Chapter 11

A few weeks had passed since the start of term and everyone had settled in to their usual routines at Hogwarts. Classes were attended with anticipation and excitement initially, but that was starting to wear off as professors had begun assigning work for them each evening.

Ginny and many others were still dealing with the disappointment of a cancelled Quidditch season, so to compensate they had gotten together a few times to play pick-up matches out on the Quidditch pitch. Ginny actually considered this to be a silver lining, as she would be able to train with, get to know, and build chemistry with her possible future teammates on the Gryffindor team, as well as learn the tactics and tendencies of those who played for the other school teams. When she had time, Hermione would stop by to watch the pick-up matches. Ginny loved this, and felt almost a feeling of relief when she'd see Hermione up in the stands. Ginny didn't know quite what it was, but she felt something whenever Hermione was around. She had been such a good friend to Ginny over the summer, she assumed it must just be what it felt like to have a close girl friend, as Ginny hadn't really ever had one of those before.

While Hermione had been stopping by pretty consistently to watch the pick-up matches, Ginny was finding it hard to catch up with the older girl otherwise. She knew that Hermione was busy with her studies, as well as helping Harry and Ron with their work too. She also realized that this wasn't out of the norm as before this past summer, the two of them spending time together hadn't been a priority. Previously, Hermione was just Ron's friend and really just an acquaintance to Ginny. But the brief time they'd spent together this summer had changed that, and Ginny was left feeling a little empty without talking to the girl every day. It wasn't for lack of trying either. Ginny had asked Hermione no less than a dozen times if she'd want to grab breakfast together, or study in the library together, or even go out to enjoy the beautiful late summer weather out by the lake, but she'd always been too busy. Ginny had plenty of other people to hang out with and had been spending the majority of her time with Colin, Ritchie, and Demelza, so it wasn't that big of a deal that Hermione had been so hard to talk to. Ginny just felt like something was… Missing.

It was Saturday, September 17th, two days before Hermione's 15th birthday, and Ginny was determined to see the girl and celebrate her birthday at some point during the weekend.

"Hey Harry? Ron?" Ginny approached the boys in the Gryffindor Common Room. They were engaged in what appeared to be a pretty competitive game of Wizard's Chess, which was saying something as Ron was very talented at chess, much better than Harry. "Guys?"

"One moment Gin, let me just…" Ron was focused, thinking, and then a huge grin spread across his freckled face. "Checkmate!" Harry groaned as he realized that Ron had won.

"Are you ever going to let me win?"

"Not a chance!"

"Guys!" Ginny yelled, interrupting the two boys. They whipped their heads around to look at the girl, a bit shocked.

"What?" Ron asked, a bit put off that the glow of his win was cut short.

"What are you guys doing for Hermione's birthday?"

"When is it?"

"Ronald, it's on Monday!" Ginny shot him a glare. Harry laughed.

"He's only joking Gin! I think…"

"Yeah of course I'm joking! You think I don't know my best friend's birthday?"

"Wait, I thought I was your best friend?" Harry feigned hurt.

"Alright guys… You can debate that later. Are you doing anything for her birthday?"

"I mean we've each gotten her something, did you have anything else in mind?" Ron asked.

"I just… I haven't gotten to see her much since we got back to Hogwarts. We got on so well when she was staying at the Burrow, and I'd like to make her birthday special somehow. And selfishly, I'd like to spend some time with her. Can you two think of any reason she might not want to see me during her birthday weekend?"

The boys shook their heads no. "I'm sure she'd love some girl time with you Gin. All she's been doing is studying and hanging out with the two of us. That can't be too much fun for her," Ron shrugged. "And I know she misses you."

"How do you know that?"

"She's asked about loads of times. I've told her to go talk to you herself, but she doesn't seem particularly keen on doing that."

Ginny frowned at this. Why wouldn't Hermione want talk to her? What was she asking about her for if she didn't want to talk to her?

"Regardless Gin, we think it's a great idea that the two of you spend some time together for her birthday. Anything we can do to help?" Harry asked.

"Uh… Yeah," Ginny snapped her attention back to her conversation with Ron and Harry. "Just make sure that you two are too busy to hang out with her tomorrow. And make sure you've got all of your work done that's due this next week. That gets rid of any of the excuses she's been using on me the past few weeks to not see me."

Ron and Harry stared at her, dumbstruck.

"How in the bloody hell are we supposed to get all of that work done by tomorrow?" Ron complained.

"Tomorrow morning," Ginny specified.

"Wha – " Ron started before Harry interrupted.

"Come on mate, it's for Hermione. We can do our work without her for once. We've got it Gin, good luck tomorrow!" Harry got up and cleaned up the chess board while Ron pouted, before leading Ron out of the portrait hole and towards the library.

This left Ginny lost in her thoughts. She repeated in her head what Ron had said: "I've told her to go talk to you herself, but she doesn't seem particularly keen on doing that." Ginny furrowed her brow, she couldn't pull up anything she'd done to upset Hermione to the point of her not wanting to see or talk to her. She set her jaw, she was determined to make this birthday outing between the two of them happen.