Disclaimer-If you like it, assume I don't own it. The Potterverse belongs to JKR, Steve Klowes, Scholastic and WB. Fanon belongs to the multitude. . .I'm simply paying homage. Most of this scene is from GoF by JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made.
Author's Notes—Progress has been a lot slower in this work, but I hope you'll all stick with me anyway. As you all know, I may not own it, but I work hard, and I love it, so if you read it and enjoy it, please review it! Please don't print or post this elsewhere without my knowledge.
HBP—WOW! I devoured it, and I'm still digesting. I can't believe it's really here…I need to read it again, how about you guys?
Raiining—Thanks! I'm glad you thought everyone was themselves! I really love trying to bring them to life. :-)
J. Rhaye—It's nice to see your name back up on my wall…Hope you enjoyed (and/or are enjoying HBP!) I'm looking forward to OotP and HBP as well…but they seem FAR away. pouts I admit, you guys have to have noticed by now…I can't resist slapstick humor at any opportunity. J I loved the whole scene with Ginny, Hermione, and Neville as well. If I hadn't been able to write Ginny and Hermione as taking it as a compliment, I'd have been so upset! I agree…it took tons of courage for him to do that…especially to ask Ginny after Hermione turned him down like that! I loved getting the chance to describe Hermione's dress too…Harry and Ron are too masculine to appreciate all the fine details! Silly, boys:-) I do empathize with Ginny's dilemma though… Looking forward to having you pop in again! hugs
Arachnasloom—Thanks for asking my opinion! And…that was a really nice thing to say about EEDOE! I totally agree that she has excellent taste…and her own stories are great proof of it! I love your insight into Ginny's way with words…you describe part of what drew me to her character in a way I hadn't even recognized yet—thanks! I agree that Harry's thickness on the point of the ball could be seen as a foretaste of his insensitivity in OotP, which just shows Rowling does a good job:-) Looking forward to a chance to read your story. :-)
EEDOE—Thanks for bringing your special touch to my work, too. I would be lost without you, so stick around, okay?
Bill—Without you, this story would never have gotten past the beginning of MoP. Hope the chapter is good now that you know the mechanics behind it! hugs
"Hermione, you've lost it. What does being a witch have to do with--" she stopped and began to laugh as well. "You can't seriously mean I should charm my robes? My everyday school robes?"
"Well?" Hermione prompted with that deepening look of smug satisfaction. "Why not?"
"It would be pretty complicated," Ginny said, thinking hard. "I'd have to cast a Chameleon Charm on the school crest so it wouldn't show. . ."
"You put Neville right on that same charm three times last month," Hermione said coolly.
Ginny gave her a squelching a look, somewhat hampered by the fact she was taking off the robe she wore over her skirt and blouse.
"And. . ." Ginny continued, ignoring Hermione in the corner attempting to contain her glee, as she cast the charm and critically studied the result. ". . . the color. . ."
"Did Ron ever tell you we made a banner for Harry's first Quidditch game?" Hermione said. "It said POTTER FOR PRESIDENT. I used a Glitzy Glamour to make the paint flash different colors."
"Yes, well, while I'd like something a bit snappier than our everyday black, I doubt I want to be flashing various colors," Ginny said, smiling wryly.
"So use a Freezing Charm to lock the effects of the charm!" Hermione said as if it should have been obvious. "You could even use a Fading Spell to make the color more like an iridescent tint over the black. But," she continued, "I admit layering charms can be kind of tricky and while I'm sure you could do it without any trouble, we could probably find a color-changing charm that's less complicated. It would only take us a couple of hours in the library--" Her voice trailed off as she helped Ginny make various adjustments to the charms she was already testing.
"Well, dear, isn't that nice," the mirror said to Ginny as she surveyed the results of their experiment a few minutes later. Ginny sighed. It certainly wasn't what she'd envisioned wearing to her first dance, let alone anything to rival the beauty of Hermione's robes, but it wasn't terrible. "I suppose," she said with a decided lack of enthusiasm, "it will do if it has to."
"Anyway, this was just the first go round," Hermione said with an air of encouragement, "it will look even better after we've had the chance to practice."
It wouldn't even have occurred to me to charm an old school robe like that. Some of those charms aren't exactly easy to pull off, but Hermione's quite brilliant, and the result didn't look too bad . . .
Ginny concluded later that night in the letter she was writing to Bill.
A short note to her parents, simply telling them Neville had invited her to the Ball and she was excited to have the chance to attend, sat off to the side, ready to send, and a letter to Professor Lupin—the contents of which were more detailed than the letter to her parents, but less confident than those of the letter she was currently writing—rested on top of it.
She lifted her slightly-straggly quill off the parchment with a sigh, and glanced over it to where Ron, Harry, and Hermione were conferring over a castle of Exploding Snap cards near the fire. None of them noticed her scrutiny, let alone offered any solutions to what was bothering her . . . which was only to be expected, since she couldn't even really describe what that was to begin with.
The ball is all anyone here can talk about, and I enjoy spending time with Neville . . . I have to admit, I'm glad to get to go. Hope things are going as well for you in Egypt.
Love,
At that point, the castle blew up in Ron's face, leaving smoking trails where his eyebrows had been, and adding a few interesting wiggles to her signature. . .
Ginny
"Nice look, Ron, go well with your dress robes, that will," Fred's voice carried clearly across the short space between her and the rest of them, and she set her sealed letter aside and watched the twins sit down at the table with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" George asked.
"No, he's off delivering a letter," Ron said edgily, casting a wary look first at Harry, then at Hermione. Ginny felt her curiosity pique. Apparently, so did Ron. "Why?"
"Because, George wants to invite him to the ball," Fred said sarcastically. Ginny snickered softly.
"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid, great prat," said George. Ginny glanced at her own stack of letters and rubbed her temple thoughtfully. Certainly is a popular pastime all of a sudden . . . I wonder why?
"Who d'you two keep writing to, eh?" Ron demanded. Ginny raised her own, thankfully unsinged, eyebrows at the similarity of their thoughts.
"Nose out, Ron," Fred said, somewhat predictably, "or I'll burn that for you, too." He flourished his wand in a way that made Ginny snicker again. "So . . . you lot got dates for the ball yet?"
Ginny stopped snickering and sat up straighter, trying to be casual in the process.
"Nope," said Ron.
Ginny looked at Harry, who hadn't said anything. He became suddenly interested in the book he'd been reading; and didn't bother to contradict Ron.
"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," Fred advised.
If you ask me, they already are,Ginny thought, feeling her lip curl a bit snidely. But I forgot -- you and Harry didn't ask me or Hermione—that's the problem!
"Who're you going with, then?" Ron asked, feeling his eyebrows, as though trying to put out any remaining sparks with his fingers.
"Angelina," said Fred, as if this were as incontrovertible as rain.
"What? You already asked her?" Ron sounded unduly impressed.
"Good point," Fred conceded with a bit of a grin. He turned and called over his shoulder, "Oi! Angelina!"
Angelina, chatting near the fire with Alicia Spinnet, paused and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "What?"
"Want to come to the ball with me?"
Angelina gave Fred a bit of an appraising look. As near as Ginny could tell, he didn't even flush in the least. For that, Ginny would have liked to set fire to him. But, she couldn't help feeling happy for him nonetheless as Angelina said, "All right, then," and turned back to Alicia with the hint of a smile on her face.
"There you go," said Fred, "piece of cake." He stood up again, yawning. "We'd better use a school owl then, George, come on. . . ."
Ginny nearly called out that she'd accompany them with her own letters, but giving them some privacy—as they didn't seem to want people knowing what they were up to—at the cost of a slight delay in sending her own mail was a small price to pay Fred for having offered her—and Hermione—inadvertent vindication in showing up both Harry and Ron in the process of asking a girl to the ball.
Ron looked at Harry through the smoldering remains of his card castle. "We should get a move on, you know . . . ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."
Ginny sat up even straighter, sucking her breath in with an indignant hiss. Crookshanks brushed across her ankles, as if reminding her to maintain some semblance of composure. She reached down and trailed her fingers along the barest edge of his spiky fur, still bristling herself.
". . .what," Hermione spit dangerously, "excuse me?"
"Well—you know," Ron said, shrugging, not looking nearly uneasy enough in Ginny's opinion; or, she thought, in Hermione's. "I'd rather go alone than with—with Eloise Midgen, say."
"Her acne's loads better lately—and she's really nice!" Hermione said indignantly, and with the air of someone repeating a conversation she'd had several times already.
"Her nose is off-center," Ron reminded her with an air of one long misunderstood.
"Oh, I see," Hermione said in a tone that made both Ginny and Crookshanks draw back slightly. "So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"
"Er—yeah, that sounds about right," Ron said. Disgusted as she was, Ginny had to admire his honesty. Harry, too, looked torn between embarrassment and agreement, an observation that made Ginny think she might offer to help him test antidotes—and poisons—for his upcoming exam in potions.
"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, with more self-control than Ginny could have mustered. Harry and Ron looked at each other, clearly flabbergasted, as she vanished up the stairs, then began gathering up their things, apparently deciding that if they couldn't explain it, they might as well go along with it.
Deciding Fred and George had had more than enough time to get into trouble, considering how much Ron had managed to get in, Ginny scooped up her letters and headed up to the Owlery to mail them.