When You Wasn't Famous
By: Sam Lincoln
Disclaimer: The characters from Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling and are used here without permission.
"When you're a famous boy/it's gets really easy to get girls/It's all so easy you get a bit spoiled/but when you try to pull a girl who is also famous too/It Feels Just Like When You Wasn't Famous
-When You Wasn't Famous, The Streets
Chapter 6: Those That Don't Know
Ginny made her way through the crowd at the post press conference cocktail party, accepting congratulations from Ministry officials and politely answering questions from reporters. All the while she kept one eye firmly on Harry to make sure he remained on the opposite end of the room from her.
"You sure have come a long way from those early days in Holyhead," A voice said from behind Ginny. She turned and saw Amelia St. James, a junior reporter for Quidditch Weekly, standing there.
A smile broke out on Ginny's face. "I could say the same to you Amelia," she said. St. James had just been starting her career in Quidditch reporting when Ginny first joined the Harpies. In the years between the two had risen through the ranks of their respective professions. Though Ginny's rise was at a much faster rate than St. James. They weren't exactly friends, but the two women had established a rapport over the years. If there was one journalist in the country that Ginny trusted, it was St. James. "Covering the national team is a fair distance from writing profiles about reserve members of the Harpies.
"So how do you feel about making the team, honestly?" St. James asked.
"This is off the record right?" Ginny asked and St. James nodded in reply. "Equal parts excitement and terror," Ginny said. "I've been working for this moment my entire career, but…"
"You still don't feel ready is that it?" St. James asked.
"Something like that. It's like the first time I started for the Harpies, only moreso."
"I felt the same way when I started at QW," St. James said. She rested a hand on Ginny's arm. "Don't worry about it, you'll be brilliant flying for Cabbock I'm sure. Have you gotten a chance to get to know any other the other members of the squad yet?"
"Not really, well, not except for Harry I suppose."
"Oh that's right, the two of you played together at Hogwarts."
A pained smiled flashed across Ginny's face. "That's right, my fourth, fifth, and sixth years. Harry was team captain for the last two."
"Those must have been some teams," St. James said.
"We won the House Cup all three of those years, and then the one after when I was captain for good measure ."
"So what does it feel like to be reunited with your old team captain?"
Ginny gave a little shrug. "You've seen what he's become. How can you not be excited having the chance to fly with the best Seeker in the world?"
"Were the two of your close?" St. James asked.
Ginny cast her eyes across the room and saw Harry talking to a small cluster of important Ministry officials. "He and my brother Ron were mates, and since we were the two most talented players on the Gryffindor team we spent a fair amount of time together training."
St. James followed Ginny's gaze and also stared at Harry. "I don't mean to pry Ginny, but it almost seems beyond belief that the two of you were just acquaintances, I mean, he is Harry Potter after all. His reputation is what it is, and I'm not talking about his Seeking."
Ginny watched as Harry floundered for a response to something a Ministry official said to him. "He certainly was just as fit back then," She said to St. James as she took in the tall, lean frame, the messy black hair, and especially the eyes. She'd always loved the intensity that filled those green eyes whenever Harry talked about something he was passionate about, Quidditch mostly. It definitely was those eyes that had caught her attention all those years ago. "But we were both far too obsessed with our Quidditch futures to be anything more than teammates." Ginny was impressed at how easily the lie came to her.
The very first time Ginny Weasley saw Harry Potter though was before even that. It was the day Ron left for Hogwarts for the first time, and Ginny remembered seeing a boy with messy black hair talking to two adults. For the life of her Ginny couldn't figure out why the boy looked so sad, he was going to Hogwarts! Later she learned that his name was Harry Potter, that he'd been sorted into Gryffindor along with her brother, and that they shared a dorm room with three other blokes. Ginny hadn't given the information much thought and instead focused on Ron's description of Hogwarts.
Ginny's own first year was nowhere nearly as idyllic as Ron's. All of her brothers were too engrossed in their own interests to pay Ginny any attention and she had precious little in common with the other girls in her dorm room. She wanted to talk Quidditch and they were more interested in boys. As a result her first year was mostly a lonely affair.
Things started to take a turn for the better for Ginny when the notorious swot Hermione Granger caught sight of her casting a Bat-Bogey Hex on a Slytherin trying to bother her. Hermione had then badgered the younger girl into showing her the intricacies of the hex and much to Ginny's surprise she discovered that the pair got along famously. Years later Hermione would confess to Ginny that she had sought her out in order to learn more about a certain brother of hers. But whatever the reason Ginny finally had a friend in her house.
It wasn't until her fourth year that Ginny was able to bull her way onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team. In her third year Quidditch had been suspended in favor of reviving the Tri-Wizard Tournament, which to everyone's delight was won by Hogwarts' own Cedric Diggory. It was when she joined the team that Ginny really met Harry Potter. Prior to that he was merely the dishy bloke who ordered Ron and the rest of his mates around. After spending time around Harry though she quickly understood why that was. Harry was a natural leader; he had an air about him that made people feel compelled to do what he asked. It was that magnetism, plus the fact that the two of them were the hardest workers on the team and therefore spent many hours training together that lead to Ginny developing a crush on Harry. Not that she was alone, as the star Seeker Harry had his pick of any girl in the house, along with quite a few from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and even Slytherin. As such Ginny didn't feel like she had any chance with Harry and shifted her attention to other blokes, much to Ron's consternation.
It was in her fifth year when everything changed. Their one-on-one training sessions grew longer and more intimate. They started to talk about things other than Quidditch. Harry even taught her some of the finer points of Seeking. Off the pitch Ginny wasn't sure, but she thought Harry's eyes followed her every time she entered the Common Room or the Great Hall. Matters were complicated by the fact that Ginny was dating Harry's mate Dean at the time, but that was a relationship not built to last and halfway through the term they parted ways.
The situation came to a head after the last Quidditch match of the year. Harry had traded hexes with Draco Malfoy and it was his bad luck to get caught in the act by Snape. The Potions Master, who always had it out for Harry, gave him detention which prevented Harry, the team's captain by that point, from flying in the climactic match of the season. It was therefore down to Ginny to lead the Gryffindor team to victory and the House Cup. Which to the surprise of everyone, except for Ginny and Harry, she proceeded to do, grabbing the Snitch right out from under Cho Chang's nose. In the heat of the moment during the victory celebration Ginny found herself snogging Harry.
The remainder of that term was the happiest period of time in all of Ginny's stay at Hogwarts. She and Harry quickly added snogging to their list of favourite activities and they spent many hours in their favourite spot next to the lake "revising" for Ginny's OWLs. There were also the late nights in the Common Room spent locked in deep conversation. By the end of the term Ginny was certain she knew Harry better than anyone else, which made his breaking up with her on the last day of the term all the more hard to take.
Even though it was a decade ago Ginny could still remember that conversation vividly. They were sitting out by the lake watching the sunset when Harry turned to her. "Ginny you know I care about you right?" he asked.
"Of course I do," Ginny said as she looked over at her boyfriend. She frowned when she saw the sad, resigned expression on his face. "Harry, what's wrong."
"There's no easy way for me to say this. I don't think we should date next year," Harry said.
"You're breaking up with me? Why?"
Harry reached out for Ginny's hand. "You know how much I want to play professionally right? After that stunt with Malfoy the scouts are questioning if I have the mental makeup to succeed. They're saying all the detentions I've gotten are a sign that I'm not fit for the league. If I want to get offers from the top flight clubs I can't afford to miss anymore matches, I can't even get a single detention. I need to focus a hundred percent on my Quidditch if I'm going to convince them that I'm not some immature punk. Not to mention all the revising I'll have to do for my NEWTs."
"Oh sod the NEWTs," Ginny said. "It's not like you'll need them playing Seeker for Montross, or whoever."
Harry flashed a wan smile. "I'll be sure to tell my mum that, I'm sure she'll appreciate the sentiment." The moment of levity passed and Harry's face fell.
Ginny took a deep shuddering breath. "So your mind's made up then?" Harry nodded sadly. "Obviously I don't like this in the slightest, but I know what making the league means to you." She fell silent.
Harry leaned over and pulled Ginny in for a hug. "This has nothing to do with you Gin. You're just as brilliant as always. In fact, I'm pretty sure I love you," he said into her ear. Ginny's breath caught at his admission. "But if we both want to get where we want to go this is how it has to be. If it makes you feel any better I promise I won't so much as look at another girl next year." He then pulled away from Ginny and stood up. "I know it's too much to ask to stay friends, but don't quit the team over this. You're too good a player to throw away your chance to play professionally."
Ginny snorted derisively. "You're right about one thing Harry. I care too much about Quidditch to let this get in my way. Now get out of here before I Bat-Bogey you to death." Harry nodded sadly and walked back to the castle, leaving Ginny alone to cry into her lap.
The next year was perhaps the hardest in Ginny's school career. True to his word Harry spent the entire year focused on nothing but Quidditch and revising. Ginny, having no real interest in dating again, did likewise. As a result Gryffindor demolished the other houses en route to the most dominant, yet least joyful, cup win in school history. At the end of the year, as everyone exited the Hogwarts Express for the last time. Harry caught up with Ginny, he wordlessly pressed his Quidditch captain's badge into her hand, and then was gone.
That was the last time Ginny had been this close to Harry, and much to her dismay she still wanted to shag his brains out. "It's going to be a long summer," she said to herself. She set her champagne flute down on a nearby table. "You'll have to excuse me," she said to St. James. "Tomorrow is the first day of training and I want to be sure to get plenty of rest tonight." Before waiting for a reply Ginny turned and walked out of the room.
Author's Notes: So, there you go, if any of this sounds familiar, well that's intentional. Though I do think this scenario is very different from the one in the actual canon since in the books Ginny didn't spend the year having to be around Harry. In any event, the slow burn continues. Thanks for reading, and let's do this again next week.
-sam