made the kitchen table and chairs smaller and pushed them to the side of the room leaving an empty floor space. She then conjured herself some ballet slippers around her feet.
Harry realized that she was going to dance. Although he attended most of her performances, he had never seen her dance at home, outside of the theatre, so he was excited. His eyes were glued, and his mouth dropped down all the way to the floor as she started twirling on her toes en point. Something about dancing in the kitchen made her seem more graceful than ever.
She floated around on her toes, performing moves that Harry would never imagine could be done by a person. She seemed to be dancing to a tune within her head, for no music was on in the kitchen. She continued for a few minutes and ended in a move she had told Harry and Hermione was called a first arabesque. It was an extremely difficult looking move where she stood on the toe of one foot and lifted the other leg backwards so that her foot was near her head. It was extremely beautiful and Harry could not stop himself from thinking how incredibly gorgeous she was.
The moment was ruined when Harry heard Ron slamming the front door open as he returned home from work. Ginny heard it too apparently, and she scrambled to return the furniture to normal, not wanting to be caught dancing in the kitchen it seemed.
Harry dashed upstairs, taking the steps three at a time, not wanting to get caught spying on Ginny by Ron. He made it to his room and sat on the bed catching his breath and completely forgetting about the shower he had originally wanted.
His mind went over the whole event he had just witnessed over and over. Why was it that he could not get Ginny off of his mind? She had seemed so beautiful and graceful like an angel back in the kitchen, but still, his thoughts were clouded by her. Images of her perfect face and body were floating through his mind at warp speed. Wait a minute, perfect face and body? Since when is Ginny perfect? What do you mean, she's always been perfect? No she hasn't, she has always been pretty and funny and smart, but perfect? That's a little intense don't you think? But she is perfect, her movements, her jokes, her face, her laugh... it's all so perfect!
Hey Romeo, your starting to sound like your in love with her. Oh come off it! I'm not in love with Ginny, I just...
Harry thought about everything he had ever felt for her. Sure, he had a crush on her originally, but that had faded right? They were good friends now... right?
His mind suddenly spun as he thought of the many times he wanted to touch her or kiss her, or just simply hold her. She was just so goddamn beautiful. And then that laugh of hers always made him smile, and she smelled so good, like fresh cut flowers but different in a way that was uniquely Ginny. She could always make him laugh too, or smile, and he always felt better when he was around her. He then thought of how he felt when he had met Anthony, and how he had wanted to tear him apart limb for limb, just for looking at Ginny...
Oh Merlin! I think I'm in love with her! Well now you get it...
Harry was completely flabbergasted. He was in love with Ginny Weasley, and as far as he could tell, he always had been.
Author's Note: There you go, a nice long chapter to make up for my month long absence. I promise there is more on the way... tomorrow I should think. But for now, I really have to go to bed, so I hope you enjoyed this!
