Ginny stepped forward, blazing with anger. "Why?"
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
TERROR AT HOGWARTS!
YOUNGEST BATTLE HERO ABUSED BECAUSE OF INJURIES!
Just a few short hours ago, Emily Brooks was sent to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts, following a traumatic bullying incident at the hands of four older boys. Readers may recognise Emily's name from reports over the summer concerning the heroes of the Battle of Hogwarts. Emily was the youngest person present at the Battle, and her injuries were so severe that they cost her the ability to walk. The boys were reportedly mocking her condition and trying to make her walk without her enchanted chair that moves her around magically. Reports suggest that Emily is in a catatonic state, and we at the Prophet wish the best for her in her recovery.
The boys' identities are known, but the Prophet has decided to keep them confidential for now.
Headmistress Minerva McGonagall was unavailable for comment, but questions must be asked about
Harry crumpled up the Evening Edition of the Prophet that Liam Turner had just given him and tossed it in the fire. He was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, waiting for word from McGonagall about Emily. McGonagall had flat out refused to let them into the Hospital Wing with her last night after everything had happened, so Harry and Ginny had spent a restless night in their bedroom and then the common room when they realised they weren't going to be sleeping much.
Ginny had dozed off and was resting her head on his shoulder. Harry smiled as he looked down at her, feeling an almost dizzying rush of affection for her in spite of her light snoring that told him she was really exhausted.
Yesterday had been terrifying. At first, he was scared about Ginny not wanting to talk to him, but then that fear was trumped by the far more worrying question of if Ginny was okay. She'd had a panic attack, but it was much different than any of the ones he'd ever had. She was still aware enough to be able to communicate, and she'd managed to walk all the way up to her dormitory, but a lot of the other things she'd described– the shaking, difficulty breathing, and ringing in her ears– were things Harry could relate to.
That was his first glimpse of what it must have been like for her every time that he had a panic attack. He honestly didn't know which side of things was worse. All he knew was that he really didn't want to ever go through that again, and, more importantly, he didn't want Ginny to have to go through it again. It was bad enough when he got panic attacks; it killed him knowing that she'd been through something similar. In typical Ginny fashion though, she'd brushed off his suggestion of contacting Amelia, saying it was a one time thing caused by the very specific circumstances that had reminded her of the Battle. He didn't love that, but she had promised that they'd reach out if it happened again, which was probably the best he was going to get.
Ginny had also explained to him that she hadn't been trying to hide anything from him. After she thought about it more, she realised she was just repeating what Emily had told her, which still hurt. It was a relief to know that Ginny wasn't trying to hide things from him, but it saddened him, knowing that Emily thought he wouldn't be proud of her or like her if he knew about what had happened. She'd been defenceless against four boys older than her– how could she have done more than cry out for help? He just really hoped she'd be okay.
As if on cue, the portrait door swung open and Hagrid poked his head in. As Head of Gryffindor now, Harry supposed it was his responsibility to make announcements in the common room, even if he couldn't really fit through the portrait hole. His appearance did make all conversations in the room cease, at least until he waved Harry and Ginny over. Harry nudged Ginny awake. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes adorably and yawning until she saw Hagrid watching her from the door and shut her mouth.
"How's Emily?" Harry asked once they neared the door, well aware that Emily's friends were gathered close to listen to the conversation.
"Professor McGonagall wanted me ter tell yeh tha' she's doin' loads better now. Her parents got here las' nigh', an' she finally perked up some time after tha'."
Harry let out a relieved breath. "That's amazing. D'you… can we go see her?"
Hagrid smiled at them. "Tha's the real reason I'm here. C'mon and I'll take yeh up ter the Hospital Wing."
They quickly followed Hagrid to the Hospital Wing, where McGonagall met them.
"I'm glad you both could come. She cannot have many visitors, but Poppy did agree to allow the two of you to see her. Miss Brooks specifically requested it."
They were about to enter when Harry stopped and looked back at her. "Er– Professor… there was an article in the Daily Prophet," he mentioned, thinking she should know about it.
"I'm aware, Potter."
"Oh. Okay then. I just wanted to make sure you had seen it."
"I saw it and immediately disposed of it. I'm not interested in a newspaper that peddles gossip about my school."
"It's all rubbish anyways," Ginny agreed before they entered the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey told them they only had a few minutes before they needed to leave. With that in mind, they walked in and saw Emily sitting up in bed with her parents in chairs next to her. She grinned when she saw them, and they rushed over to see how she was doing.
"Are you feeling okay?" Ginny asked.
Emily nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay now. Madam Pomfrey thinks I was just really scared because of everything, but when my parents got here, I calmed down."
"We were worried about you," Harry admitted, and Emily looked down at her blanket.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to worry anyone… I was just so scared. I couldn't be brave enough."
Immediately, Harry crouched down and caught Emily's eye. "Hey… you are so brave. One of the bravest people I know. There's not a lot you can do when you're ambushed by four people bigger and stronger than you. But Emily… don't think for a minute that you're not brave. It takes a lot of bravery to make it through that and still be smiling like you just were. Trust me."
Harry noticed Mrs. Brooks and Ginny both looking at him with curious expressions, but he focused on Emily, who slowly nodded and let a smile creep onto her face.
"I know you guys can't stay for long… but do you wanna play Exploding Snap?" Emily asked hopefully, all traces of self doubt and sadness erased.
Harry laughed. "Yeah, I think we'd love to do that."
After he lost miserably in Exploding Snap several times, Madam Pomfrey finally kicked them out of the Hospital Wing, but they promised to return and see her again after they got back from Hogsmeade. Harry gave her their secret handshake, Ginny gave Emily a hug, and then they left the Hospital Wing, followed by Mrs. Brooks.
"Thank you for coming to see her. She really wanted to see you two last night, but Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let her."
"Absolutely. She's one of our best friends. There was no way we weren't going to see her," Ginny replied.
Mrs. Brooks smiled gratefully before it faltered slightly. "I heard that you fought off the people who did this to her."
Ginny nodded slowly. "I did. Well, Astoria Greengrass and I did. We got help as quickly as we could."
Suddenly, Mrs. Brooks surged forward and wrapped them both in a hug. "I know you both are much older than her, but thank you for looking out for her and being her friend. You truly mean the world to her."
Harry felt slightly uncomfortable, mostly because he was surprised, but he answered, "We feel the same, Mrs. Brooks. We love Emily."
"Very much," Ginny agreed before Mrs. Brooks let them go, wiping her eyes and smiling at them before reentering the Hospital Wing.
Feeling better about everything now, Harry took Ginny's hand and they walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Very quickly, Astoria came over to where they'd sat down.
"Is she alright?" Astoria asked.
Ginny nodded. "She's doing great, actually. She was just really scared yesterday. Look, Astoria… I'm really sorry about running off like that yesterday. I just panicked, and–"
Astoria put a hand on Ginny's shoulder and shook her head. "It's okay. I'm sure it was a lot for you, really fighting again… and seeing your friend like that. Don't worry about it. I'm glad that you're both okay though."
Ginny gave Astoria an appreciative smile. "Thanks. And thanks again for helping me yesterday."
"Any time, that's what friends do. I feel like those boys are my responsibility, sort of. I've been their prefect and now Head Girl for several years, and they keep causing problems. I just wish they hadn't roped Anton into it. He's not usually like that."
Harry did a double take. "Anton? Isn't he the one who was at Slughorn's thing a couple weeks ago?"
"Yeah, but I doubt he'll be invited to any more things by Slughorn. He was angrier yesterday than I can ever remember seeing him."
"Good. They deserve to be punished for what they did to Emily," Ginny said with a harsh edge in her voice.
A little while later, Harry and Ginny were walking together towards Hogsmeade when Ginny brought it up again. "Interesting that Anton was involved with that."
"Yeah, I thought so too. It still doesn't make any sense why he would've spiked my drink with Veritaserum, but after this… we should probably keep an eye on him," Harry suggested.
Ron and Hermione agreed when they met them at The Three Broomsticks.
"I told you that Slytherin kid was bad news," Ron reminded them.
"I don't know what it has to do with the Veritaserum, but it would be awfully coincidental if multiple people are doing things to hurt people around the castle this year," Hermione agreed.
"I feel a little bad for Astoria, you know? She's one of the nicest people at Hogwarts, and she does her best to improve Slytherin's reputation, but then people go and do stuff like this that just makes her job harder," Ginny said.
Ron shrugged. "I mean there's a reason for that reputation. It's not like a Gryffindor would– actually, never mind. Romilda's in Gryffindor." He shuddered as Ginny mimed vomiting. Then, he amended his statement. "Okay, it's not like a Hufflepuff would do something like spiking Harry's drink. Everyone knows that when something bad happens, chances are, a Slytherin is responsible."
Harry shook his head. "I hate that thinking though. We know there have been bad people from other houses– Pettigrew was in Gryffindor, Quirrell was in Ravenclaw, I think… hell, even Zacharias Smith was in Hufflepuff. I don't think a house makes people bad."
Ron hesitated for a second before partially conceding. "You're right, mate. I was just saying that it wouldn't be too surprising if a Slytherin is behind the weird stuff with you, but I guess it doesn't… necessarily have to be a Slytherin."
"It probably is though," Ginny joked, making all of them laugh.
"Oh, I wanted to tell you two that Mister Trumble invited the family to sit in his box for our Boxing Day match against Falmouth. So you two are gonna be there," Ron said, totally changing the topic of conversation.
"That's awesome! We wouldn't miss it, mate," Harry agreed enthusiastically.
"Chudley still hasn't won a game yet, right?" Ginny asked, a little patronisingly in Harry's opinion, considering he knew that she closely followed all the B.I.Q.L. scores.
Ron shook his head. "Not yet. Soon though," he swore, even though it wasn't very convincing when Harry had been hearing that guarantee for years.
Harry was about to ask Hermione about her job when Neville walked into The Three Broomsticks. Harry tried to wave him over, but Neville seemed very focused on getting to the bar, where he immediately began talking to Hannah, who'd been Madam Rosmerta's manager for the past several months.
"That's so cute," Hermione commented, seeing Neville with Hannah.
"What is?" Harry asked cluelessly.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Harry, it's like sometimes you're the most observant person in the world and other times you're the most oblivious. Neville's fancied Hannah for years."
"He has?" Harry responded, rather surprised.
"We all thought they were going to get together last year. They spent so much time together with the D.A. but never did. We were all too busy, I guess," Ginny added.
"He sure looks ready now," Ron observed with a knowing grin.
Harry chuckled, thinking it was sort of obvious now, based on how Neville was staring at Hannah even when she was attending to other patrons at the bar.
"Have your parents gotten settled back home?" Ginny asked Hermione, changing the subject to something slightly more serious than Neville's love life.
"Um… mostly, yes. They're still having some trouble getting their dentistry practice running again since they lost all their old clients, but they're home and doing well."
"And are things better between you and them?"
Hermione sighed, and Harry noticed Ron reach over and squeeze her hand. "Some days are better than others. The other day, they were really mad at me for everything again when they found out that they weren't going to be able to use the building they'd used for the past twenty years anymore. Other times, it's like things are closer to normal, but… I don't know."
"They do know just how dangerous everything was last year, right? I know you said that you told them about everything and how Riddle was like some really awful Muggles in history, but… I dunno that I would've done exactly what you did, to be honest, Hermione, but it was better than running away without telling them or telling them and leaving them without any protection," Harry said.
"I told them mostly everything. They don't– I can't tell them about everything. They know I had a hard time being Muggle-born, and they know that Muggle-borns and Muggles were in danger last year. They probably don't understand just how dangerous things were, but they don't need to know. Eventually, I think everything will be fine. I just need to give them more time."
Harry was a little sceptical of that, but he wasn't going to challenge Hermione on it. Ginny changed the subject once again, thankfully to something a little less depressing for Hermione.
"Have you started working at the Ministry yet?"
Hermione lit up with a wide smile and dove into a rambling discussion of Ministry politics, legal codes, and ethical responsibilities that left Harry very lost. While Hermione droned on and on, Harry and Ron locked eyes, and Harry knew Ron was just as lost as he was. That realisation made it incredibly difficult for Harry to keep a straight face, so he bit the inside of his cheek and forced himself to try and tune back into what Hermione was saying.
"Anyways, it's truly been such a remarkable experience even though I'm just starting. The Being Division is so small that I feel like I'm making an impact already, and I do think this effort to reopen friendly communications with the goblins will be for the best."
Hoping he didn't miss too much, Harry asked, "Er– are you the best person to be responsible for communicating with goblins after Gringotts?"
"After Gringotts? Oh, Harry, the goblins aren't mad about that anymore."
"They're not?"
"Well, I think they're more insulted than anything that we were able to break in. But when Riddle was running things, they weren't in control of Gringotts at all. Now, they're back in full control and don't have to deal with wizard oversight. Granted, they may dislike you a little bit because of how open you were about everything with the robbery, but I think they realised they prefer a world where Gringotts was robbed and they're still in control than one where it wasn't robbed and they're not in control."
"Huh. That's a relief," Harry replied, glad that maybe things wouldn't be too awkward the next time he went to Gringotts.
They stayed with Ron and Hermione for a while longer before departing. Ron and Hermione were returning to the Burrow, and Harry and Ginny wanted to be getting back to the castle soon. Besides, they'd be seeing each other again soon for the reopening of WWW if not before.
"We should get Emily some chocolate," Ginny suggested as they walked past Honeydukes. Harry agreed, and they entered the small sweets shop together.
"What kind should we get?" Ginny asked, combing over Chocolate Bars and Chocolate Wands and Chocolate Frogs.
"Get them all," Harry responded. "I'm sure she'll let us help her eat them."
Ginny giggled. "Sounds like a plan to me."
After making their purchases, they continued walking back towards the castle. Harry was disappointed to see that Zonko's was still closed. Some businesses hadn't recovered from losing money during the war, and it was sad that the joke shop seemed to be one of those.
They ran into Luna as they were leaving the village. Surprisingly, she was with Noah Smith, a fellow seventh year and the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain and Seeker. And even more curiously, she didn't seem interested in sticking around to talk to them, promising that she would speak with them another time. Noah smiled apologetically and led Luna further into the village, leaving Harry and Ginny stunned.
"Was she on a date?" Harry asked.
Ginny nodded, her mouth stuck between being open in shock and smiling. "I think so."
"And she totally blew us off."
She laughed. "I can't blame her. I know I'm enjoying alone time with my date."
Harry grinned as Ginny wrapped her arm around his, hugging close to him for warmth in the cool November air. "You have a point there," he agreed.
The sun was setting when they walked back through the gates to the Hogwarts grounds, and Harry remembered his plan that had almost been forgotten in the craziness of the past two days. He pulled Ginny off the path towards their tree, very pleased to see her smiling when she saw where he was taking her.
They sat together and watched the Black Lake sparkling as the sun set behind it. "You know, this is my favourite place here," he said, like that wasn't obvious.
She smiled up at him. "This is one of my favourite places anywhere. I think Sunrise Cottage might be the only place I love more."
"Well, I couldn't take you to Sunrise Cottage, so that's why we're here."
Ginny's smile turned into a knowing grin. "And why are we here, exactly?"
Harry cleared his throat. "I was wanting some advice. See, there's this dance thing that's happening in a few weeks, and everyone's getting dates for it. There's this girl who I want to ask, but I don't know how."
Her eyes were sparkling. "Maybe you should tell me about this girl so I can help."
"Oh, yeah. The first thing you should know is she's got such a massive heart for the people she cares about. She's got a wicked sense of humour, and she's so smart but doesn't ever make me feel dumb. She's the most beautiful person I've ever seen, and everyone loves her. I love her."
"You should tell this special girl that. And then ask if she'll go to the Yule Ball with you. I don't think anyone could say no to you if you ask like that."
Harry nodded. "Good idea."
He leaned back against the tree as relaxed as possible, fighting to keep the grin off his face. He felt Ginny possibly glaring at him now, and that made him want to laugh even more. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, so he raised his wand and waved it in an arc. Gold ribbons burst out the end of it, forming into words in mid-air. Set against the backdrop of the Black Lake were the golden words: 'Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?'
Harry turned and looked at Ginny, who was smiling widely at him now. "Ginny, you're the love of my life and the only person I ever want to go to any dance with. So will you please do me the honour of being my date to the Yule Ball?"
Her eyes blazed, making Harry forget how cold it was outside. "It's about damn time you asked," she whispered before pulling him into a mindblowing kiss that he was pretty sure meant that she was saying yes.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
With all the excitement surrounding the upcoming Yule Ball, the Slug Club Christmas Party had completely slipped Ginny's mind until Professor Slughorn reminded them of it as they were leaving his class.
"Come on, we can think of an excuse to get out of this," Harry said hopefully as soon as they left the dungeons.
Ginny shook her head firmly. "No way. He said Gwenog Jones was going to be there, so we're going to be there."
Harry sighed. "I don't guess I'm talking you out of this one then."
"Nope," Ginny answered cheerfully. "Besides, you did say last week that I was the only person you ever wanted to go to any dance with, so that basically signed you up for everything I want to go to forever."
"But this isn't even a dance," he complained, but he sighed once again, seeing her resolute expression. "And I can't wait to go with you," he added, even if it wasn't completely convincing.
She smiled and gave him a kiss. "That's why I love you."
After Herbology, they had to split up but agreed to get ready together in their bedroom that evening. While Harry went to his private lesson with McGonagall, Ginny went to Arithmancy. Today's class was admittedly dull though, and Ginny found herself daydreaming about what Harry was doing in his lesson– probably transfiguring knives into feathers or something cool like that. Then her mind wandered to the prospect of meeting Gwenog Jones, which made her a little nervous if she was being honest. Gwenog had been Ginny's idol for close to a decade now, and it was so exciting to think that she was just a few hours away from meeting her.
Somehow, the class was suddenly over, and Ginny realised she had no idea what the lesson had even been about. She quickly shoved her book into her bag and caught up to Dean, who'd just left the classroom.
"Any chance you–"
Dean laughed. "Could lend you my notes? Sure thing."
"Guess I wasn't hiding my boredom very well."
"Not at all, I'm afraid," he joked with her.
"Oh well. It wasn't a very good class today anyways. But thanks for–"
Their conversation was interrupted by Demelza, who was running so fast that she may have been flying before skidding to a stop in front of them.
"Common room," she gasped, grabbing Ginny's hand and yanking it as she began running back the way she came. Ginny had no choice but to follow, compelled by Demelza's grip and the way she'd stormed through the corridor like something was terribly wrong. Ginny couldn't fathom what would've made Demelza act like this, but, with how fast they were running, she wouldn't have to wait long.
Ginny didn't think she'd ever gone through the corridors faster, seeing how quickly they reached the Fat Lady's portrait. "Demiguise," Demelza panted, forcing Ginny through the portrait hole as soon as it opened.
The common room was eerily quiet. When Ginny entered, she suddenly felt every eye in the room on her, like she'd walked in on something that she shouldn't have. She noticed several people's eyes darting between her and somewhere else in the room. Confused, she glanced to the corner that people couldn't seem to stop looking at and instinctively rolled her eyes, seeing a couple very obviously snogging on a sofa. There were definitely more private places to do that– even she and Harry didn't usually take things too far in public.
Ginny looked back at Demelza, who was staring at her with shock that Ginny didn't understand. Seeing Ginny's confusion, she nodded at the couple again, and as she turned, Ginny noticed Demelza's fists clenched.
Now she saw that the girl, who was facing them, was Romilda Vane. It was actually disgusting, watching her snog some boy who… Ginny suddenly felt her heart stop as her blood turned ice cold. She recognised that messy head of black hair that Romilda's fingers were threaded through. Ginny understood now why everyone was staring at her.
How could he? After everything, how could Harry be snogging Romilda Vane in the common room?
Ginny felt awful that Katie was still in St. Mungo's, but she was relieved when Harry finally filled her vacancy on the team. He'd put it off for so long, and while it did allow her and Demelza to grow closer and learn each other's tendencies thoroughly, there had still been the unknown of who their third Chaser would be.
It was a nice surprise that Dean had been chosen to be the replacement Chaser. He'd been ecstatic when telling her earlier, and he'd performed well at the start of practice too. Granted, everyone performed well other than Ron, her prat of a brother who busted Demelza's lip open because he couldn't tell the difference between her head and a Quaffle.
Harry tried to encourage the team, but it didn't really feel that uplifting. Ginny knew that after Ron had hit Demelza, the entire team played poorly. Even she was misplaying passes occasionally, which she'd trained so hard to not do. She hated it, but it was a relief when Harry called practice to an end and she could leave with Dean.
Dean seemed oblivious to how badly the practice had gone. He was just so excited to be on the team, and Ginny was happy to stoke his positivity as they made their way into the castle. She was taken by surprise when they reached the hidden corridor on the second floor that they used as a shortcut to get to Gryffindor Tower. Suddenly, Dean was on her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her fiercely.
Without hesitation, Ginny put her hands around his neck, trying to pull him closer to her as their tongues fought ferociously for dominance. He pressed her against a wall and continued their kiss until a loud voice broke them apart.
"Oi!"
Ginny's eyes widened as she saw her brother and… damn it, why was Harry here? And why was he looking at her like that? She thought Ron might've said something else, but she was a little distracted. "What?" she asked.
"I don't want to find my own sister snogging people in public!" Ron shouted.
Doing her best to not look at Harry's expression that she was baffled by, she defended herself. "This was a deserted corridor until you came butting in!"
Dean clearly felt uncomfortable, slowly backing away from Ron and Harry. "Er… c'mon, Ginny. Let's go back to the common room."
Ginny stepped away from him, towards her brother. Without so much as glancing at Dean, she said, "You go! I want a word with my dear brother!"
She wanted to be mature about things, but she was so tired of Ron treating her like a child. And what was the deal with Harry? Did he agree with Ron? He certainly didn't look happy to have found her with Dean. He was just staring at her like he was shocked and confused.
"Right, let's get this straight once and for all. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them, Ron–"
Ron, the idiot, immediately dashed any hopes of being mature with his interjection. "Yeah, it is! D'you think I want people saying my sister's a–"
Her temper flared instantly and she drew her wand. "A what? A what, exactly?"
She really wanted Ron to answer that question, but Harry had to step in. "He doesn't mean anything, Ginny–"
She turned on him now, unable to believe that he was defending her brother. But he still seemed detached from everything, looking like somebody had punched Hedwig or something. Why was he looking at her like that?
"Oh yes he does! Just because he's never snogged anyone in his life, just because the best kiss he's ever had is from our Auntie Muriel–"
That got to him. "Shut your mouth!" Ron bellowed.
Ginny was done shutting her mouth. "No, I will not! I've seen you with Phlegm, hoping she'll kiss you on the cheek every time you see her, it's pathetic! If you went out and got a bit of snogging done yourself, you wouldn't mind so much that everyone else does it!"
Ron's wand was in his hand now, and for the first time, it looked like Harry had a real thought beyond staring dumbfoundedly at her. And of course, his first thought, because he was Harry, was to protect her by stepping between them. It would've been kind, if a little annoying, if she hadn't been so pissed off at her brother.
Ron was in a fury, trying to cast a spell around Harry to hit her, but Harry refused to let him have a clean shot.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Ron roared. "Just because I don't do it in public!"
And that might've been the richest thing she'd ever heard. She couldn't hold in her derisive laughter even as she tried to push Harry out of the way, wanting nothing more than to cast a Bat-Bogey Hex on Ron. But Harry wouldn't budge, so Ginny settled for more verbal assaults.
"Been kissing Pigwidgeon, have you? Or have you got a picture of Auntie Muriel stashed under your pillow?"
"You–" Ron started before shooting a bolt of orange light at her under Harry's outstretched arm. It missed her by inches. For a second, Ginny was shocked that he'd actually tried to curse her. And then she was stunned that Harry had physically manhandled her larger brother, using strength that she didn't realise he had to push him up against the wall.
"Don't be stupid–" Harry tried to calm Ron down, but Ginny had reached a breaking point, feeling herself coming closer to tears by the second. How had the night gone this badly?
It pained her to admit it, but she had to say it. "Harry's snogged Cho Chang! And Hermione snogged Viktor Krum, it's only you who acts like it's something disgusting, Ron, and that's because you've got as much experience as a twelve year old!"
After that final word, she stormed off before she couldn't keep herself from hexing him or from crying. Still furious, she stopped in the first abandoned classroom she found in the next corridor and locked the door. Shaking with anger, she felt hot tears spilling down her cheeks as she sat down on top of the desk at the front of the room.
Why couldn't her brother just be normal and leave her alone? She didn't care at all if he snogged everyone in the castle, so why couldn't he be the same way with her? She knew that he was going to suggest that she was some sort of slut, which was ridiculous. She was fifteen and this was only her second ever boyfriend! She knew plenty of girls her age who had dated way more people than that. Why was it so wrong for her to kiss her boyfriend?
The other question that was gnawing, unbidden, on the back of her mind was why had Harry acted so strangely? When she first saw him, he'd glared daggers at Dean, looking like he might've killed him if he could get away with it. But then his gaze had shifted to her, and it looked so… conflicted. Did he agree with Ron? Is that why he was looking at her like she was a stranger?
Surely he didn't. Like she'd said, as much as she'd hated to admit it, Harry had snogged Cho. He couldn't possibly be judging her for doing the same with Dean. And if he had agreed, he probably wouldn't have been so willing to protect her. But he'd jumped in front of her without any hesitation, just like he'd gone to the Chamber for her without any hesitation, just like he'd fought Riddle in the Department of Mysteries without any hesitation.
Ginny forced the feelings she'd fought so long to suppress back down. It's not like Harry was looking at her like that anyways. If anything, he was probably surprised that she was grown up enough to be snogging, but that was it. Although… he was willing to physically fight Ron to protect her.
She had no idea what any of it meant, but when she was lying in bed that night, it wasn't Dean's face in the corridor that she was thinking about. She kept seeing Harry's stunned reaction. And for the briefest moment, she imagined that Ron had caught her and Harry together instead.
She punched her pillow as she rolled over. She saw her stuffed lion, Roary, giving her a judgmental look, like he was ashamed of her wandering thoughts. Great. It wasn't bad enough that her older brother was being a judgmental prat. She was getting it from the lion too. Unbelievable.
Something hot was bubbling up in the back of Ginny's throat. She thought she'd be sick, watching Harry writhing around with Romilda, locked onto her lips like they were his only source of oxygen, while everyone in the common room snapped their attention back and forth between her and the couple on the couch. Everything in her wanted to run away and sob at this betrayal, but her feet refused to cooperate, and she remained rooted to the spot, watching her boyfriend kissing another woman.
This was nothing like when Harry had caught her with Dean two years ago. She'd been in a relationship with Dean at the time, and Harry had kept his feelings very private. But now… she loved him, wanted to marry him, and this was how he honoured that love? What the fuck?
She didn't know if she was going to cry or scream when it hit her like the bolt of lightning on Harry's forehead. Harry couldn't ever do something to hurt her. After everything they'd been through, she had to believe that there was some sort of other explanation. She wouldn't settle for anything less.
Ginny felt the room take a collective gasp as she marched to the entwined couple on the couch. This wasn't going to go without a confrontation. She did her best to keep herself from being sick as she grabbed Harry's shoulder and yanked him away from Romilda to face her. Then she saw his expression and almost fell over.
After particularly good kisses, Harry would get a dazed look in his eyes that was so adorable. She'd thought she was the only person who would ever make him get that look, but he had it right now, and she wanted so badly to punch him in the face for hurting her. She also really wanted to punch the smirking girl behind him, who looked so pleased with herself.
"Sorry, but Harry changed his mind," Romilda said in a proud voice, her dark eyes gleaming triumphantly.
Ginny took a shuddering breath, looking back at Harry for any indication that this wasn't real because it felt way too real now.
"You gave him a love potion," she accused in a broken voice, desperate for another explanation.
"Nope. He chose me," Romilda gloated, her fingers snaking over Harry's shoulders like she was about to pull him back to her for more.
Her words cut Ginny like a knife. After everything, she'd thought Harry would always choose her. She couldn't even stand to look at him now. He'd promised her forever. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real. The real Harry would never do this to her.
She nearly gasped. The real Harry. That had to be the explanation. Harry never looked at her with anything other than love, and right now, he was looking at her like she was a total stranger. The real Harry would never do that, just like the real Harry would never, ever kiss someone else.
Ginny pulled her wand out and stuck it under the chin of the man in front of her, to gasps from everyone watching. She contemplated for a brief second what she should ask when she saw the very obvious solution in front of her.
"On my birthday, Harry gave me a present as soon as he saw me, before I'd seen anyone else. What was it?"
The man in front of her blinked twice, apparently trying to recall the answer. "Er– a dress?"
"Petrificus Totalus," Ginny cast, and the man went rigid immediately, making everyone gasp yet again, but she wasn't finished.
She pointed her wand at Romilda, whose expression had changed to a fear that invigorated Ginny. She didn't care if Romilda knew Harry was an imposter or not. It was fucked up for her to make out with someone who looked like Ginny's boyfriend regardless. "I've wanted to do this for so long, you fucking bitch. Vespertilio!"
The common room erupted with surprised laughter, and Ginny took great satisfaction watching Romilda attempting to fight off the massive bogeys that were attacking her face. Demelza approached, standing next to her.
"I'm so sorry, Ginny. I can't believe Harry would–"
Ginny shook her head. "That's not Harry. I don't know who it is, but that has to be Polyjuice Potion."
"Oh. Um… how do you know?" Demelza asked, trying her best not to sound doubtful.
"Harry wouldn't ever cheat on me. And he'd also know what he got me for my birthday," Ginny answered, completely convinced.
A creak indicated that the portrait door was opening. They both turned, and Ginny couldn't help but smile with relief, feeling her knees almost giving out when the most handsome man she knew walked through it. And Harry was completely oblivious to everyone staring at him with gaping mouths and to Romilda, who'd given up fighting the bat-bogeys and was curled in a ball on the floor. He only had eyes for her.
"Damn, you were fast. I thought I'd beat you up here, but my lesson went long, and then I ran into Astoria and Owen, and they wanted to talk about last week's Defence lesson, so…" Harry trailed off, finally noticing everyone watching him. "What's going on?"
Positive he'd know the answer, she responded with a question of her own. "On my birthday, you gave me a present in my bedroom before I went downstairs and saw the rest of my family. What was it?"
He smiled at the memory. "I think you're wearing it right now," he answered, pointing at the woven leather bracelet on her wrist that she almost never took off.
Ginny threw herself on him, not caring that everyone was watching. She was just so thankful that none of it had been real. "I love you," she whispered, hugging him tightly.
"I love you too, Gin," he breathed, and she sighed once again, revelling in the love that she'd been so reluctant to doubt.
"Wait… is that me?" Harry asked, straightening up and looking at the paralysed man on the ground behind Ginny.
"Oh… yeah. Well, it's someone who took Polyjuice to look like you. They were snogging Romilda when I came in."
"What?" Harry asked incredulously, eyes darting from his doppelganger to Romilda, whom he'd just noticed for the first time, and back to Ginny. "Wait, you didn't think…"
She shook her head. "There was about a second where I almost lost my shit, but then I realised you wouldn't ever do something like that to me and knew it had to be some sort of trick. So I asked him the same question I asked you, and he had no idea. So… I did that."
He smiled at her. "Another thing on my list for you… you trust me so much that you literally saw me kissing another girl and your instinct was that it was someone else using Polyjuice Potion. You're incredible."
She let him hug her and whispered into his chest. "You earned that trust. I know you're not gonna break it."
He hugged her even tighter, promising without words what she already knew. There was no way that something like this fabricated scene would ever be a reality. He loved her too much.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
In the past several years, Harry had seen a lot of strange things. But there were very few things he'd ever seen that were more bizarre than the scene he'd walked into in the common room. Between seeing himself lying paralysed on the floor and Romilda being attacked by flying bogeys, it was a lot to take in.
Honestly, he was amazed that Ginny had assumed that something like Polyjuice must've been responsible for this. He trusted her completely, but if their roles had been reversed, he wasn't sure that he would've immediately thought there was anything more to it than Ginny deciding that he wasn't good enough for her anymore. But somehow, Ginny's faith in him was so strong that she couldn't even believe what had been right in front of her eyes, and he felt that faith and love in the tight hug she wrapped him in.
Harry was extremely pissed off though. It looked to him that whoever was imitating him was trying to damage his relationship with Ginny by convincing her that he'd cheated. Once Ginny let him go, Harry moved to stand over his clone. He took the wand from the man's pocket– another sign that he was an imposter was that his wand looked nothing like Harry's– and lifted the curse.
"Who are you?" Harry demanded, glaring down at the still-prone figure at his feet. When fake-Harry refused to give an answer, Harry shrugged. "Guess we'll wait for it to wear off then."
It only took another five minutes for the potion to wear off. It was rather disturbing to watch his features slowly morph into completely new ones. On the floor, the man's hair lightened and shrunk into his head, while his nose grew slightly and his eyebrows became bushier. When the grotesque transformation was complete, someone completely new was lying on the floor, and Harry didn't recognise the boy at all.
"Who are you?" he asked again.
Knowing that there was nowhere to hide now, the boy grumbled, "Jasper. Jasper Atkinson."
"Do you go to Hogwarts?"
"He's in my year. Slytherin," Dennis spat to Harry's right, watching the events unfolding with disdain.
"Okay. Why the hell did you take Polyjuice Potion to look like me?"
Jasper smirked a little, which wasn't the wisest thing for someone in his position to be doing. "Thought it was obvious. Your girlfriend was supposed to find us."
Ginny stepped forward, blazing with anger. "Why?"
Jasper was a little less sarcastic, seeing how mad Ginny was. "Don't know. There was a note on my bed a few days ago saying I could make five Galleons if I took Polyjuice and kissed her in front of a bunch of people. Wasn't gonna turn away that free money, so I went to the meeting place that I was told to get the Polyjuice, at the base of some dragon statue downstairs with the time to do it and the password to the common room. That's about it."
"Dennis, d'you mind taking him to Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked, not trusting himself to be alone with this prick, who'd started smirking again.
"There's nothing for me to be punished for," Jasper argued, starting to sit up until Dennis bound him again and started levitating him.
"I think she'll think differently," Dennis said, walking towards the portrait door and bumping Jasper's head on the wall. "Whoops," he added apologetically before doing it twice more.
Once Dennis and Jasper were gone, Harry remembered that everyone was still watching them. He was about to ask Ginny to go up to their room when she addressed everyone.
"Right. I'm not lifting the curse on her anytime soon. I don't really care how long she spends like that after she thought she was getting my boyfriend to cheat on me. If someone else knows how to do it, it's up to you to decide how much time she deserves."
With that, Ginny spun on her heel and grabbed Harry by the wrist, pulling him up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Harry realised that this was the first time she'd openly come up to his dormitory in front of people, although they probably still didn't know that they had a private bedroom.
"Godric's Gargoyles," Ginny muttered before they walked through the wall and into that bedroom.
"What the hell is going on with all this shite, Gin? First the Veritaserum, then Emily, and now this oomph–"
Harry grunted as he was interrupted by Ginny jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around him. She had a fiery look in her eyes that made his heart start pounding against his ribcage.
"We'll talk about it later. We've gotta get ready to go to the party, but first… I need you to prove that you're still mine." Ginny's currently husky voice did nothing to calm him down, but apparently, she didn't want him to be calm at all.
"Yeah… I can do that," he agreed before catching her lips in a heated kiss. It was undoubtedly passionate and a little messy, but neither of them really cared. Somehow, in the middle of the kiss, Harry withdrew his wand and waved it without a particular incantation in mind. He just knew what he wanted to happen, and he was rewarded when Ginny gasped, realising that they were both without any clothes now.
"You did that?" Ginny asked against his lips. He nodded wordlessly, and she exhaled hungrily. "Merlin, that's really sexy."
Harry grunted again as their lips met and Ginny tangled her hands in his hair. His hands firmly gripped her bum as he carried her to the bathroom, thinking they could have their fun and get ready with a shower at the same time.
It was definitely a brilliant idea, but it wasn't time-effective at all. An hour later, they were scrambling to get dressed, and Harry put his shoes on the wrong feet twice, something he didn't know was possible. He finally did get his dress robes on the right way and thought he looked presentable enough, and then he saw Ginny. It didn't make any sense how she usually took much longer to get ready, but even with less time, she looked absolutely stunning and perfect for the party.
"You're wearing the earrings," he proudly observed, seeing the Snitch earrings he'd given her for her birthday dangling from her ears.
Ginny grinned. "Gotta impress the world-famous Quidditch player with my commitment, you know?"
"I don't think you'll have any problem with that."
"Oh, I know I won't. Quidditch has been my life for a decade; she'll be able to see that," she said confidently.
"Agreed. Just don't forget me when you're a famous Quidditch player on her team one day," he requested with a teasing smile.
"You could play with me, you know."
"On the all women's team?"
"Oh, right… maybe they'd make an exception for you?"
He laughed. "I doubt it."
"You never know. But I probably won't be on the Harpies to start out. They're a little too good for me, I think."
"Hey… every team in the league could use a Chaser like you. You're definitely gonna have your pick of teams. And who knows? If tonight goes well, maybe Holyhead will take a special interest in you."
She stepped forward and kissed him softly. "You're so damn sweet sometimes. Now come on, let's go to the party instead of talking about it."
Ginny took his hand and pulled him out of their bedroom and back through the common room that was much emptier now than it had been during the confrontation earlier. He didn't see Romilda anywhere, so he assumed someone had finally helped her out. Personally, Harry would've been fine for her to stay there for hours after what she'd done. He didn't really care to think about her though, far more interested, as surprising as it was, in Slughorn's party and, more importantly, who he was going with.
In no time at all, they were outside Slughorn's office, and, even though he still didn't love the idea of a social gathering as awkward as this, Harry showed no signs of hesitation when he opened the door for Ginny. He just wanted this to be a brilliant night for her.
There were, unsurprisingly, several more people here than had been at the last Slug Club dinner. Doing a brief scan of the festively decorated room, Harry saw that most of the people in the office were people he didn't know. He saw everyone else who'd been at the dinner, other than Anton Shafiq, for obvious reasons, but he could also see several other students that he presumed were more recent collections of Slughorn's.
Of course, Slughorn immediately came over and took them on a tour of all the most esteemed guests, which included Eldred Worple, the elderly man who'd tried to convince Harry to let him write his biography at the last Christmas party. He was even more insistent on it now, and Harry was grateful at least that Slughorn gave him an excuse to get away from the man when he introduced them to the new head of the Improper Use of Magic Office, Mafalda Hopkirk.
"I don't suppose you've met Mafalda before. I always knew she'd be an important witch one day, and now she's running her own office at the Ministry!"
Harry's eyes almost bugged out of his head when he saw the woman. He recognised her instantly– this was the woman Hermione had knocked out and impersonated when they'd broken into the Ministry a year ago. She seemed nice enough, but Harry wasn't about to volunteer that information.
"I don't think we've met, but… I've definitely received letters from you," he responded.
She nodded solemnly even though her cheeks had slightly flushed. "That was an unfortunate part of my job. I'm very glad that you never got in any serious trouble from them though."
"It got a little too close for comfort a few years ago, but thankfully I don't have to worry about those underage magic laws anymore."
She smiled at him. "No, you definitely do not. And no offence, Mister Potter, but I'd really prefer if my office never had to send you another letter. It'd reflect poorly on us, I'm afraid."
"I'll do my best to stay out of trouble, Mrs. Hopkirk. Believe me, I'm always trying."
"The problem is trouble doesn't always care," Ginny added, grinning at the saying Harry had told her before.
"Exactly," he agreed before Slughorn pulled them away to meet a wizarding ambassador to either Slovenia or Slovakia, or maybe Serbia. After another twenty minutes of speaking to different guests, Slughorn finally let them go to enjoy the party, and they ended up meeting Astoria and Owen in maybe the quietest corner of the office.
"McGonagall told me about Jasper," Astoria said immediately, with a sympathetic expression.
Ginny and Harry both grimaced. "Yeah… that was not something I ever want to see again," Ginny replied.
"I'm sorry about that. It must've been awful."
"Honestly, it was one of the scariest moments of my life, but then I realised that it had to be something like Polyjuice or a love potion. I was just relieved it wasn't really him kissing that cow."
Harry wrapped one hand around Ginny's waist. "Did McGonagall get him to say anything more about whoever put him up to it?"
Astoria shook her head. "No, I don't think he said anything different than what he said to you in the common room. She said she'd look into it, but she didn't seem too confident about finding anything."
"Would it be too crazy to think that he made it up?" Owen asked curiously.
"He seemed pretty genuine… other than acting like a prick about it all," Ginny responded.
"I don't know that Jasper is smart enough to come up with something like this himself, let alone actually make Polyjuice Potion," Astoria offered her opinion.
"And what does he really have to gain by trying to break me and Ginny up? I mean, what does anyone have to gain by it, but especially someone like him? Honestly, it would make more sense if Romilda was behind the whole thing," Harry said, even though the thought repulsed him.
"You know, she was smart enough to figure out how to get love potions into those chocolates that Ron ate. It's not too crazy to imagine her doing this," Ginny agreed, which only made Harry more annoyed about the whole situation.
"Maybe you should tell McGonagall then. Seems like she really can't take a hint, and she may try taking things even further since this didn't work," Owen suggested.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, maybe… I don't know, I'm tired of thinking about it, honestly. I just wish people would leave me alone."
At that moment, Ginny inhaled sharply and walked away from them. "I didn't mean that literally," he called, but he saw that she'd gone over to the rather burly brunette woman who'd just walked in and was talking to Slughorn.
Astoria and Owen were laughing hysterically, so he rolled his eyes and chuckled. "That's her all-time favourite Quidditch player," he explained.
"I thought she was just done with you," Owen said with a grin.
"Merlin, I hope not."
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Unable to help herself, Ginny wasn't even fully aware that she'd walked out of a conversation to see Gwenog Jones. She wasn't starstruck, exactly, but she certainly felt her heart beating faster as she approached the woman she'd idolised for most of her life. It wasn't until she was much closer that she realised she had no idea what to say.
Professor Slughorn noticed her approach and gestured for her to join their conversation. "As I told you earlier, Gwenog, this is Ginevra Weasley, one of my top students and a fantastic Quidditch player."
Gwenog extended a hand and gave Ginny a firm handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ginevra. Horace has told me a bit about you."
"Hi," Ginny responded, smiling at Gwenog for possibly a second too long before remembering that she could keep talking. "Sorry… I'm a really big fan of yours. Oh, and you can call me Ginny."
Gwenog gave her a genuine smile, far from the usually gruff face she wore on the pitch. Granted, her black dress was also a definite departure from her typical green Quidditch robes. "I appreciate that, Ginny. I love meeting fans of mine, especially ones who play Quidditch. You're a Chaser, right?"
Ginny nodded, incredibly surprised that Gwenog knew what position she played, even if Slughorn had told her. "Yes, I'm a Chaser for Gryffindor."
"And incredibly modest. She's also Gryffindor's Captain," Slughorn added proudly before slipping away, seeing somebody else he needed to speak to.
"That's impressive. As a Slytherin, I'll try not to hold your house against you though," Gwenog joked. "I think I saw in the Prophet that Gryffindor won their first match, right?"
"We beat Ravenclaw three hundred to thirty," Ginny answered, unable to hide the pleasure she took at that scoreline.
"Damn, that's a thrashing. Have you thought about playing professionally?"
This was her moment, and she answered very excitedly. "I have. Actually, it's been my dream for a really long time. Madam Hooch sent our information to the B.I.Q.L. a few weeks ago, and we're hoping to get scouted in our next two matches." She stopped herself before getting too presumptuous with mentioning that she knew one of the Harpies' Chasers was retiring at the end of the season.
"That's great to hear. Tell you what… I'll have our manager check out your information and statistics and see about sending a scout to Gryffindor's next match. Roberta's retiring at the end of the season, and a young replacement would be really helpful."
Ginny felt her grin stretching from ear to ear. "That would be awesome. Thank you so much Ms. Jones!"
"Please, call me Gwenog," she responded amicably. "Is there someone else on the team who's trying to go pro too? You said Madam Hooch sent 'our' information."
"Oh, yeah. My boyfriend is thinking about it. Harry's one of the best Seekers I've ever seen. He's just deciding what he wants to do after we graduate."
Gwenog looked like a mystery had just been unravelled before her eyes. "That's where I recognised you from. I didn't put two and two together, but you're dating Harry Potter, right? I've seen you on the front page of the Prophet a few times."
Ginny blushed slightly, thinking it amusing that her idol had seen her in the papers like she'd seen Gwenog for so long. "Yeah, we've both been in the papers more than we'd like," she admitted.
Gwenog nodded sympathetically. "I can understand that. Quidditch reporters are some of the most invasive people I've ever met. I know I'm in the public eye because of what I do, but I'd still like for my private life to be private."
"Exactly! Harry gets it worse than anyone, but I think he's used to it, more or less, at this point."
"That's good. I know how bad it can get when your name is constantly in the press. Is he here, by the way? I'd love to meet him."
"Yeah, he's right over there," Ginny said, turning to see that Harry was watching her with a smile on his face while Astoria and Owen continued talking to him. She waved him over, and he politely excused himself to join her.
"Harry, this is Gwenog Jones. Gwenog, this is Harry Potter."
Harry stuck his hand out and gave her a good-natured smile, far less rattled by her fame than Ginny had been. Then again, he hadn't grown up reading and hearing about Gwenog Jones all the time.
"Great to meet you," he said.
"Believe me, the pleasure is all mine. Ginny was just telling me that the two of you are thinking about playing Quidditch professionally."
Harry nodded. "We– well, I'm thinking about it. It seems like it would be a lot of fun, but I've never really given much thought to what I'd do after Hogwarts, so I'm taking my time making a decision about whether to go for it. But Ginny's all in, and she's gonna have no problem getting on a team."
Ginny smiled at her boyfriend's praise and reached out to take his hand in gratitude.
"I've gotta say, Harry, it's nice to see a man who's not intimidated by his girlfriend's abilities. From the sound of it, Ginny's a fantastic player, and it's great that you're so supportive of her."
"Are you kidding? She's a brilliant player! She scored eight goals and four assists in our first match. Honestly, she'd probably be a great fit on the Harpies," Harry added, making Ginny turn red as he unashamedly pitched her qualifications to the Harpies Captain.
Gwenog whistled deeply. "You know, I'm starting to think that myself. Eight goals and four assists… that's an impressive game. I'll definitely be having our manager and scouts check you out, Ginny. Sorry we can't really scout you, Harry, but I've heard some great things about you as a Seeker. I'm sure a lot of teams would be very interested in signing you."
"No problem, I totally get why I couldn't be on the Harpies. Seriously though, she'd be perfect," he enthused as he pointed at Ginny and squeezed her hand.
"You're not too bad yourself. Youngest Seeker in a century, best Seeker that McGonagall's ever seen on Gryffindor, and an almost flawless starting record is pretty great," Ginny replied with some of her own praise.
Gwenog's eyebrows raised. "Better than Charlie Weasley? I almost wish we could make an exception for you if that's true, Harry. That's– wait a minute… is Charlie your brother?"
Ginny laughed and nodded. "Yep, Charlie's my second oldest brother. And yeah… it's close, but Harry's better than him. Their Seeking competitions this summer proved that."
Now Gwenog laughed too. "Merlin, I'd have loved to see that. Charlie was a couple years younger than me, but we played against each other for a few seasons. He was a great Seeker. Always felt bad that he never won the Quidditch Cup."
"It's truly his greatest shame, especially considering all four of his younger siblings have won the Cup," Ginny replied proudly.
"Wow, those are some freaky genetics to have that many great players in one family. Plus you're dating another great player. Sounds to me like you were born to play Quidditch."
"She was," Harry assured Gwenog.
Gwenog looked up, hearing her name being called by Professor Slughorn. "Okay, I've gotta go, but good luck with the rest of the season. And Ginny, I promise there will be someone from the Harpies there to watch you at your next match."
She shook both their hands before leaving. Ginny grabbed Harry's hand again and pulled him out of the office and into the corridor. As soon as they were alone, she lost her cool and started jumping up and down like an excited little girl.
"Can you believe it can you believe it can you believe it?" Ginny almost shouted in joy, making Harry laugh as he watched her celebrate the dreams that she could almost see coming true.
"I can definitely believe it. You're the best player I've ever seen, and you deserve it," he said, and Ginny jumped on him, hugging him, and then they were jumping up and down together in a goofy celebration that she didn't ever want to end.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
A/N: And the plot thickens! I've gotta say, I love mysteries, but it honestly wasn't until I got into writing ToG that I really started realising all the promise that a mystery could have in writing. And honestly, it is so, so fun, and I'm so excited for it to continue developing!
The genesis of the Polyjuice incident came from a weird idea I had while writing SoR about Ginny seeing someone disguised as Harry cheating on her. I didn't have any other details at the time, so I had to figure out how it could work within the overall story, and then when I figured it out, it fit far better than I would've expected. Obviously, I don't have a lot that I can say about the incident because I don't want to give any clues beyond what intentionally exists in the text, but I do think Ginny very quickly coming to the conclusion that it couldn't really be Harry kissing Romilda makes sense with the context of them living in a world with Polyjuice Potion. Things would definitely be a bit different if they lived in a world without magic and she'd seen that haha!
There's next to no information about Gwenog Jones in the books, so getting to invent her and come up with a backstory and character traits was very cool. So as she mentioned, she was a Slytherin who was a few years ahead of Charlie at Hogwarts since the books don't say anything about her age. A big reason for that is her being at Hogwarts at the same time as him makes Slytherin's winning streak in the Quidditch Cup in the years before Harry started at Hogwarts make a lot more sense. Charlie never won a Quidditch Cup, which seems crazy given that he was an amazing Seeker, so my thought is that Gwenog, who's definitely an elite Beater, was the main reason he never won a Cup, which might make things very interesting if they ever meet!
And, very surprisingly, that's all I've got. I mean, I could talk about just how enjoyable this chapter was for me, but I think that's pretty obvious with every chapter. In particular though, I waited a long time to finally write the scene of Harry and Ron catching Ginny and Dean kissing in the corridor because I thought Ginny's perspective of it would be very interesting, so I hope her angle on that event in particular was as cool to read as it was to write!
As always, comments and feedback are greatly appreciated! But otherwise, that takes us to the end of Chapter 12. Ao3 readers can see how many chapters we have left, but for everyone else, we're about one third of the way through ToG, which is kind of crazy, both because it feels like we just started and because it feels like there's already been so much that's happened. All I can promise is that the ride will definitely be worth it!
Coming Friday: Dancing with Joy: "Welcome to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!"
P.S. I just want to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you who have read everything to this point and are sticking with me through these weekly releases. This chapter is being released almost exactly six months after the first release of SoR, back in March. Sometimes, I feel like I still have to pinch myself, seeing just how loved and popular this series has become, compared to how nervous I was when starting out and how low my expectations were for how it would be received.
I also want to thank you if you've been with me since I was publishing SoR twice a week. I know you all loved getting two chapters a week, and I loved doing that for you too. I was worried that changing to a weekly format with ToG would risk losing readers, and I'm very, very pleased to say that ToG is getting more readers and engagement than SoR was at this point, which means the world to me. Those numbers and uplifting comments are all the compensation writers like myself get for our work, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have such a great community of support around this series.
Shifting to a weekly schedule has allowed me to be more relaxed with writing Book 3. Life is very busy for me, and having a slower release schedule has let me take my time with writing so that it continues to be a joy in my life and never something that feels like a chore. But just to reassure you all, I am still writing a lot. I'm over 200k words into Book 3, with a ton still to go. This chapter takes place in early December 1998, and I'm writing chapters in 2000 that won't be released for nine months. There's basically nothing I can tease without giving away huuuge spoilers, but as a reward for those of you who made it to the end of this very unnecessarily long postscript, I will say that Arthur reading about the Y2K panic in a Muggle magazine definitely causes panic of his own!
So all of this is just a long way of saying thank you to all of you for reading and giving me the encouragement to continue exploring all these wonderful stories for these characters I love so much, and I promise, the best is still to come!
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I'm going to start out this section by very happily congratulating Finnspa23 on getting married recently! Finnspa has been with this story as long as pretty much anyone, since the very first week of posting SoR, and he's made such a big impact on me and my writing with how encouraging he's been by commenting on every single chapter I've written so far, and I'm very, very happy for you my friend! Congrats!
Nightwing: It's funny because I'd consider myself an extremely competitive person in contexts where it's appropriate. I'm the person who takes board games way more seriously than everyone else and so I tend to win more. In sports, I've always been incredibly driven to be as good as I can, but I've also always been able to turn that competitiveness off after the game's over. I do know a lot of people who aren't always able to do that, so I can't say I blame you for wanting to steer clear of sports players. For what it's worth though, Ginny was totally messing with Harry about asking her to the ball and was fully expecting him to just ask her when he came up to their room that night. But I think this chapter made sure it worked out well for both of them haha! I'll also just say, without giving too much away, that everyone in the school will be at the ball, including Emily, so we'll see if something like that happens!
qUg060: I'm really glad you've liked getting to know Mia and Demelza! All of my OCs have a special place in my heart, but Mia and Demelza, for reasons that will continue to become apparent through the rest of this book, are probably my two favourites. I think you're probably right about combat transfiguration- the priority would definitely be to change the dangerous aspects of the object rather than something like colour, whereas normal transfiguration seems to be very concerned with details like that. I also agree that Ginny and Harry will grow closer through her panic attack, and hopefully they can continue to help each other through things like that, even though we all hope they don't have to deal with it again!
Erwec: I'm glad you're enjoying the combination of fluff and mystery in this book, especially with the new layer of mystery in this chapter! It was so, so much fun to write, and I absolutely love seeing people's theories, knowing how everything plays out. I will say that, before everything is put out in the open, all the clues will be there to solve the mystery, but it'll still be a challenge!
Flutterbye and Dust: I very much hope Harry asking her lived up to your expectations haha! It wasn't the most grandiose thing in the world, but it felt very appropriate for them, especially when he knew the answer to the question before he asked it. So excited for the Yule Ball next week!