A very special day for Ginny.

GINNY XV

Ginny ate her breakfast very fast this morning. The sky was clear over her head through the magically invisible ceiling of the Great Hall. This promised to be a very beautiful Saturday morning. She was both excited and apprehensive for what would begin in about thirty minutes. Because for the first time, she would play Quidditch at Hogwarts.

It was Harry who approached her a few days ago and asked her if it would interest her to participate to the common practices Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw organized each Saturday morning. Ginny had gone to see them, and she knew some students who were not part of last year's Quidditch teams were allowed to participate. Dean and Seamus, who were in the same year as Ron, did participate with mixed results. However, although Ginny had thought about it, she didn't ask whether she could also participate to the practices. She could already imagine her brothers mocking her. At the same time, now, she was eager to show them how well she could fly. They would probably not believe their eyes when they would see their little sister, who they never allowed to play Quidditch with them at home, fly over the pitch like any one of them.

Ginny had accepted when Harry offered her to make her participate to the next practice. But she hesitated afterwards, wondering whether it was really a good idea. But Hermione encouraged her to go there, saying it would be a very good experience.

"Ginny, you dream of playing Quidditch since you arrived at Hogwarts. Now is your chance," Hermione had argued.

"Yes, but… I mean, these are the best players of the school, and I never played in any actual game," Ginny had replied, uncertain.

"You practice more than most of them during summer. And I saw you flying, Ginny. You are good. Even your brothers would say it if they saw you."

"Well, I can already see them mocking me."

"Maybe. But they're not going to mock you because you're bad at flying, Ginny. They're going to do it just because you are their sister. This is stupid, I know, but they're not really laughing at you. As for the others, well, there's no point worrying about their opinion about you."

"No, I know." Ginny had come to accept that some people would always look down on her, and she decided to ignore them from now on. "Only…" There was one person whose opinion mattered a lot in her eyes.

"You're afraid that Harry might think low of you?" Hermione asked, guessing accurately Ginny's fear. "Stop bothering about that, Ginny. It's Harry who suggested that you participate to the practices. Just have fun."

Ginny sighed. "Yes, you're right. Just have fun."

It was easier said than done. Ginny had an easier time being around Harry, and she could talk to him now, but she was still afraid in the back of her mind to say or do something she shouldn't in his presence. The memories of herself overturning stuff in the past still remained vivid in the back of her mind, although she felt way more comfortable in his presence than before. but Hermione was right. She should focus on Quidditch today. If she wasn't to make herself a laughingstock, she only had to play as best as she could.

She was finishing her juice when she felt two familiar presences behind her. She felt really uncertain about how to behave next to them, but they made her worse fears become reality when they spoke.

"So, ready to play, little sister?" Fred and George said as a chorus. Ginny felt her face become very hot.

"Angelina just told us," Fred added.

"After Harry told her," George added further.

"Come, we'll show you the pitch."

Ginny didn't see any logical reason to refuse. So she followed her brothers.

"You should have told us sooner that you wanted to play," Fred said.

"Yeah. Why all the waiting? You have two brothers in the team that can facilitate your entry," George further said.

"You seemed to have too much fun playing," she retorted. "I didn't want to spoil it."

"You disappoint us, little sister," Fred declared, taking a false disappointed expression.

"We would never place someone else's fun ahead of ours. Well, except when his fun is even funnier to look at than ours," George joked.

"Then maybe you'll find it funnier to look at me flying," Ginny suggested.

"We look forward to it," they declared together.

As they progressed through the park, Ginny noticed the small crowd of students that was heading to the stadium. The Saturday morning practice had become an event which many students attended in the absence of regular Quidditch matches. She even saw some Slytherins attending it.

"Go and wait for us on the pitch," Fred said as they neared the changing rooms.

"I have to change me too," she pointed out.

"No, you don't. Only the Quidditch players get Quidditch robes. Not the other students."

Ginny realized it was true. Non-player students who participated to the practices always wore normal clothing. Still, she resented her brothers for a short time for denying her entry into the changing rooms.

Ginny waited on the pitch with half a dozen other students who were not part of the teams. Two among them were from Gryffindor, but they were students in their seventh year from what she could tell. They towered her by a large margin. A girl from Ravenclaw was in the same year as she was, so she discussed with her a little, but her brothers soon emerged from the changing rooms, followed by other players, and came right to stand next to her.

"So, ready for your initiation, sister?" Fred asked her with a huge smile.

"What initiation? There's no initiation," she replied defiantly.

"Yes, there is," George insisted. "Only, we made the initiation outside the pitch for the others. For you, it will be special, and on the pitch itself."

Ginny knew her brothers' tendency for joking well enough to suspect they were probably mocking her right now, only to make her panic. Well, she wouldn't give in.

Players were pouring in, and soon, Cedric Diggory, Roger Davies and Angelina Johnson were organizing the teams for this morning. Harry came among the last ones, along with Cho Chang who he was discussing with. Ginny felt a pang of jealousy at seeing him share a smile with the Seeker of Ravenclaw. Ginny had never really liked her, for unknown reasons. Well, the reasons were not totally unknown, but Ginny kept telling herself that it was only her imagination. Though she hadn't dared asking Hermione about this, out of fear that the answer might not be what she hoped for.

Harry separated from Cho though and headed in Ginny's direction with a large smile. Ginny felt herself redden further. With some hope, he wouldn't realize she turned red because of the fact he was speaking with another girl in particular.

"So, ready, Ginny?" Harry asked her.

She nodded. She had taken an old broom from the school's shed, but she knew it was far lower in quality than those the players had.

"Okay, listen everybody," Cedric Diggory declared, and people stopped chatting.

Ginny thought it was somewhat impressive how Diggory managed to get everyone's attention without raising his voice. Ginny had to admit that she liked him personally. Not unlike her brothers, she kept a certain grudge against him for winning the Quidditch game against them last year. What had bothered her the most was not that they lost against him, but that he caught the Snitch while Harry was falling to the ground. This wasn't a fair victory, and it was unacceptable in her eyes to focus on winning when your adversary was almost dying not far away. On the other side, she had to admit that Diggory did try to have a re-match, and he certainly couldn't see Harry falling in the storm that took place at this moment. She couldn't blame a Quidditch player for trying to win against all odds. As a result, she kept a grudge in the back of her mind, but it didn't stop her from viewing Cedric Diggory as who he really was. That was, a talented Seeker, although definitely not as good as Harry, and a fair player and person. He was also quite handsome, even Ginny had to admit it, though she didn't entertain any attraction to him. He was too old for her to begin with. And anyway… Her eyes wandered to Harry as Diggory indicated who played with who.

"As for those who are new, start flying over the pitch. We'll call for you to play later. In the meantime, enjoy flying and watching the others play."

Ginny had her instructions. She mounted her broom, like everyone else, but she waited for Fred, George and Harry to be flying before she went into the air too. She readied herself. All her muscles tensed. And she kicked the ground with her feet.

For a moment, Ginny was back at the Burrow, early in the morning, while everyone else was sleeping, and she was flying high in the sky. But she was brought back to reality quite quickly as a huge black ball headed towards her, and Ginny swerved to avoid it at the last moment.

She resumed flying up in a straight line, her heart racing, but smiling, even laughing. She succeeded to dodge a Bludger. She kept taking altitude until she was far above the other players. Two or three other students who were new were also flying, and she felt a jolt of pride at seeing they couldn't fly as well as she could. In the meantime, the players started exchanging the Quaffles. They did so at the beginning of each practice.

Ginny hovered over them, watching the likes of Macavoy, Davies, Johnson, Bell, Page and Spinnet throw the Quaffle at each other. For now, however, there wasn't much going on that was interesting. So Ginny went to make a tour of the pitch. In the assistance, a few dozens students were present. She detected the presence of the Gryffindors in one section, and she flew lower to wave her hand towards Hermione and Ron when she flew close to them. She giggled at the sight of her brother who seemed totally surprised to see her flying.

Soon, Ginny stopped wandering across the pitch when more serious affairs started. Chasers began trying to score goals at each extremity of the pitch, two groups of three playing each against a Keeper. In the meantime, Katie Bell came to see Ginny.

"Hey, Ginny. You want to make a few passes?" she asked.

"Yes," Ginny replied instantly.

The youngest player of the Gryffindor team, aside from Harry, went to collect a Quaffle on the ground, and came back to Ginny. They found a free spot in the middle of the pitch, far away from the Chasers trying to score goals, and from Beaters who practiced their aim on dummies. Though they were still close enough for Ginny to see that her two brothers were looking at her with interest.

"Okay," Katie said. "We'll start with the basics. I send you the Quaffle and you catch it before sending it back to me, and then we start over again. Understood?"

Ginny nodded. Of course, she understood. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Katie threw the Quaffle at Ginny at a relatively low speed, and Ginny easily caught it. She then threw it back to Katie with much more power right into her hands.

"Oh. You're not joking around," the Chaser said.

"Send it to me more powerfully then."

This was what Katie Bell did, and Ginny caught it easily as well. Soon, the two girls were moving while exchanging the Quaffle.

"Alright," Katie said after Ginny caught a Quaffle she powerfully sent with the tip of her fingers. "They're changing the Chasers who play. Come with me."

Ginny ended up teaming with Katie and a Chaser from Hufflepuff, a girl by the name of Heidi Macavoy, against the Hufflepuff Keeper, a certain Herbert Fleet. The hours Ginny spent throwing rocks and apples at randomly chosen targets while flying at home paid. The three girls started with penalty shots, and Ginny went third after Katie and Heidi missed their respective shots. Ginny, however, targeted the right ring, and she got the Quaffle through, resulting in the first characteristic cling she earned. She pushed a cry of joy when she got it.

"Well thrown," Macavoy said when Ginny came next to her while Katie was preparing for another shot. "I think you got him by surprise. Herbert doesn't seem to know what hit him."

Both Katie and Heidi scored afterwards, and Ginny imitated them. In fact, Ginny scored four times in a row before Fleet finally stopped one of her shots.

"All good things come to an end," Katie told her when she came back. "Don't worry, you'll have other opportunities to score."

Ginny knew that. After a moment, they started making attacks at three on Fleet. Ginny now had a harder time coordinating her play with other players. She always practiced alone in the past. She wasn't used to teamplay. Still, after a few minutes, she got better, and even managed to feint a shot at the rings when in fact she made a pass to Katie who scored in the opposite ring.

Then, Ginny was involved in the Beaters' practice, who tried to sent Bludgers towards other players who in turn had to avoid them. Harry participated to this practice as well. Ginny fared quite well, though she suspected for a moment that her brothers didn't target her too often.

"Hey, I exist you know. Send your Bludgers in my direction," she shouted at them after a moment.

She had cause to both relish and regret the words she uttered. Bludgers went flying much more often towards her from now on. Sometimes, they brushed her, but she avoided most of them all the same.

There was afterwards an unofficial match, with Lee Jordan acting as referee. Players of all teams were mixed, resulting in Harry playing exclusively with players from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw against Cho Chang. Ginny herself ended up playing for the team against Harry. But she didn't always play. They changed the players from time to time when a penalty was called, and so Ginny spent most of the time watching others play. Still, she enjoyed tremendously the time she spent playing herself. She even scored one goal, to the small crowd's applauses and cheers.

"Well played, Ginny," Harry told her as he flew next to her after that goal. This time, Ginny's red cheeks were caused by the wind and the weather that was getting progressively colder, not by Harry's comment. Quidditch made her feel more normal than ever.

As she played again, Ginny shot at the rings, but it was stopped by Grant Page. While she moved to take back her position, she saw Harry and Cho flying around each other in the sky. She recognized this pattern. This was what happened every time they faced each other as Seekers. Their trajectories were intertwined, with Cho trying to cut Harry to negate him the advantage he had with the Firebolt. Cho Chang had been doing this since the first game she played against Harry, and she kept doing it in all practices they participated together. Sometimes, it was as if they were dancing. It got on Ginny's nerves from time to time, especially when she saw that Harry was taking pleasure in this.

"Ouch!"

She felt something brushing her shoulder, and she brought her hand to it and rubbed there.

"Everything's fine, Ginny?" Fred asked her not far away.

"Yes, I'm fine. It barely touched me," she screamed. And she went to continue to play again, focusing on the game again.

This game didn't end like she hoped it would, for Chang caught the Snitch before Harry. As a result, Diggory took Harry's place on the pitch while Harry went back to the ground, where Ginny was reunited with him as she wasn't part of the start formation for the next game.

"Sorry you didn't catch the Snitch," she managed to tell him.

"Oh, it's nothing. With the number of practice games we play, I cannot catch it at all times," he replied. "But you play very well, Ginny."

"Thank you," she replied, trying not to redden further. Her feet were no longer in the air.

"You really practice every morning when you're at home? During summer?"

She nodded. "Sometimes late in the evening too."

She managed to exchange a few more sentences with Harry, but they both turned their attention to the evolving match over their heads. Ginny was called to play a few times, and she scored two more goals, until Cedric Diggory caught the Snitch. They then began a third game, but didn't have enough time to finish it as noon arrived, and neither Harry nor Cedric caught the Snitch this time.

"Seems like we have another Quidditch player in the family," George said as they headed back to the castle. This time, Ginny reddened at the compliment from one of her brothers.

"Harry," Fred added, "I don't like to admit that a dwarf with glasses showed more intelligence than we did…" Ginny had a certain envy to rebuke her brother with a well chosen joke for that last comment, but she remained silent as he completed his thoughts. "… but you were right to bring Ginny today."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to play?" Ron asked her.

"Because you would either have mocked me or tried to dissuade me to come," she replied.

"I wouldn't have mocked you," her brother protested. "I just wish you told me. I'm your brother."

"So are we," Fred and George said together.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ron asked again, this time to Harry.

"I thought it would be a good surprise. I didn't tell Fred or George either," he replied.

"Well, it was a very good idea, I think," Hermione declared on her side.

Later, after lunch, Ginny was in a corner of the Gryffindor common room with Hermione, speaking in low tone.

"So, how was I?" Ginny asked her, worried about the answer. "Sincerely." She wanted an honest opinion on her performance today.

"I thought you were great," Hermione said, a huge smile. This reassured Ginny. At least, she could count on Hermione to be sincere. "You should do it next week too."

"You're sure?"

"Of course, I am. At this rhythm, Angelina, Alicia and Katie might feel threatened."

Ginny had a nervous laugh. "I'm not so sure. I'm not better than they are. I scored a few times, but I miss more than I get it right."

"Don't be so severe with yourself. You were playing with people who have been doing this for years. Even Fred, George and Ron found you good."

At that, Ginny smiled. "I can already imagine Fred and George bothering me to know how I could learn to fly so well." Her only fear at that prospect was that if they found out how she stole their booms, they would find a way to stop her from doing it again. "Or bothering Ron about when he will learn to fly like I do."

Hermione's expression took a darker turn at this moment. "Please, Ginny. Try not to boast about that in Ron's presence."

Ginny frowned. "Why? Is there a problem?"

Hermione looked bothered. "Well, look, I don't think Ron would like to hear that I told you… but he was thinking about trying to be Keeper this year… before it was announced that Quidditch was cancelled."

Ginny was caught off guard. "Seriously?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Since Oliver left last year, the position is available."

"I know. But… Well…" Ginny was just surprised. "I didn't think Ron would be that interested to join the Quidditch team."

"It's that surprising? I mean, Ginny, between your brothers and Harry who already play… It's no wonder that he would like to play too."

"Yes," Ginny recognized. In fact, this was no surprise at all now that she thought about it. "Well, it seems neither of us will get to really play this year anyway. I suppose the practices will stop when the Triwizard Tournament begins."

"Maybe. I don't know. Unless they require the pitch for the Tournament, I guess they could continue. But I suppose everyone will be distracted by the Tournament at the same time."

Ginny and Hermione spent some time talking about the Tournament afterwards. Ginny wondered what the Tournament would look like. Despite being unable to participate to it, she was excited at the prospect of watching this competition.

Despite Quidditch being cancelled, students will always find ways to make it a part of Hogwarts' life.

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Next chapter: Lily