Disclaimer: I am a student whose major goal is to finish high school on the honor roll, not J.K. Rowling or any other literary genius. These characters are hers, and not mine.
Ginny Weasley sat in the Gryffindor common room, trying pathetically to avoid her boyfriend, Dean Thomas, by pretending to do her Charms homework. Every now and then she looked up and glanced quickly at him, sitting across from her, always silently hoping that he’d just leave. It was to no avail.
She wanted so badly to just run up to her dormitory, but she had no excuse. What should she tell him? That she didn’t like him anymore? In fact, she never had in the first place. She had to keep a steady boyfriend, however, and she knew it. Ginny had discovered early on in her fourth year that steady boyfriends were all that kept her remembering that the boy she wanted she could not have, and it was no use trying to get him to notice her.
After all, Harry Potter could have any girl he wanted.
Ginny sighed. This was stupid, thinking about Harry. She remembered when she had first figured out that there was no way she would ever be more to him than his best friend’s sister.
The Yule Ball in her third year, and his fourth, had proven a lot of things to Ginny. Most of them were things that Ginny did not want to know. Like that Harry liked Cho Chang.
Of course, Ginny was not stupid. Harry had given all the signals that he liked Cho, but Ginny had decided that it was possible they were completely coincidental. She had held fast to that conviction until she had seen how Harry had his heart set on Cho being his date to the Yule Ball.
And, of course, Ginny had simply accepted Neville’s invitation to the Ball. She wished so fervently that she hadn’t, after Harry had asked her. Even if Ginny was his second choice, it was better to go with Harry than Neville. Yet once the invitation was accepted she could not take her acceptance back.
Then, the evening of the Yule Ball, Harry hadn’t even paid attention to his own date, much less Ginny. The only thing he seemed interested in was staring at Cho. Ginny didn’t even have her brother to rely on when she was sick of being around Neville, for he was too busy glaring at Viktor Krum and obviously wishing that he was with Hermione instead to think about anything else.
Then, in her fourth year, along came Michael Corner. He was the first boy that showed any real interest in her, and, she had to admit now, she jumped at him. She buried her stupid crush on Harry somewhere deep inside her.
Somewhere deep inside the Department of Mysteries, it emerged triumphant. Actually seeing Harry’s life in danger like that awakened feelings that she thought no longer existed. It had not only managed to reappear, but in the process of keeping it locked up for so long it had grown stronger, somehow. It emerged as a thing that ran far deeper than her girlhood crush, a thing Ginny was scared of.
It was enough to make her break up with Michael Corner later. Ginny had told him some lie about Quidditch, how he had been too supportive of Ravenclaw. She had fed the same lie to her friends, but the truth was that she had never had feelings like that for Michael and never would.
When Harry and Cho were obviously broken up for good, Ginny thought that maybe he could spare a feeling for her, but apparently all of his emotions were tied up in the death of Sirius. That’s when Ginny decided to bide her time with Dean Thomas. Sooner or later, Harry had to break out of his shell, and Ginny fully intended to be there for him when he did.
Ginny was still lost in these memories when Dean spoke.
“Gin?” he asked, looking at her curiously. “Are you okay? You haven’t lifted your quill in five minutes.”
“I’m fine,” she replied wearily. “Just a bit tired. Maybe I need to go to bed.”
“Ginny, it’s four in the afternoon!” he pointed out.
“Well, maybe I need a nap,” she snapped at him.
“Yeah, I think you do, Gin,” he said quietly.
“Would you stop saying my name with everything you say?” she yelled.
“Ginny, what’s wrong?” he asked, looking worried.
“There you go again!” she shouted at him angrily. They were now turning heads in the common room.
“Gi…oh, just go and take your nap,” he said wearily. “You obviously need the sleep.”
“I’m not tired!” she yelled, stomping out of the common room.
Ginny stomped through several halls aimlessly, tears in her eyes, until she couldn’t take it anymore and just collapsed on the floor, sobbing. She pulled herself off into a dark corner and hugged her knees to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.
It seemed like a stupid thing to cry about, but there had been too many episodes like that lately with Dean. Every little thing he did got on her nerves, even silly things like saying her name a lot. Ginny couldn’t stand it when he told her to do things, either, and in moments of rage she always ended up doing the exact opposite of what he said, even if what he said was what she knew was best.
“Excuse me,” a male voice broke through Ginny’s thoughts. “Is this corner taken?”
“Harry!” cried out Ginny happily. Even if she could never have him, he could cheer her up.
“Something wrong with Dean again?” he asked, sitting beside her.
“Just a stupid fight,” she said, brushing the last of her tears out of her eyes.
“It can’t be stupid if you’re crying about it,” Harry said, looking straight into her eyes with his piercing emerald orbs.
Merlin, Ginny hated that. How was someone supposed to think properly while looking into eyes like those? She wondered vaguely if James had ever thought the same about Lily, since people were always talking about how he had her eyes. Truthfully, Ginny could not imagine anyone else having eyes like those.
“Ginny?” Harry asked, breaking the trance he had held her in.
When Harry said her name, it didn’t bother her, like when Dean said it. When Dean said it, it just clunked on the ground, having no purpose, no beautiful tones to it. Yet, when Harry said it, she felt like she was blessed to have the name that he would say like that.
Ginny sighed. She should just tell the truth. “I don’t like Dean. At all,” she said bluntly. “He gets on my nerves.”
Harry looked surprised. “So why don’t you break up with him?” he asked curiously.
Ginny sucked in a large breath of air. This was where things got complicated. “I guess you could say a boyfriend is my reality check,” she said slowly.
She hoped he would drop it, but he continued to ask. “What do you mean?”
“If I don’t have a boyfriend,” Ginny confided, “I begin to think about the boy I can’t have.”
“Oh,” Harry said, with emotions impossible to read. “I suppose if you want me to know who, you’ll tell me?”
“Yes I will,” Ginny said.
“Do you want my advice?” Harry asked, looking into her eyes again.
Ginny, incapable of speech once more, nodded.
“Well, I need to know a few things, if you don’t mind. You say you can’t have him. Is this because he’s…older, or does he attend Hogwarts?” Harry inquired.
“Oh, he’s still at Hogwarts,” Ginny assured him. That only narrowed it down to about five hundred male students, after all, even if you didn’t count Dean or Ron, as she was obviously talking about neither of them.
“Does he have a girlfriend, then?” Harry asked with a look in his eyes Ginny could not identify.
“He used to…” Ginny said, worrying that she was saying too much.
“Well, then, what’s the problem?” Harry asked.
“He doesn’t like me like that,” Ginny said sadly. “I’m pretty sure he likes someone else, anyway.”
That was stretching the truth just a bit. Ginny had believed in her first two years at Hogwarts that Harry liked Hermione. Now, however, Hermione was dating Ron and Harry obviously didn’t mind much. Ginny now was blindly assuming that he liked some other girl that she didn’t know. Of course, there was no proof of that.
“He knows you, though, right?” Harry asked.
“Please, Harry, don’t ask me any more,” she pleaded.
“You really don’t want me to know that much, huh?” Harry said, and then added, “I understand that. Well, Ginny, I think you’d better check your facts.”
“What do you mean?” Ginny asked.
“I mean find out if he really does like someone else,” he said, as if it was simple.
“It’s not that easy, Harry! What do I do, go up to him and say ‘Hey, do you like me?’ I don’t think so!” Ginny protested.
“I mean watch him when he’s around other girls or eating dinner in the Great Hall or something. He’ll be watching her, I guarantee it. He’ll probably even go out of his way to talk to her,” said Harry, as if he knew what he was talking about.
“You know from experience, don’t you?” Ginny asked.
“You could say that,” Harry agreed.
“Thanks, Harry,” Ginny said with a smile, trying to beat down her inner sadness. He did like someone! “I’d better go back to the common room before Dean starts to worry.”
“I’ll see you later, Gin,” he said with a small wave as she turned and walked down the corridor.
Well, now she was sure. He did like someone else. Ginny had no chance with the Boy Who Lived at all.
The next evening at dinner, Ginny was sure to watch Harry carefully, without letting him know she was watching.
Ginny was continually glancing to her left through dinner, but the only people she saw Harry looking at were Ron and Hermione, but he was carrying on a conversation with them. Occasionally, he glanced over at Ginny, but Ginny was always quick to look down. How embarrassing it would be if he found out that they had been discussing him!
That Saturday at the Quidditch game there was a repeat performance of the dinner. Ginny had retired from her place as Gryffindor Seeker after Harry was allowed to play Quidditch again, so now she was a spectator once more. At least now she had an excuse to stare at Harry, when he was on the field. He still glanced at Ginny occasionally, but Ginny assumed that he had been thinking he saw the Snitch.
A few hours after the game, where Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff 260 to 140, he stopped her in the hallway. “Been watching your mystery man?” he asked, looking rather hopeful.
“Yes, actually, and he hasn’t been glancing at anyone,” Ginny said.
“Really?” Harry asked, seeming almost dejected.
“Yeah, he hasn’t gone out of his way to talk to anyone, either,” Ginny said, wondering why Harry was upset. Did he really want to know who she liked that much?
“Well, I’d better get going,” Harry said. “See you around, Ginny.”
Ginny said her own quick goodbye and then continued her walk towards the common room.
Why had the only person Harry had been glancing at been her? It made no sense. Then he had stopped her in the hall, just to ask who her “mystery man” was.
Suddenly, Harry’s voice boomed in her head… “He’ll be watching her, I guarantee it… probably even go out of his way to talk to her … He’ll be watching her…go out of his way to talk to her…”
With a gasp, Ginny whirled around and ran down the hall. “Harry!” she called.
Harry turned around. “Yeah, Gin?” he asked, looking rather tired.
“I figured it out, Harry! He does like me!” Ginny said excitedly.
“That’s great for you, Gin. But who…” Harry began, rather sadly.
He was cut off by Ginny’s sudden, enthusiastic kiss.
A/N: This is probably inspired by a song I listened to a long time ago that I’ve forgotten about.
Please review. Constructive criticism is welcome.