I wanted to start this chapter off by wishing the very best of luck to the England men's football team, who play Spain in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday! I'm not the biggest football fan, but will be watching the game at Hermione's. Hopefully they can win their first tournament in 58 years!
Amy and I walked together to Demelza's arithmancy class, and it was let out seconds after we arrived. Demelza rolled her eyes in an exasperated manner when she saw us.
"Which of you two am I gonna have to choose tonight then, hmm". She bit her lip in thought. This was something that had happened very often in the last couple weeks, the 2 of us would stand awkwardly outside Demelza's arithmancy class, and as she was friends with both of us, she'd have to choose to stay with either me or Amy for the rest of the day. She would usually alternate.
"Think it's your turn today Ginny"
"Don't worry" I said "there's no need to do that anymore!"
"Yeah" said Amy, "Ginny and I are friends again"
Demelza dropped her bag in surprise, stared at us for a moment, then said "come here you two".
And she pulled us into a big group hug.
"We're back together at last, thank god! But what made it happen?"
Amy explained the conversation we'd had in Ancient Runes.
"You're right" Demelza said after she'd finished, "Ginny would be important to have for any potential trial, both of us would be. Obviously I'm glad you've reconciled regardless of that though"
"It's something we should start making provisional preparations for" Amy said "Ludo's not quite at his deadline yet, but as each day passes with no update, I'm getting more and more worried that it will need to happen"
Magda and Hermione both had very similar reactions to Demelza when we told them of my resumed friendship with Amy, and Luna, in typical kooky style, claimed she'd known exactly when this would happen all along. Demelza, Amy, Hermione and I went to Professor McGonagall, and she, being a Quidditch fanatic herself, agreed to let us hold a pick up match. It would need to happen at the weekend though and not that night like we wanted, due to how early it was getting dark. We split into 2 teams of Gryffindor's, as we agreed that it would be a logistical nightmare to include anyone from the other houses. Let me tell you, it felt utterly fabulous flying around and shooting goals again! I scored 18 of my team's 30 goals, and we managed to get a big enough lead that Harry's snitch catch didn't matter, with the final score being 300-250. He was playing against me due to us having to spread out the good players between both teams to make it fair.
The next day, Demelza, Amy, Hermione, Magda, Luna and I had a picture taken of us standing, arms over each others shoulders, talking and laughing by the lake. It was a long time coming, getting a proper nice picture of the entire gang together! We all hung the picture above our respective beds.
The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumours about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though I didn't believe half of them — for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. To my delight, it was confirmed that he had indeed booked the Weird Sisters. I couldn't wait to dance to their music live, and to do it with Harry, oh boy, let's just say I was excited in more ways than one when I thought about that prospect.
Some of the teachers, like little Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach us much when our minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed us to play games in his lesson. Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on witch hunts — as Binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, we supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn't going to put him off. Professors McGonagall and Moody kept us working until the very last second of their classes too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let us play games in class than adopt Harry.
"Evil, he is," Ron said bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room. "Springing a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying."
"What do you expect, it's Snape. Complaining about him won't change anything" said Demelza
"Oh yeah, what's he done to you lot then?" Ron retorted
For once, Demelza seemed to have no response, at least momentarily. "Nothing" she said eventually "well, he gave Amy detention today. But still" she added quickly, holding up a hand to silence Ron, "complaining about him is just wasted breath, and honestly, the detention was deserved! She did put a sticking charm on his hands so that he couldn't move them off his desk!"
"She's got a point you know, although even you can't deny that it was funny D" I said from Harry's lap once more.
"I always have a point" said Demelza
"Ok, not always, calm down mate. And come on Harry, why do you want to torture yourself by reading that over and over again? I certainly don't want to see it anyway"
Harry had just started re-reading Flying with the Cannons for the 10th time.
"Because they're my favourite team, but alright, I'll do it just for you sweetness" he said, placing the book down and kissing the top of my head.
"Can you not do that in front of me please!" said Ron
"What do you mean, you've seen us be intimate before, in fact we're not the only couple you've seen be intimate before!" Harry argued
"I've not seen anyone kissing directly in front of me, and that's still my sister you're doing it to! Just cause I gave my permission doesn't mean I can't withdraw it!"
"Excuse me!" I told him "you do not give any of us permission to do anything! Plus, I'll eat a Blast Ended Skrewt if you and Hermione haven't been doing anything behind the scenes!"
"Umm, we actually haven't, truth be told" Hermione said. "We've only agreed to go to the ball together, we're not dating or anything. The hug was more out of relief at having a dance partner than anything else."
Ron laughed and I blushed
"I'll send Hagrid an order once Pig gets back" he said jokingly