MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU GREAT BUGGERS OF EARTH AND HOGWARTS
HERE'S OUR SEASONS GREETINGS
protocol: we don't own this. The character and plot belong to JK Rowling, story originally written in Italian, can be found of EFPfanfic or something called Sono Ginny Weasley e questa e la mia storia. Ermory translates and Helena edits.
The Yule Ball
The fateful Christmas Day came way too quickly, the three girls, though formerly neutral, were being hammered towards an anxiety as the days had inched towards the Yule Ball, haunting all Hogwarts students. Ginny and Demelza, however, were not particularly enthusiastic about their partners. Really, they couldn't wait to get the dance over with… About Demelza though, Ginny thought she had the urge to kill her, choke her with her own bare hands— Demelza had been asked to the Ball, bought a dress, had a blond-haired-blue-eyed dream of a date… what more in hell did she want? Maybe Ginny could end up borrowing her date— no, exchange with her, and she hoped that Demelza would consider Neville a fair deal.
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"Susan Bones is really pretty ... nice choice, Casanova," Ginny said with a little smile, stretching her neck to look towards the Hufflepuff table where a plump, blond-haired girl was just sitting down.
"Modestly speaking, I was quite satisfied!" Christopher replied. He waved at the girl, who, after noticing from her table, returned the greeting and turned as red as tomato sauce. "Guys, she's blushing… does that mean she… likes me?"
"Not so fast!" Vicky sent his hopes down the stomach along with her horrible disgusting diet yogurt. "Even if she blushed or smiled like that it doesn't mean she likes you… could be a slight crush or she thinks you're nice… but I doubt it."
"Don't overthink it, okay? We girls are books that you guys can never read!"
"Oh, save yourself," Ritchie muttered in disgust, slashing butter at his toast.
Ginny chuckled amusedly, but suddenly stopped as she caught sight of the very reminder for her remaining annoying stormy mood: Harry was a few feet away and had barely ever even looked at her after what happened the other night under Hermione's annoyed look. Who knows… maybe the boy was really angry or annoyed but those were not Ginny's problems: he really was wrong with her. If he hadn't made it clear that he liked Chang and wanted to spend the whole evening dancing with her and all, Ginny would rather think that he was gay than admit that he was completely ignoring her.
Stop suffering and tell him to fuc …
"So!" Ginny interrupted her little pitchfork-bearing ego, startling and catching the attention of her friends. She had spoken a little too loudly. "I'm sure we will all have fun at the Ball, and I'm not thinking of anything negative," she glanced at the boy in question, "until at least we're done having fun."
"That's exactly the attitude you should have!" the blonde exclaimed, leaning forward to give her a five. The others smiled and William, on the other hand, was opening his mouth to say something absolutely unjust or admonishing when a small figure came up behind him: Colin showed up with a big smile and his usual camera.
"Hello!" he greeted them cheerfully.
A moment of silence: they began to look at each other.
"I thought you had forgotten about us!" Ritchie then exclaimed, glad to see his friend back. But the others were not as enthralled as the boy in seeing Colin, who had not been seen for centuries, for whatever obscure unknown reasons. "Great! Why don't you sit down with ..."
"... us?" Ginny said loudly, immediately putting Ritchie to silence with a glacial look. She went back to staring at who, long ago, was her best friend, and began to tell him so: "You have finally blessed us to your presence, eh? Good, congratulations... but the party's over. "
She got up from the Gryffindor table, under the astonished gaze of Colin and her other friends, and rushed out of the Great Hall, desperate to get out and hoping her friends wouldn't be so quick to follow her all the way to the Common Room. Yes ... because things had to go like this, because nobody was the second choice, the backup plan of anyone, and it might have just been the topic of backup plans that annoyed the girl to this depth.
"Gin, wait for us!" Demelza shouted in a hurry from behind her in the Hall.
"HEY!" Colin's voice was heard close up instead, and Ginny stopped abruptly to see what he had to say. "Oh, you made me run like crazy ... but what was that all about… why did you treat me like that? I thought we were friends!" the boy added, voice dripping with sadness. "You know how things are, you know about... I came to you as soon as I could! My brother had not seen me for centuries, this first year had been a nightmare for him!"
"We are just all terribly tired of being someone else's second choice!" Ginny retorted with disdain, looking at the friend who had been so close to her during her first year of hell, and wished that he still was. Demelza and the others had now joined them, and watched the scene, hypnotized, as the students passed them to go for breakfast, all excited.
"I have to be with him, I can't leave him like that," Colin said again.
"Colin ..." Demelza said softly, her eyes starting to glisten but the boy interrupted her, still watching Ginny.
"You know how things are!" he repeated.
"No, rather, I do not know!" the girl snapped, stepping forward and clenching her fists. "None of us know, because you've never bothered to let us know! Personally, I'm sick of being the backup!"
A lump in her throat made her unable to speak anymore and, not wanting to listen to anything else, she ran away up the spiral staircase.
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"You're tormenting me, Demelza."
"I am tormenting you because you were not referring to Colin today"
"Dem ... the dance is coming up… so by grace, pleasure and courtesy, stop tormenting her please?" Christopher intervened.
Ginny was totally excited. Completely piped up: leave it to Demelza and Colin to ruin the damn dance, and they'd have completed the picture of harmony. However, the day had passed quickly and the girls were itching to be finally in their elegant dresses, at the beautiful event, despite the circumstances of the scene with Colin: Demelza accused Ginny of not speaking about Colin to Colin (at the very least not only about Colin), and Ginny let her talk ... because it was the truth. The problem was that Harry Potter just affected the girl's life that much, and Colin, having put them in his background, had made her mad.
Second choices, second choices everywhere!
It was quickly the time to get ready, and in the girls' dormitory a real pandemonium broke out: the three friends shed their school robes to put on the ball gowns, forgetting their problems and all the whole while singing nonsensical songs to fits of giggles. The three madwomen (much less in Demelza's case) were joined by two wild Alice and Rose, who had been asked by a couple of the twin's classmates.
"Oh damn it ... Demelza, help me here!" Rose pleaded, holding the ripped fabric of her dress in her hands, and Demelza ran to her (one foot in her red heels while the other was clad in rainbow socks) and drew out her wand immediately. In her haste to be on time, Rose must have torn her new dress, and leaving her in abject despair.
This made Ginny come to think, as she zipped up her simple blue dress, that the Yule Ball had been organized simply to blow up the nerves of the students, who were already schizophrenic on their own without the help of any special events.
"Do not move or I'll miss the spell!"
"Quickeeeerrr!"
There we go. Pandemonium, as I said. Fortunately, the preparations lasted only the most parts of an hour, and the end came in the best way for the girls: the five of them, looking radiant, did nothing but compliment each other as they helped each other with the sparkling necklaces and bracelets. When Ginny left the dormitory for the common room, Neville was not there: as usual, he was perfectly not on time. The girl then decided to start off to the entrance hall while her date finished with preparing in hurry and running late.
"Ohhhh, look how many beautiful gentlemen!" Vicky commented brightly, once they were in the Hall.
"I guess that's nothing to complain about", muttered Demelza, whose cheeks had turned a pale pink.
Ginny looked around curiously and saw that her friend really wasn't wrong: they stood all charming and elegant, waiting for their ladies or making their way through the crowd to look for the girls on their own. Many threw Ginny's curious glances and she blushed slightly, trying to stand up and not seem too clumsy on those heinous heels, which made her feel like (and look like) walking on eggs: she would not last the night, this much was certain.
Then someone had the brilliant idea to step on her foot ...
"Ow!" the girl moaned. "Be more careful, next time ..." she hushed abruptly, because the one who had stomped her foot was Cedric Diggory.
"I'm so sorry!" Cedric turned worriedly, to make sure that she was fine. Then he recognized her and added, very kindly and courteously: "Ginny, right? I remember we went to the Cup together, but I almost didn't recognize you like that ... You do look beautiful, you know?"
Ginny was afraid of becoming the same color as her hair.
"Thanks, not bad yourself," she replied, her voice a little too sharp. He was in fact much more than not bad… Cedric was a real dream. A real dream, let's face it, which he would always be, even if he was in his pajamas and ruffled and full of sleep. Ahem, Ginny had seen him at the Cup exactly like that and the combination turned out in fact to be far from ugly or scary.
Cedric smiled at her and wished her a good evening before leaving, while Vicky hissed incomprehensible things beside her friend. Once she and Demelza had gone away with their foreigner dates, Ginny started looking for Neville in the crowd, first meeting Dean Thomas who smiled and complimented her, and then his brother Ron, arm in arm with Padma Patil but with his head completely elsewhere.
"Neville, finally!" the girl began when she saw him.
His robes were very elegant like everyone else's, but… quite a few things were completely out of tune: Ginny could not understand how the knot of the tie was formed and a small white piece of fabric poked out from his trousers, which Ginny dearly wished was of his shirt and not his pants. On the whole, though (disregarding the not-underpants showing above the black satin trousers), he looked quite fine. But after all, what could one expect from Neville Longbottom if there wasn't anything out of place? This was normal for him, and for the fact that he looked as presentable as he did, Ginny could have thanked him on her knees.
"Excuse me, I'm always late and ... you're beautiful..." Neville stammered, blush blooming in a bang.
No, maybe to thank him on her knees would not have been very decent.
"Thank you!" Ginny replied him politely, putting on big smile. Then she cleared her throat, and encouraged him: "Let's get in? I think the champions are coming soon and we should already be there to welcome them or something like that." She stretched her neck over the heads of the other students to see the champions better, even if no one had miraculously seen them yet.
"Y-yes, yes, of course, let's go ..."
Ginny took herself in Neville's arms and firmly dragged him inside, looking like a big, lazy dog, awkward about what to do. Harry had to be there with his partner, but Ginny had no intention of seeing him and regretting it and letting him know that he's picked up the mind of the silliest girl who has waited for him to come forward.
When they entered the castle's Great Hall, Ginny gasped and almost didn't recognized the place by its beauty: the walls were all covered with glittering silver frost, with hundreds of ivy garlands and mistletoes crisscrossing through the black starry ceiling. And with the icicles that hung everywhere. Heaven, it was really wonderful.
Ideal for dancing, Vicky would have said.
"Come, Neville ... let's not block the entrance."
They moved from the entrance just in time to see the four champions of the Triwizard Tournament enter and make their way across the silver carpet: at the head of the row was Fleur Delacour, looking expectedly splendid and dazzling in her silver dress, accompanied by Roger Davies, the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team; then there were Cedric and Cho; Krum with Hermione, who was as beautiful as the sun and moon and gave her a big smile as she passed by (the Krum fan club was not very well disposed towards the girl); and finally, to close the very short line, Harry Potter with the silly Pavarti Patil.
Ginny almost burst out laughing: Harry looked extremely confused, while Pavarti smiled at everyone and carried the boy so enthusiastically that it made him look like a show dog. The redhead was very pleased to see that the boy looked uncomfortable, not at all attracted to his dance companion.
"Hermione Granger ... with Viktor Krum?"
"Do you know her?"
"Claire, it's the school's nerd!"
"I don't believe it ... it doesn't look like her at all!"
Passing near the Krum fan club, Ginny gave them one of her fiercer glares as she raised an eyebrow, and the girls sneaked away, probably to gossip or insult Hermione from a slightly more intimate location. Ginny pulled Neville again, and led him to a nearby table for dinner.
"Viktor Krum has invited Hermione, then?" Neville asked, taking a seat on the bench.
"Yes," Ginny replied, taking a turkey and a baked potato. "It's great, isn't it? Krum's fan club certainly don't think the same way, but not even the Slytherins have found anything bad to say to her. Have you seen their faces?"
Neville shook his head, but the girl had already seen enough: Draco Malfoy seemed struck dumb (in fact he had opened and closed his mouth without making any sound) and Pansy Parkinson... well, like almost all the girls there, she seemed really resentful, if a little more pug-shaped.
"I'm glad she rejected me," Neville said suddenly, while Ginny drank some pumpkin juice. "Hermione, I mean, because at the end we came to this dance together, so it made me… well… happy."
"Yes, as friends, of course," she said, wanted to make it clear, and scrutinized him over her cup.
Neville looked up at her, and confirmed, "Y-yes, as friends ... of course ... obviously..." he stammered.
Okay, it was better to change the subject or it was ending up really badly. She stared back around the Great Hall, decorated so nicely for Christmas, and gave the students a curious look, identifying her two friends who were dining with their respective strangers, then returned to look at Neville again, trying to talk.
"Who would you have wanted to invite if you had not asked me?" she asked stupidly.
"Actually... I never thought about it ... I never had the courage to go to somebody and ask her anywhere, do you know?"
"But you did it with me!" the girl exclaimed, with a gentle smile.
"Yes, because I already knew you for a few years, it was simpler, wasn't it?" he laughed nervously.
"That's not wrong," she mumbled, then trying to put him at ease. Then the conversation wandered off and they found themselves talking about the various traditional Wizard's balls and folk dances, but the Weird Sisters put an end to their conversation, because they had positioned themselves on the stage and began to play a slow song, which sounded like a waltz.
"The champions are meant to open the dance…" Neville said.
In fact, the four champions had already began dancing with their partners and many students soon joined them on the floor, even Dumbledore and McGonagall started dancing together! Curious and amused, Ginny craned her neck to see where Harry was and shoved Neville.
"Come Dance!" she hissed briskly, grabbing him by a sleeve and dragging him to the center of the hall.
"S-sure ..."
He stumbled on his own feet but followed her immediately (not that he had a choice, though), shyly putting an arm around her waist while Ginny nervously clutched one of her hand with the boy's and her other on his shoulder. They started to twirl (it was, of course and without any doubt, Ginny to lead) and it was quite relaxing to be there in a slow dance.
I look like a stalker ... thought the girl, as she stealthily approached Pavarti and Harry on purpose— Harry who was craning his neck in much the same way as Ginny herself… well, of course he was stalking Cedric and Cho dancing nearby! Ginny found herself snorting loudly and made a sharp move, resulting in a perfect crushing of her toes by Neville.
"I'm sorry!" he said, seeing her wince.
"It's nothing ..." she lied, almost weeping but trying, despite everything, to still keep an eye on Harry without making more movements like the one she had just done and leading Neville to go crazy for her frequent change of positions. She noticed that the boy wasn't feeling very comfortable at all, much to the ease of her mind, so she decided to send Harry to hell to completely address her partner.
I just have to have fun, this is my evening!
"I would love to be able to dance like him ..." Neville mumbled ruefully, looking towards Viktor Krum, who was twirling Hermione with true skill and grace and he held her tightly between his mighty seeker's arms.
"I imagine he has been invited to many dances, Krum ... hasn't he? Being an internationally renowned Quidditch player and all?" Ginny said absentmindedly, still watching the boy who was revolving perfectly around a stupefied Hermione "And obviously he should know how to dance like that. But don't worry, we're fine too: we're just a couple of idiots together, don't have to be dancing masters," she added to cheer him up, while the music was moving.
"I'm glad you didn't scream when I stepped on your feet… I once danced with my grandmother…"
"No way?"
"Yup!" he exclaimed, face completely lighting up for having managed to make a girl laugh, probably for the first time in his life. "I danced with my grandmother at a family party, and I did nothing but pound her feet. Poor thing, I must have hurt her because she kept barking for more than five minutes while sounds kept ringing in my ears. Well, sound of the music combined with the horrible one of your grandmother."
Ginny sincerely burst out laughing, and said, "Something like that happened to me when I was at Aunt Muriel's house," she thought in horror of her horrible great-grand-aunt, and told a little story of what had happened, while the music changed bit by bit and became more and more like a disco.
Bottom line, it was not bad being with Neville and they both enjoyed spending the time with each other, making a thousand proposals for how to rid of aunts and annoying grandmothers who wanted to dance with their grandchildren and telling other funny family stories: it seemed that Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom had really become friends, and the girl found herself thinking that the ball had brought at least something good.
But finally, to ruin all the atmosphere, Ginny sprained her ankle.
"Damn it! I knew that with these damn heels ..."
"Let's sit down," Neville immediately breathed, dragging his lady to a nearby couch.
Ginny limped slowly and dropped heavily down on the couch, wasting no time in pulling off her heels and throwing them away, not without noting the red chafe marks on her feet. She cursed under her breath, and rubbed her feet with one hand with an expression of never wanting to get up again.
"How about I go get a drink?" Neville suggested hesitantly.
"I say it would be perfect and I would gladly accompany you if I had not lost the use of my limbs," Ginny chuckled and Neville walked away from her with a smile, trotting to the drinks table on the other side of the room.
Ginny followed him with her sight, trying to catch what he's doing, but…
"It's an interesting party, isn't it?"
A dreamy voice caught Ginny's attention away from Neville, and she turned slowly to her right, face to face with one of her Ravenclaw classmates from Care of Magical Creatures: Luna Lovegood, she was called ... if Ginny's wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, interesting," the girl answered flatly.
"You are Ginny Weasley from Gryffindor, we have classes together, I am Luna Lovegood, I do not know if..."
"I remember," Ginny interrupted abruptly, thinking of the weird and silent girl with radishes on her ears and the butterbeer caps hanging around her neck, which gave her a completely out-of-touch and mystic air. Luna Lovegood was the kind of person who lived in the clouds, and she never listened during Hagrid's classes, often making the giant rather uncomfortable.
"You were invited," observed the girl, with long blond hair.
"Not you?" Ginny asked, already imagining the answer even from how the girl was dressed.
"No," Luna answered quietly and predictable, still wearing her morning clothes: a purple sweater and pink pants clashing with her golden ballet shoes, "but I wouldn't have liked to be here to dance, I don't quite love those dances..."
Ginny did not know what to say to her: Luna made her uncomfortable, watching her carefully with those bright, protruding, curious eyes.
"And so… why are you here?" then asked the redhead.
"I just wanted to have a look around." Luna said matter-of-factly, picking up a cocktail and opening her lips on the blue straw. Ginny noticed a pair of pink goggles on her head, and sincerely prayed to the sky and Merlin that it was worn just for the occasion and not as daily attire.
Again, the girl remained silent and found nothing to say.
"You were very famous in the first year, for the Chamber of Secrets incident ... you must remember?" Just to say those words, Ginny flushed and her heart beat a thousand miles per hour: was it really appropriate to remind her of that unfortunate accident right now? She really had a lot of courage, since no one had ever talked to Ginny about that thorny subject, but Luna did not seem to accuse her. "Was it a very obscure object, the diary? Did it belong to a dark wizard?" she added, with extreme curiosity.
"Yup"
"Powerful, I guess ... so powerful as to make you do bad things, but it was not your fault, certainly not." Luna shook her head, then got up and wished her a good evening as she skipped away to the castle courtyard, all alone and without a friend. Ginny would have liked to accompany her or even to talk to her again because, apart from the fact of her friendless state paining her a little, talking to her, besides making her uncomfortable, was calming, soothing. Quite contradictory, yes, but interesting.
Where did Neville go? Ginny found herself thinking, remembering that her partner had already been away for five minutes.
"Hey."
"Finally you decided to bring me the will t-"
Ginny stopped herself, eyes wide, because when she turned to his right she saw that the boy who had spoken to her was not at all Neville: tall, dark long hair and eyes of ice, he looked like a prince ... and anything but Neville. But was he smiling at her? Yes, and the girl returned the smile, then removing her legs from the sofa to make room for him, remembering only then that she had been rude to Luna.
"I'm Michael Corner of Ravenclaw," the boy continued, with a smile on his lips.
"Ginny Weasley," the girl spoke up, holding out her hand while he sat beside her on the leather couch.
"Gryffindor?" he asked, squeezing her hand.
"Gryffindor," confirmed Ginny, and her free hand went up to adjust the unkempt hair.
Michael seemed to be looking at her with great interest, then said, "I'm a friend of Victoria Probisher... her ex is my best friend," and smiled, while Ginny remembered the friend's words in horror at the beginning of the year.
"Oh, um ... really?" she stammered.
"Really, you know ... Victoria is very nice."
Ginny nodded, and they fell silent: Vicky was damn right, and she would have skinned Ginny alive if she didn't tell her that now she suddenly believed what she said, because she had met the mysterious boy she talked about so much. It's then a good reason to be quiet and see how this conversation ended with Michael Corner, and if it was going to end up in a certain way she would have to tell her friends everything. And Vicky would really rip her apart ... but none about that now.
"I saw you talking to Luna Loony Loveg-"
"What did you call her?" Ginny interrupted him immediately, stifling a little laugh. "Loony Lovegood?"
"Don't you see how strange she is? All us Ravenclaws call her that, and we just got used to it."
"But Loon-"
"Excuse me, I was chatting with a friend of mine, here's the Butterbeer!" Neville announced suddenly, shoving her a tankard of Butterbeer and putting an end to the conversation between her lady and a stealthy knight thief of the ladies, Michael Corner.
"Thank you, I was starting to think you were completely missing ..."
"MICHAEL!" An angry voice overtook the music, and the three turned around: the someone barging towards in annoyance was surely Hannah Abbott, with whom Ginny had exchanged but a few words from time to time. She was a shy and pretty Hufflepuff, with short blond hair always tied in two ruffled braids and seemed to get along very well with Neville.
"Michael! Well, hello guys, how are you?" she then asked kindly to the others.
They mumbled that they were fine, Hannah grinned in reply and then narrowed her blue eyes into two slits.
"So, are you asking me to dance or not? We were only there for one song, and we stayed and chatted around the whole time ..."
She made a face so tender and sweet that Ginny was amazed that Michael Corner remained impassive.
"I'd ask you," the boy said, taking Ginny's hand gently and pulling for a moment.
"N-I don't think..."
"Come on, just one dance!"
"Okay so... we exchange partners?" Hannah timidly proposed, clumsily taking Neville's hand and making the boy go all red like a pepper. "Are you going, then? Ginny ... Neville?" she added hesitantly to the pair.
Neville seemed determined not to speak and merely stammered something absolutely incomprehensible. Ginny and Michael nodded, one dazed and slightly uncertain and the other resolute with deep energy, so Hannah dragged Neville away while the Weird Sisters struck a passionate tango. Ginny followed her new knight to the dance floor, glancing at Demelza and the Frenchman who were dancing right there beside them. She arched her eyebrows when she found herself a few feet away from Demelza, who giggled uncontrollably: how much has she had to drink?
Then Michael grasped her firmly, making her forget everything.
"Was she your date? Hannah, I mean ..." Ginny muttered as Michael Corner twirled her in his arms. Ginny's thoughts were filled with very nice things, including various shouted compliments about Michael.
"Yes, we danced once but it does not excite me ... especially in the tango," he snorted.
"Do I excite you, then?" Ginny asked in astonishment, assuming a superior air.
"Above all in the tango," he replied in a whisper, gazing into her eyes like he would never pull his sight away. Ginny's cheeks almost literally burst into flames: you could probably put a pan over them and fried eggs and cooked pancakes. Oh why did she have to blush right now? Oh cabbage, and the tango then... why should everything happen to her?
Not knowing who to blame, if not the world, she tried to change the subject: "You dance very well ... you know?"
Muggle churches.
"I know, I really like dancing, I'll give you dance lessons, would you like to?" the boy laughed and Ginny found his laugh so incredibly sensual and crystal-clear that it took a couple of seconds to give him a real, uncertain answer. Yes, uncertain ... because Michael Corner was the first boy who both deeply interested Ginny and was not Harry Potter.
I'm crazy! She thought angrily, before replying.
"Yes, the lessons ... no, that is ... I meant ... I can dance!" she protested, with her brain clearly overloaded and working in timeout.
He just giggled, and made her a perfect problem-case as the music ended: their faces were so close that even her freckles seemed to be on fire, embarrassed by that proximity... she could not explain it, neither has she ever experienced anything like this with anyone.
"Are we going for a walk outside?" Michael asked, taking her hand.
Ginny did not have to think about it, and said, "Why not!" She didn't seem to remember that she was still barefoot, her heels lying somewhere around the couch, long forgotten.
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"... and then, no longer knowing what the hell to do, I asked her to the dance," concluded Michael Corner, who had started talking about him and him and only him all the way, stopping from time to time to watch Ginny, or to brush her cheek or her hair in a very ... in a way that sent her hormones to dance the conga, there.
"But really?"
"Yes, but I really hoped to find another nice girl to dance with ..."
"What deceit hides under that angel's face," Ginny replied, glancing at him and hoping he would not understand the state of her hormones. They weren't dancing the conga at that moment, but reproducing a tango piece that created… quite a violent congestion that would stop the passages in anyone's brain.
"Come on," Michael snorted amusedly, stopping to look at her again.
Ginny noticed Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies behind a rosebush nearby, making very strange noises, so she hastened to say, "Um ... what time is it? I should be in my dorm, I got to go with the others..."
"Oh, but you lose your shoe at midnight like Cinderella?"
"And who is this Cinderella now?"
"A fairy tale, told by an old Muggle aunt."
"Really?"
"What did you expect?"
"Boh ... it sounds like an illness ..."
He chuckled. "Anyway, it's almost midnight, we really should better go," he said finally, and Ginny followed him with relief, and pleased to finally have convinced the boy to vanish from where Fleur and Roger seemed engaged in serious business.
They walked up the grounds and climbed the stairs to the Entrance Hall. Ginny knew that shortly the two of them would have to part ways, and this left her feeling split: she still wanted to be with Michael but did not want to times and again feel embarrassed. Again, contradictory feelings made their way to her.
"So," Ginny said, coughing lightly, when they found themselves having to go different ways.
"Will we see each other around, sweetheart?" Michael asked, smiling at her.
"Y-yes, of course!"
"All right ... goodnight" and he bent down to touch his lips lightly on her cheek in an innocent kiss.
Ginny watched him walk away elegantly, then realized that she was standing frozen in the corridor and turned, finding himself face to face with the weird Luna Lovegood, who seemed to have came back from her tour of the castle grounds.
"You seem to like it," she noted.
"Oh, no, we hardly know each other, and then again I..."
"... like Harry Potter?"
That was not what I meant! Ginny barked mentally. But how on earth did Luna Lunatica Lovegood know she liked Harry Potter? But then ... hell, she had never met anyone like Luna: she always said exactly what she thought with such tranquility, and she always said everything that was going through her mind at that moment. Like that.
"N-no, I ... that is ... we are friends ... no, not so much ..." Ginny stammered, suppressing the urge to put her hands in her hair.
"I understand," Luna said softly. "And anyway I didn't think he would be so blind, Harry Potter," she added, putting on her strange pink and blue goggles, "His head is probably full of Wrackspruts and ... hey, you have too many of them as well!"
Not knowing what Wrackspruts were, Ginny decided to keep quiet and get away from there.
"Well, um ... I hope they go away," she mumbled stupidly, looking at Luna and wondering curiously whether she would see 'them' through those oddly colored glasses. "And wherever the Wrackspruts decide to go ... I'm leaving. Bye Bye! "
And she turned around, waving to Luna and running towards the Gryffindor Tower.
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It was strange to find the Common Room so deserted at half past midnight, but it would be stranger to see everyone already in bed for the one night McGonagall's rules didn't apply. The professors really had to give them that one night, for the students never had chances in centuries to enjoy themselves so much, this much was true even for the professors. Ginny had not forgotten how McGonagall's face lit up during the dance with Dumbledore, even that of Filch with the stinking cat. The bad thing was that the girl had not met any of her friends, including Hermione, throughout the evening, and she couldn't wait to tell them about the events that marked her night- certainly with a lot of compliments to Neville Longbottom.
Make your girl fall, At the Yule Ball.
Ginny burst out laughing, noticing the large banner that was no doubt the work of Fred and George, hanging over the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room, complete with red balloons. Then a noise startled her completely, and Demelza entered the portrait hole, humming quietly.
"Lalala shalalala ... GINNY!" she shrieked as soon as she realized she was being watched. To the mild disgust and for the information of the observer, I would add: How was Demelza Robins behaving so inappropriately and soberly? She was drunk-drunk.
"SSHHHH!" Ginny hissed, covering her mouth and trying to hold back a laugh. "You'll wake people up, and I don't want people coming down here to complain and make a bigger mess because I very much want to sleep myself, and besides, don't you think you… drank a bit too much tonight?"
"I drank?" Demelza repeated, trying to feign indifference, but between her lips Ginny saw the shadow of a small smile, that was from joy or annoyance she did not know ... maybe both. "But what the hell are you talking about? I did not drink, yes, but only water or otherwise I'd die dehydrated, and anyway I have a couple of things to tell you, just so you know that my dance was a fiasco ... so, see you!"
Ginny chuckled: a fiasco? But you were clearly having a good time! ... or was it just alcohol?
"I have to tell you something too," she said, moving towards the stairs.
"Interesting, but let's do it tomorrow," Demelza muttered, rubbing her eyes and, making yet another yawn and then checking the state of her breath (which she knew certainly smelt of alcohol), trotted up the stairs of the girls' dormitory, almost tripping.
One thing was certain: Demelza Robins had drunk that night, and had way, way too much at that.
1. Ginny's way too chill with her best friend having this much to drink.
2. When Malfoy was stunned to speechlessness I secretly believe it's because he's staring at Harry rather than Hermione *runs away before any of you kill me see y'all 2019*
~Helena Heansilton
Ermory's the translator and owner of this account and the sweetest human being, I'm the editor and the shameless, despicable drarry shipper, so you guys can message her if you want to fight me about drarry ta