A/N Wow...what can I say, I didn't know that I was going to create such a stir with the whole hair dye incident...lol...I didn't think it would be so upsetting hehehe...well here is a whole chapter devoted to the controversial color but I promise the new color won't last forever and maybe you guys will find it in your hearts to forgive me since I updated again so soon and that it's Christmas! So Merry Christmas everyone or Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates something different...and thanks to my beta Augurey Song for being able to get this edited for me to I could get it to you guys asap...
"How do you think the family is going to react?" Harry asked, playing with a lock of her newly shorn, newly dyed hair.
"I don't know," Ginny said with a laugh, looking in the mirror over Harry's shoulder. "But I'm not that eager to find out."
However, the fates were not on Ginny's side at that moment as Mrs. Weasley picked that exact time to call up the stairs to them that dinner was ready.
Harry could feel Ginny physically tense up next to him as he watched the color slowly drain from her face, adding to the contrast her hair had against her porcelain complexion. Her breathing started coming heavier and more rapidly and for a moment he was actually afraid that she might hyperventilate and pass out, as her eyes started to glaze over.
"Ginny?" Harry asked concerned as he took hold of both of her shoulders and shook her gently.
Ginny looked at Harry, breaking out of her trance. "Oh my gods. Harry, what did I do?"
"You dyed your hair black," he supplied helpfully.
"I know I dyed my hair black," she snapped. "Why did I dye my hair black? Why did you let me dye my hair black!" she asked hysterically, smacking him on the arm.
"Hey now," Harry responded rubbing his arm where she hit him. "I tried to stop you."
"Why didn't you try harder!" She accused, before she crossed to the mirror and started running her hands through her hair and muttering something that Harry couldn't hear over and over under her breath.
Harry crossed over to Ginny and turned her around so she was facing him. "Ginny, you need to calm down. You are going to have an aneurysm if you don't breathe."
"What did I do? What is my family going to say? I can't believe I dyed my hair. Harry, why do I have to be so darn spontaneous, why didn't I listen to you?"
"Because you are my peanut, that's why. And it's part of what makes you Ginny." He said calmly. "Now you are going to go down there with the unbreakable confidence that I know you possess and you are going to face your family knowing that you made the decision to dye your hair because you wanted to and that you still look beautiful no matter what hair color you have."
Ginny closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and took strength in Harry's words. And when she opened her eyes a new resolve shone in her eyes. "Okay, lets do this."
Harry smiled at her, receiving a weak one in return as he took her hand and led her to the door and down the stairs. When they had reached the bottom, Ginny hesitated for a moment before she took the last step taking a huge gulp of air when her mother looked at the two of them.
"Well there the two of you are," Molly scolded good naturedly, turning back around to finish setting the table, "I was about to send a search party for the two of you."
The rest of the family, which included Arthur, Fred and George who had decided to come to dinner, and Ron and Hermione, who had already gathered in the dining room, stood in shocked silence--not only at Ginny's appearance, but at the way Molly was reacting (or really how she was not reacting to it.)
"Did you two have a good time while you where out?" Molly asked not waiting for an answer before she continued speaking. "You look good without glasses Harry, it's a very nice look for you dear."
"Thanks," Harry replied, as bewildered by her actions as everyone else. "I don't think I'm going to wear my contacts everyday, but I think they are nice for special occasions," he rambled, unsure of what else to say.
"Yes, and I think your new haircut is very dashing as well..." Molly suddenly stopped speaking as if talking about Harry's hair registered something else in her mind.
Everyone held their collective breaths and Ginny gripped onto Harry's arm a little bit tighter as Molly suddenly dropped the forks to the ground causing a deafening clatter in the otherwise silent room. Once the forks had stopped reverberating, she turned around slowly until she was facing Harry and Ginny.
"Ginerva," she said in a deadly quiet voice causing all of the Weasleys to blanch at the use of her full name, "you cut your hair."
"Yes Mum, I did," Ginny responded stepping out from behind Harry, finally finding her trademark courage.
"And you dyed it black," Molly continued just as quietly.
"Yes I did," Ginny said again as she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders.
"Is it a glamour?"
"No Mum, I actually dyed it."
The Weasley matriarch closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath as if she was trying very hard to keep from exploding. "Ginny," she paused, everyone holding their breath once more, "please tell me why you cut your hair and dyed it black."
"Because I wanted to Mum, and I like it and I am going to be keeping it," she told her mother as if she was daring her to suggest otherwise.
Ginny heard someone gasp from the general area of the dinner table and she knew that she had shocked all of her siblings. And she was also vaguely aware that everyone in the room was looking back and forth from her and her mother waiting for one of them to say something. As she stood there in a test of wills against her mother, she was about to break and say she would figure out away to dye it back when her mother blinked.
"Okay then," was all she said before abruptly turning around and leaving the room and heading up the stairs.
No one moved for a moment as they all stared at each other stunned into a kind of momentary stupor. Everyone stayed this way until Arthur broke the silence by suddenly standing up.
"I'm going to go find your mother," he said shortly, with only a cursory glance at Ginny as he too moved from the room.
"Well, I think it looks really nice Ginny. With your complexion, you can really pull it off," Hermione finally said.
Ginny smiled gratefully at her best friend.
"Well I don't like it," Ron interrupted with conviction.
"Ron!" Hermione admonished.
"Well I don't!" Ron told her not backing down. "She doesn't even look like a Weasley any more."
"That was kinda the point Ron," Ginny said defending herself and her actions. "And I am not defined by the color of my hair. I would still be me with red hair or black hair or even green hair. This is the exact reason I dyed it, so I don't look like a Weasley."
"What's so wrong with being a Weasley?" Ron challenged standing up and moving to face his younger sister directly.
"Nothing! But is it so wrong that I don't want to be immediately identified as one!"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Well it worked," Fred said speaking for the first time.
"Yeah," George continued, "you don't look like a Weasley."
The twins looked at each other before continuing together. "You look like a Potter."
"What?" Ron, Ginny, and Harry said in unison.
"They're right," Hermione said looking at the three of them critically. "With the three of you standing next to each other with Ginny in the middle, if I didn't know you guys, I would think that Harry was your brother, not Ron."
Harry and Ginny looked at each other, honestly surprised by this new revelation, equally surprised when they realized that it was true, they did look like they were related.
Ginny's nose wrinkled up and she nibbled on her bottom lip as she tried to decide how she felt about this new information. And Harry seemed to be waiting to make his judgment on the situation until Ginny made hers.
"Well," Ginny said after a moment, "I suppose that is alright. Since I like Harry better at this point," she said with a glare at Ron. "And Harry never gave me fudge with walnuts in it without telling me, causing me to end up at St. Mungos on Christmas eve."
"I forgot you were allergic!" Ron defended himself.
"Harry would never forget I am allergic to walnuts, would you Harry?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked from Ginny to Ron and back to Ginny. "Of course not," Harry promised solemnly, managing to keep the mirth out of his voice but not his eyes.
"Whatever," Ron conceded grumpily sitting back down at table in defeat. "I give up, go ahead and be Ginny Potter then."
Ron's words seemed to create a heavy and uncomfortable blanket over the room and Harry and Ginny especially, as they both shifted back and forth awkwardly, the name Ginny Potter echoing over and over in their minds.
"Ginny," Hermione said suddenly, releasing the tension, "it doesn't look like your Mum is coming back anytime soon, so should we go get dinner out of the kitchen and bring it in here?"
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," Ginny agreed, following the older girl into the kitchen.
As they loaded up their arms with plates of food, Hermione leaned in and said, "You know that Ron is dense sometimes and he has no idea what he just said."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ginny replied blushing slightly.
"If you insist," Hermione told her with a knowing smile as she walked back into the dining room.
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The rest of the summer went smoothly after Ginny had a heart to heart with her mother, and Ginny explained that the black hair wasn't going to last forever and she just wanted to do something different for a while. And it also didn't mean that she didn't want to look like a Weasley anymore, but she just wanted a change and that one day she would go back to red. Molly even confessed to her daughter that she had wanted to do the same thing her age, except she wanted to be blonde and tried to bleach it using lemon juice which ended disastrously and turned her hair a sickly bright orange color. Molly also admitted that while she wished that Ginny would have at least asked or told her that she was going to do it, she did like the way she looked with dark hair, although she preferred it natural of course.
Their make overs even caused a national stir as they had been photographed together when they went to Diagon Alley to get school supplies. There had been a whole page article in Witch Weekly on Harry's new look and another half a page on trying to figure out who Harry's mysterious raven haired lady could be, because in one picture they made it look like they were about to kiss from the angle it was taken.
And of course, just like everything else that happened at Hogwarts, the pairs new look was a huge topic of discussion for months only spurred on by the articles and that they now knew that Ginny was the raven haired girl. It wasn't until around Halloween that things returned to normal, well at least as normal as things got for Harry and his closest friends.
A/N So what did you all think? I know that this one is a little bit shorter, but originally I wasn't even planning to write this chapter and I was just going to write a short paragraph at the start of the next chapter to recap the reaction but Ginny dying her hair was such a big deal to all of you guys I thought I should honor it with a whole chapter and it is a good intermediary chapter since I'm going to start making some time jumps again to keep the plot from draggin to much...Now my goal is to get through chapter 21 written before break is over, but the question I have for you guys is, do you want me to upload all five chapters in the next 2 weeks or would you rather that I spaced them out only doing one a week or one every other week or so, so that it isn't as long of a gap between chapters 21 and 22? So tell me what you thought and if you still hate me for dying Ginny's hair!