Chapter 57
Ginny POV
It had been a week since Hermione's birthday, a week since they'd last spoken or really seen each other, and Ginny was starting to get restless. Katie told her to let Hermione come to her, but she was losing her patience by the day.
There was no way I could've been wrong about Hermione's feelings, could I? No, no, she leaned in to kiss me, there had to be something there…
That evening, Ginny joined Demelza, Colin, and Ritchie for dinner in the Great Hall. As they ate, she tried desperately to keep her eyes off of Hermione, who was eating with her fellow fifth years down the table from her group, but she couldn't help but keep stealing glances at her whenever she could. Besides the whole Hermione having not responded yet to Ginny's confession of fancying her situation, Ginny also just missed her best friend. After a few more glances down the table, Ginny forced herself to focus on the conversation at hand. While she laughed along to a reenactment Ritchie was doing of Colin's mismanagement of a Bouncing Bulb in Herbology that had gotten away from his grip and smacked him in the face, Ginny noticed the Great Hall had gotten oddly quiet. As she turned to look at the entrance to the Great Hall where everyone else had turned their attention to, she saw her. Juliette was standing in the doorway to the Great Hall, looking as fit as ever, and she was staring right at Hermione.
As Ginny anxiously followed Juliette with her eyes as she walked towards Hermione, she felt someone sit down hard beside her. Katie had suddenly appeared, and immediately leaned in close to begin talking into her ear.
"You don't know why she's here, don't think too much about it. If she is here just to spend time with Hermione, then at least you'll have your answer as to what Hermione is wanting to do. But maybe she's here for another reason? Maybe Hermione told her about what happened with you?" she whispered rapidly in Ginny's ear. Ginny didn't look at Katie, but instead kept her eyes glued to Juliette and Hermione. Hermione looked her way, making eye contact with her, before Ginny tore her eyes away to look at Katie.
"Ginny, are you alright?" Demelza asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
Ginny looked at her and tried to respond, but couldn't find the words.
"Come on, let's go," Katie said urgently, grabbing Ginny's hand and pulling her up from the table.
Colin, Ritchie, and Demelza gave Ginny a perplexed look as the sixth year led her away from the Gryffindor table and out of the Great Hall. Ginny didn't speak, she just followed Katie to wherever she was dragging her off to. As they walked, Ginny couldn't stop thinking about what was going on with Juliette and Hermione.
Why was she here? Was this a pre-planned trip? It didn't seem to be, Hermione looked shocked. Was Hermione happy to see her? What would this mean for us?
Ginny shook her head, reminding herself that there was no "us" when it came to her and Hermione. Katie continued leading her through the castle corridors, until she pulled her into the Quidditch locker room. Ginny gave her a confused look.
"What are we doing here?"
"You need a distraction," Katie said plainly as she began to pull her light knit sweater over her head.
Ginny gave her a further confused look as Katie continued to disrobe.
"Go on, get changed. We're going out on the pitch. I know it's getting dark, but I think focusing on Quidditch is just what you need right now," Katie said firmly as she pulled joggers and a training top on and pulled her hair back with a hairband.
Ginny did as she was told, and in a few minutes time they were out on the pitch, mounting their brooms, Katie with a Quaffle under her arm. They still had a bit of light left in gradually darkening sky, and with the warm autumn breeze lightly blowing through the stadium, it did feel like the perfect night to fly.
Ginny kicked off the ground hard, and flew a lap around the stadium as fast as she could, leaving Katie far behind. She whipped around the goalposts and then shot directly up into the sky, before letting gravity bring her back down in a free fall. She was still holding tight to her Comet 260, then as she quickly came upon the pitch, she pulled upright and flew along just above the grass of the pitch. As she came back to Katie, she noticed the older girl's look, a mixture of disapproval and amazement.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"We're here to blow off steam and distract you, not endanger your life…" Katie said, giving her a scolding look.
"I wasn't in any danger. I've done that before, loads of times!" Ginny insisted.
"Alright, come on," Katie said, beckoning Ginny to follow her out to the middle of the stadium. For the next half hour, they ran a few plays, worked on flying technique, and finished with a race around the stadium, which Ginny won. As they flew to the entrance to the locker room, Ginny jumped off her broom and turned around, beaming at the older girl, elated that she'd beat her.
Katie laughed as she landed beside the girl, and gave her a playful nudge with her elbow, "Yes, you're very impressive Ginny. I've been telling you this for weeks, it's nothing new."
"I still like to hear you say it," Ginny whined lightly, trying to nudge Katie back but missing as she jumped out of the way, "Hey!"
Katie gave the younger girl a challenging look and raised her eyebrows, "You may be faster in the air, but certainly not on the ground," she said as she started running backwards away from Ginny before turning and sprinting towards the center circle of the pitch.
"Oh yeah?" Ginny shouted as she raced after the older girl. She pushed herself to run as fast as possible, lifting her knees to try to get as much speed and power going to try and catch Katie. She realized Katie had too much of a head start to outright beat her, but she caught her just as she was about to enter the circle, and managed to tackle the girl around the knees, bringing both girls crashing to the ground into the center circle.
"You little – " Katie cried out, laughing as Ginny tried to crawl past her to the very center of the circle. Ginny thought she was going to make it, but then she felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her waist and flatten her to the ground. Ginny flipped over to try to wriggle out of Katie's grasp, but it was no use, Katie had her pinned. Katie was still laughing and shaking her head at Ginny who grinned up at her.
"It was worth a shot!" Ginny exclaimed.
"You're something else, you know that?" Katie laughed, still shaking her head down at the redhead beneath her. Katie stood up, walked to touch the very center of the center circle, then walked back over to Ginny and offered her a hand up, "You'll beat me someday," she grinned as Ginny took her hand. They walked back to the entrance of the locker room, picked up their brooms and the Quaffle, and headed in to change back into their clothes.
As they changed, Ginny was quiet as the thoughts of Juliette and Hermione together flooded back into her mind. She could feel Katie watching her with a look of concern. Once they were done changing, Katie sat down on the wooden bench in front of their lockers and patted the spot beside her, inviting Ginny to sit down. Ginny sat, her head still swimming with thoughts of Juliette and Hermione.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Katie asked.
Ginny paused, then responded, "If you had to guess, what do you think is happening right now?"
Katie pursed her lips and gave Ginny a sympathetic look, "Honestly, I don't know. Did you know Juliette was coming to visit at some point?"
Ginny shook her head, "It didn't seem like that was something they'd planned on, at least not a week ago. Maybe she panicked after everything that happened with us and invited her here to get reassurance or something?" Ginny looked down at her hands, clasping them together tightly.
Katie reached over and placed a hand on Ginny's clenched grip, "Look, until you know what's going on for sure, try not to waste your time worrying about it. They could be breaking up for all you know," Katie pointed out.
"Yeah… Right…"
"Hey, if you were my type and you said you fancied me, I'd be all over it. She honestly could be breaking up with her because you admitted to her that you fancied her, and everything could end up okay!"
"I'm not your type, huh?" Ginny teased, looking up at the older girl and bumping her jokingly with her shoulder.
"You're cute Ginny, but you and I are far too similar," Katie laughed, which spurred Ginny to laugh as well. Katie was right, they didn't necessarily look the same, but they did present similarly in their style and how they carried themselves. "I often find myself fancying much more feminine girls, and girls who are shorter than me."
"Sounds like Demelza would be perfect for you," Ginny said nonchalantly. Katie blushed lightly at the remark. "Wait, do you fancy Demelza?" Ginny asked, a look of shock on her face.
"Well, yes, a bit. I noticed her during Quidditch trials. But knowing that the two of you dated and with how close you were once school started back up again, I wasn't sure what was going on there, so I didn't want to act on it. Now that I know that you fancy Hermione though, I was going to maybe see if there was anything there," Katie shrugged.
Ginny thought for a moment about how she'd feel seeing Demelza possibly dating someone else, then realized she'd be nothing but glad for the girl. Katie and Demelza would probably actually be quite cute together, and she knew Katie would treat her extremely well.
"Honestly, I think you should go for it! She's a really sweet girl, she's well fit and shorter than you, and she loves Quidditch. Sounds like a perfect match," Ginny smiled as Katie, who patted her still clenched hands.
"Thanks Ginny, I'll look into it. Now, can we get you being that optimistic about yourself and Hermione?"
Ginny's faced dropped as she was reminded of Hermione, "I'll feel better once Juliette is gone and I find a chance to talk to Hermione. Until then, I won't assume the worst, deal?"
Katie grinned, "Deal. Come on, let's head up to get some sleep. Angelina's got a tough week of training ahead of us, and probably won't be too thrilled that we were out here tonight."
Katie unclasped Ginny's hands and took one in hers, pulling the younger girl out of the locker room. As they walked through the corridors on their way to the Gryffindor common room, they nodded at Dean Thomas who was up ahead of them before he turned down a corridor, likely on Prefect duty. Ginny wondered if Hermione was still with Juliette and was shirking her Prefect duties that evening, but shook her head, remembering she wasn't supposed to assume the worst.
Maybe she still had a chance with Hermione? Maybe Katie was right, and they'd broken up?
She felt Katie look at her and squeeze her hand, and Ginny smiled at the older girl. She really did feel so lucky to have gained such a great friend in Katie.
Once they got back to the common room and climbed the staircase to the girls' dormitories, Katie wrapped Ginny up in a hug.
"Remember, don't worry until you know for sure what's going on. No matter what, it'll all turn out how it's supposed to, okay?"
Ginny nodded, "Alright. Thanks Katie, I really appreciate this."
"Of course, what are friends and teammates for?" Katie smiled as she pulled out of the hug. She ruffled Ginny's hair lightly, then walked towards the sixth year dormitory, "Goodnight Ginny!"
Ginny smiled as she ran a hand through her long red hair, "Goodnight Katie."
