Chapter 76
Ginny POV
The first Saturday in November brought the very first Quidditch match of the year, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. While it wouldn't be the first match Ginny would play in, it would be the first match she'd be playing Chaser in, and the first match in which she'd start, and she was nervous. Thankfully, she wasn't anywhere close to as nervous as Ron or Demelza.
She was hoping Katie and Harry had a plan to deal with Ron and Demelza, as their nerves had gone from bad to worse after their last practice the night before. Not only had Ron taken to yelling at everyone on the pitch, Harry included, which had reduced Demelza to tears as she didn't respond well to that kind of "motivation", he finished off the stellar practice by throwing a poorly-timed punch while trying to make a save, and ended up punching Demelza in the face. Ginny wasn't sure she'd ever seen Katie that angry before, and rightfully so. While Harry whisked Demelza off to the side and cast Episkey to fix her nose and try and stop the bleeding, Katie ripped into Ron. He apologized, of course, as it truly had been an accident, but the entire incident had left Demelza shaken and Ron discouraged, which was exactly what the team did not need heading into their match against Slytherin.
Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table in her Quidditch sweater and robes, across from Demelza and Katie. Demelza's eyes were slightly bruised from her magically-healed broken nose, but other than that, she looked okay.
"How are we feeling this morning?" Ginny asked in a light tone, "Ready to get after it?"
Demelza looked up with a small, nervous smile, "You've got my back, right?"
"Of course I do, Demelza. The three of us are easily the best Chaser trio in the school this year, and it's due to our friendship just as much as our skill, which you have plenty of," she said, smiling across at the girl.
Demelza smiled and continued eating her breakfast, as Katie gave Ginny a look that was both thankful and proud as she rubbed Demelza's back reassuringly. Harry and Ron sat down next to Ginny, quickly followed by Ritchie, Jimmy, and Dean, who sat by Demelza and Katie.
"How's everyone feeling?" Harry asked, piling food onto Ron's plate and pushing it towards him.
"Ready to kick some Slytherin arse, captain!" Ritchie shouted, garnering looks from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables as well as glares from the Slytherin table.
Harry gave Ritchie a skeptical nod, "You know what, I'll take it! Let's meet down in the locker room in an hour. Make sure you all eat, then do whatever you need to do beforehand to show up ready for our pre-match talk. I'll keep it short, then we'll be out on the pitch, alright?"
"Yes captain!" Ritchie shouted again.
"Oi, cool it…" Ginny muttered, giving Ritchie a smile as she indicated for him to lower his volume.
"I'm just ready, that's all!" he whispered, still loudly enough for nearly the entire Great Hall to hear.
"Are you? I wasn't sure…" Jimmy said flatly as he helped himself to some sausages. The team laughed, then dug in to their plates, Harry making sure Ron ate his whole breakfast before they set off for the locker room.
"What are you going to do before we head down to the locker room?" Demelza asked as she finished her plate as well.
Ginny looked around, "I'd like to find Hermione and see her, she must've already had breakfast," she frowned, not being able to locate the brunette anywhere in the Great Hall. "I'll see you guys later," she said, as she walked off in search of Hermione.
It didn't take Ginny long to find her. As she was climbing through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, Hermione was rushing down the stairs from the girls' dormitory.
"Hey you," Hermione said, smiling at her. She was decked out in red and gold, including strips of face paint on her cheeks.
Ginny exhaled, letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in, letting her nerves go with it, and returned the smile to Hermione, "Hey…"
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows knitting together in concern.
"Yeah, yeah, of course…"
Hermione nodded, "Can I walk you to the locker room?"
Ginny exhaled again, "Yes please."
Hermione strode across the empty common room, placed a light kiss on Ginny's cheek, and took her hand, guiding her back through the portrait hole. They walked quietly through the corridors, every Gryffindor they passed giving Ginny a high five or an encouraging word. Once they were just outside the door to the locker room, Hermione pulled Ginny to face her. Ginny knew the nerves were showing on her face. She'd tried to be brave when her fellow Gryffindors cheered her on, but as they'd gotten closer and closer to the locker room, she felt her nerves come surging back, stronger than before.
Hermione took both of Ginny's hands in hers and looked purposefully into her eyes, "You just do your best, okay?"
Ginny nodded, trying to control her breathing.
"You are a beautiful Quidditch player Ginny. Go out there, do your best, and have fun. Win or lose, I'll be proud of you," Hermione said softly, giving her a smile.
Ginny pulled her in for a tight hug, "Thank you…" she whispered into Hermione's ear.
"You've got this, Ginny. And I've got you, no matter what happens."
Ginny nodded into Hermione's neck, before stepping back out of the hug and taking another deep breath.
"Do your best, have fun," Hermione said, leaning forward for a quick kiss before heading back down the corridor, waving to Ginny before she turned the corner.
Once Hermione was out of view, Ginny took one more deep settling breath before entering the locker room. As she walked in, she found her teammates doing all sorts of things to prepare for the match. Ritchie was on the ground doing pushups, Jimmy was stretching out his shoulders with his Beater's bat, Demelza was sitting on the ground between Katie's legs as Katie calmly plaited her hair, Ron was standing with his head in his locker, Dean was seated quietly on the bench opposite Katie and Demelza, and Harry was writing on the chalkboard, his back to the room. Ginny touched the book in her locker, Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland (the book Hermione gifted her a few years ago), and sat beside Katie on the wooden bench.
"Find Hermione?" she asked, her fingers working quickly and gently in Demelza's blonde hair.
"Yep."
"Nervous?"
"Yep."
Katie turned and gave her a reassuring smile, "You're going to be just fine. Alright, done!" she said, kissing the top of Demelza's head.
Harry turned to the group, "Alright everyone, please move to where you can see me."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face Harry. He stepped aside to reveal the chalkboard that had one word on it in big capital letters: TRUST
"Trust the gameplan, trust your teammates, trust yourself. It's as simple as that. I trust you all, I trust that we as a team can do this. Let's go," he said with a confident smile.
"LET'S GO!" Ritchie shouted, jumping to his feet and clapping Jimmy on the back before running out to the pitch. The rest of the team followed, except for Ginny and Harry, who stayed behind.
"Ready?" Harry asked.
Ginny nodded, trying to shake her nerves.
"I want you to think of it this way. This is one game of I'm guessing at least one hundred that you'll play in your Quidditch career. It's just one game of at least one hundred. You're going to go out there and do your best, and that's all that anyone can ask of you."
Ginny took a deep breath and smiled, "Alright, I'm ready."
Harry smiled, "I'll take care of Malfoy, you do the rest."
They walked out onto the pitch together, and found that it had begun to pour. They looked at each other, shrugged, then mounted their brooms and kicked off of the ground hard, up into the torrential rain.
The game moved fast, and Gryffindor, frankly, dominated. Before they knew it, Gryffindor was up 60-0, with Ginny having scored 40 of the 60 points. Slytherin looked a mess and Gryffindor, despite the horrific weather, was flying well. The singing of "Weasley is Our King" waned quickly as the Slytherin side struggled mightily, eventually dying off completely after Ginny scored twice in the first few minutes. The Chaser trio of Katie, Demelza, and Ginny were moving as one, each of them knowing exactly where the other two were at all times, and Slytherin's Keeper proved to be no match for them. Ron was holding his own as well, working hard to maintain the shut out. Ginny quickly tacked on 20 more points and Katie and Demelza each added 10, bringing the score to 100-0. Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw Harry speeding off after Malfoy, who had suddenly streaked across the stadium. Fortunately, Malfoy's Nimbus 2001 didn't stand a chance against Harry's Firebolt.
Madam Hooch blew her whistle, "Gryffindor wins!"
It was a complete blowout and a shut out. 250-0 they'd won, and Ginny was ecstatic. As she flew to the ground and hopped off her broom, she was joined by the rest of her teammates, absolutely beaming despite being completely soaked from the rain.
"We can celebrate later in the common room, let's get changed and dry before someone catches something!" Harry instructed, motioning for the team to head to the locker room.
"I think you've already caught something, captain," Jimmy said, again with his dry sense of humor, getting a laugh from the team.
Before they disappeared into the locker room, Ginny looked up into the stands to find Hermione, smiling down at her as proud as she'd ever seen her. Ginny smiled back and waved before following her teammates into the locker room.
While the rest of her team showered and changed into dry clothes, Ginny sat on the bench in front of her locker, trying to work a brush through her knotted hair. The rain and wind had completely tangled it, and she was cursing under her breath, berating herself for not taking the time to plait it before the match.
"Do you want some help?" Katie asked as she and Demelza stored their freshly cleaned and dried Quidditch pads in their lockers.
Ginny shook her head, "It's my own stupid fault. Go on, I'll meet you up in the common room, okay?"
The two girls left, hand in hand. A few moments later, Ginny heard a knock at the locker room door, and Hermione entered, a hand over her eyes.
"Everyone decent?" she called out as she walked into the room blindly.
Ginny laughed, "Well, for starters, it's just me. Though, I assume if I was decent, you'd be disappointed?"
Hermione dropped her hand and then screwed up her face in faux-disappointment at the fact that Ginny was still completely clothed.
"Katie and Demelza said you were still in here, struggling with your hair," Hermione said as she walked over and stood behind Ginny, taking the brush from her hand and carefully beginning to detangle chunks of Ginny's wild, red locks.
"I don't know what I was thinking, just pulling it back with a hair tie... I also didn't know the rain would be so heavy, but still…" Ginny muttered as Hermione pulled the brush through her hair.
"How about we think less about your hair, and more about how well you just played?" Hermione suggested. "Ginny, you were incredible. Gryffindor as a whole absolutely dominated out there, but you? Phenomenal."
"Thanks…" Ginny said softly, her cheeks turning even further red than they already were from the cold rain. "Ouch!"
"Sorry…" Hermione apologized for having tugged on a particularly stubborn knot in Ginny's hair, "You know, I'm sure the Prefects' bathroom would have something to help with this…"
Ginny froze as she felt Hermione delicately pull the brush out of her hair, "Oh… Yeah?"
"Mmhmm. Come on, grab your clothes," Hermione instructed, looking around for things she could help Ginny carry. She spotted Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland in Ginny's locker, and pointed to it. "Does this come as well or does it stay here?"
"It stays."
"Oh? How can you read it if it's all the way down here in the locker room?"
"I've already read it about five times over. Now it's, uh, part of my pre-match routine."
Hermione looked at Ginny, her head slightly cocked.
"I touched it before the match today, and we won, so I'll be doing it before each match now."
"Ginny, you don't believe that touching this book had something to do with you winning, do you?"
Ginny shrugged, "No, but it did settle my nerves. It made me feel like you were in the locker room with me…" Ginny added, blushing a little.
Hermione's look of skepticism softened as she smiled, "Alright… Ready to go?"
Ginny nodded and took Hermione's hand, following her out of the locker room and down the corridor. They made their way up to the fifth floor, past the statue of Boris the Bewildered, and through the fourth door on the left as Hermione whispered the password.
"Wow…" Ginny breathed out as she took in the large, beautiful room. The fact that she wasn't a Prefect stung a bit more now, seeing what she was missing out on, but it gave her even more motivation to earn the role of Quidditch captain in a few years.
Hermione had let go of her hand, and was walking over to the golden taps, examining them as she passed.
"Ah, yes, here we go," she said triumphantly as she turned it on, magicking a few others on as well as the large bath started to fill, before turning to Ginny, "I don't have to stay, if you don't want – "
"What? No, please stay!" Ginny requested, almost in a panic.
Hermione gave her a small smile, and nodded. She walked over to the rows of bathrobes and grabbed one, bringing it over to Ginny.
"You should probably get out of those wet clothes, while we wait for the bath to fill. It shouldn't take too long, but you've been in those Quidditch robes long enough now."
Ginny nodded, and began to peel off her drenched clothes, dropping them to the floor. She paused once she got to her sports bra and pants. Hermione gave her a kind, small smile.
"This doesn't have to be anything other than you warming up and detangling your hair after a Quidditch match, Ginny. Honestly, we don't have to make anything more of it, okay? I'll look away."
Hermione opened the robe up and turned her head, looking at the door to the bathroom. Ginny, with an annoyingly high amount of difficulty, pulled her soaked sports bra up and over her head, then shimmied out of her pants, tossing them to sit on top of the drenched pile of clothes she'd left on the bathroom floor. She stepped into the open robe Hermione was holding, and warmed up instantly, wrapping it around her.
"Aren't they nice?" Hermione asked as she magicked the taps off upon seeing the bath was filled to the brim.
Ginny nodded, then turned her back to Hermione again to have her pull the robe off of her so she could get into the bath. Again, Hermione turned her head away, respecting Ginny's privacy as she entered the bath.
"Oh wow…" Ginny said as she sunk into the bath. Everything was just right – the water was hot without being too hot and the scent of the bubbles that completely covered the surface of the water was strong without being too strong – and Ginny was feeling extremely relaxed. She dipped her head under the water, and felt the tangles in her hair begin to loosen up immediately. She ran her hands through it, before turning to Hermione, "Hermione, will you brush my hair?"
"Of course," Hermione said, sitting on the edge of the bath and beginning to run Ginny's brush through her long, red hair. The brush glided through Ginny's hair effortlessly, and the long gentle strokes were doing more to relax Ginny at this point than they were to detangle the now nonexistent knots.
Ginny leaned her head back a bit, and looked up at Hermione, "Thank you for taking me up here. You're right, it's perfect for after a hard Quidditch match."
Hermione nodded as she continued brushing Ginny's hair. After a few minutes, Ginny turned to face Hermione, resting her hands and chin on the edge of the bath.
"Yes?" Hermione asked, smiling down at the girl lovingly.
"I know you said we don't have to make anything more of this… But, will you kiss me?"
Hermione POV
Was it innocent when she suggested Ginny go use the Prefects' bathroom to get the knots out of her hair and warm up after a particularly cold and rainy Quidditch match? Of course. Was Hermione struggling to maintain her composure as she brushed the hair of her gorgeous girlfriend who was completely naked, her body only concealed by a layer of fragrant bubbles? Absolutely.
Suddenly, Ginny turned and rested her hands and chin on the edge of the bath in front of Hermione, looking up at her with those bright, brown eyes.
Hermione tried to stay calm, tried to maintain her quickly slipping composure, "Yes?" she asked, smiling down at Ginny, completely enamored with the girl and sure that her face was showing it.
"I know you said we don't have to make anything more of this… But, will you kiss me?" Ginny asked, her eyes searching Hermione's.
"Ginny… I – "
"Please."
It wasn't a question, and that was enough for Hermione.
Hermione moved to her knees, put her hands of the edge of the bath, and leaned forward, capturing Ginny's lips in hers. She could feel Ginny's wet hands in her hair, pulling her closer to her. The low angle was hurting Hermione's back a bit, but then as if she could read her mind, Ginny suddenly raised up from the water, providing Hermione immediate relief to her pain. Hermione's eyes were still shut, her lips firmly on Ginny's, but all she could think about now was the fact that Ginny must be standing up, and surely her chest and most of her torso was no longer hidden by the flowery bubbles that covered the surface of the water. Hermione kept her hands to her sides, not wanting to cross any boundaries too soon, when she felt Ginny's hands move from her hair down her arms, grasping Hermione's hands gently and moving them to her back. Hermione gasped into the kiss as she felt her hands land on Ginny's slick, strong and very bare back.
"Is that okay?" Ginny whispered against Hermione's lips.
Hermione nodded and pushed her mouth back against Ginny's, deepening the kiss. She slowly ran her hands along Ginny's back similarly to how she had brushed her hair, in long, gentle strokes, all the while making sure not to move too low. Suddenly, she felt a small, light bite on her lower lip, and her eyes popped open in surprise.
Ginny was smiling, her crooked grin on full display. Hermione narrowed her eyes playfully at her before she accidentally glanced down at Ginny's chest. Hermione immediately brought her eyes back up to Ginny's in panic, and found that Ginny was smirking now, still highly amused.
"I wouldn't have asked you to kiss me and then stood up above the bubbles if I wasn't okay with it, Hermione…" she said, gently wiping at the now surely smeared strips of face paint on Hermione's cheeks. "I don't want to go too far, but…" Ginny hesitated, beginning to blush, her smirk disappearing as she chewed her lip anxiously.
"What is it?" Hermione asked softly, tucking Ginny's wet hair behind her ear.
"I want to feel you against me…"
Hermione's eyebrows raised slightly as she took in the nervous, yet seemingly determined girl.
"I want to feel your skin against mine… I want to be close to you…"
Ginny's eyes flicked down to Hermione's chest, then back up to her eyes, imploringly.
Hermione gave her a soft smile, and nodded, before she began to take off her red and gold Gryffindor sweater, followed by her long-sleeve top, leaving her in a plain bra. As she went to reach for the clasp on the back, Ginny spoke up.
"Wait… Can I…?"
Hermione's entire body flushed at the question, then she took a deep, settling breath and nodded. Ginny reached around Hermione with one hand, and with one smooth motion, undid the clasp. Hermione looked at her with a bit of amazement, and Ginny's eyes shined with triumph and pride that she'd clearly impressed her. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the girl as she gently slid the straps of her bra down her arms, tossing it to join her sweater and long-sleeve top on the ground beside her. It seemed that Ginny was making sure to keep her eyes firmly on Hermione's, so Hermione reached out and grabbed Ginny's chin, tilting it down, and she heard the girl let out a small gasp, which made Hermione smile further. She wrapped her arms around her and pulled Ginny close, pressing them together.
Hermione had never been this close to someone. The feeling of Ginny's skin on her's was… It was something Hermione couldn't even begin to describe. It was incredibly sensual, yes, but it was so much more as well. The amount of trust, comfort, and love she had to have in order to be this close to Ginny was something that Hermione honestly couldn't put into words. Ginny nuzzled into her neck, and was lazily running her strong fingers along Hermione's back.
"I love you, Hermione," Ginny whispered into her neck.
Hermione smiled as she held her tighter still, and managed to place a light kiss on her temple, "I love you too, Ginny."