Chapter 14 Destined Peoples?
“What’s going on? Why all the long faces?” Ron pressed tactlessly into their balloon of silence, a silence that was so suffocating because it was surrounded by a fog of noisy chatter echoing from the hall that no longer mattered.
Ginny was blinking very quickly, her mind drifting into deep space because she actually wanted to be there. In fact, she wanted to be anywhere but here at this juncture, because she was completely unprepared for anything like this, especially in the morning with an empty stomach. Desperately trying to keep her jaw from flipping over and her eyeballs from dislocating off their sockets, she took a few steps back, putting some distance between her and the group, hoping the widening gap could blur her shocked expressions she was dreadfully trying to suppress.
She had sensed the whole time that Harry might ask her, because he was always around her and acting very strangely ever since he found out about the event, but the Harry she always knew was a boy that was always shy with his feelings and not very good at expressing them. She never expected he would do it so boldly, in front of friends and his mentee, who were all anxiously waiting for her answer, judging from the hunger in their eyes.
It was as if it wasn’t embarrassing enough having to deal with Harry in front of Hermione, Ron, Oliver, and the brash girl, Sam; she was certainly not expecting to have to answer to Oliver, and having to do it in front of Harry as well. After all, Oliver wasn’t a student. He was a teacher’s assistant and he had always insisted from the beginning that she teamed with Harry. It never occurred to her he would ask her, and definitely not in this fashion.
“Oliver, what about me?” Sam suddenly hooted in his arms and winked at him. “I thought you asked me to be your partner for the competition!”
Everyone’s eyes immediately zoomed onto the two of them; it was clear this additional information was too much for the group to digest. They were all studying Oliver and trying to picture a big strapping guy like him pairing with a tiny eleven year old girl with a buzz cut and a bad attitude. As modestly as they could, Ginny and Hermione couldn’t help but snickered at the silly and unbelievable images. Ginny was glad she provided a brief distraction to the silence, because she was no longer at the center of their view.
Oliver had since forgotten he was still holding Sam rather tightly in his arms, and he immediately rolled her off his grips, hoping no one would believe her childish accusations. Because she had been yapping and blocking his way earlier, he decided holding her hostage was the only way to restrain her.
“I NEVER ASKED YOU!” Oliver complained in disbelief, seriously wanting to kick himself for forgetting to close his hands over her mouth.
“Oliver, you’re not a student of Hogwarts. How can you…?” Hermione cleared her throat, squishing her voice to sound as calm as possible.
“Yeah, Mister Wood!” Sam chirped sarcastically, her eyes dancing across the group, finally stationing themselves sympathetically at Harry’s hollow stare.
“Dumbledore says he’s okay with it! It’s not just students__”
“DUMBLEDORE?” Harry roared so loudly the entire hall of people was glaring emptily at their direction. At this point, he could not be angrier with the Hogwarts headmaster.
After waiting for the echoes from Harry’s voice to subside, Ron inserted confusedly as he kept a sympathetic eye on Harry, “Let me get this straight. Oliver… you want to… ask… my little sister… to be partner?”
“Oliver, I love your…” Ginny muttered but her breath froze because the entire group except Oliver just gaped at her disapprovingly. They had believed she had just announced her decision to choose him.
“No… I mean… Oliver… I love your idea… but I was… I…
“I… I was intending to be… only a spectator…” Ginny turned her head down and mumbled evasively, hoping to delay her need to answer their requests.
“Come on, Ginny!” he pleaded. “It’s the perfect opportunity to showcase your talents in the air… to come out of your shell… and be in the spotlight! You’re so good! I saw the way you flew with Harry at the Burrow__”
“That’s right! Ginny flew with Harry! You said it! That’s why Harry should match with Ginny!” Hermione cut in smartly.
Ginny crossed her arms defiantly and shot Hermione a rebellious glare. She was fed up with her for constantly putting them together and for always uttering their names in the same sentence simultaneously, even though she had repeatedly asked her not to do so. Ready to tear her bushy hair off, she could not forget Hermione’s tactics the day the Knight Bus broke down and her nagging at Lupin annoyingly, the result of which Ginny ended up having to fly with Harry. She swore that if she would hear her say their names together like that one more time, she would skin her alive.
“I think I’ll skip breakfast,” Ginny swallowed her fire and ran for her class. Although she was clearly aware she hadn’t resolved the dilemma, she had to escape; she didn’t want Harry and Oliver to witness her anger at Hermione and believing mistakenly that she was agitated over the two of them.
“Ginny, wait for me!” Hermione howled after her, unaware Ginny’s pressure valve was about to explode because of her and not because of Harry and Oliver.
“I better go too,” Oliver dashed away uncomfortably, sounding somewhat guilty and defeated.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Harry groaned at a very bewildered Ron and stormed to the opposite direction.
“Harry!” Sam chased and grabbed his arm.
“I said I don’t want to__” he snapped fiercely, trying to brush her off, but she refused to let him go.
“No, listen Harry! I just realized something! I think you should stop your friend Hermione!”
“What?”
“Just listen to me! Get her off Ginny’s back! NOW! You must listen to me! There’s no time!” she bellowed urgently, shaking his arm. It was the first time Harry had seen her so serious.
“GO!” she suddenly shoved him forward and Harry found himself almost tripping over his feet.
He froze and turned back awkwardly, his anger seemingly evaporated somewhat, “Listen, Sam… thanks, I think… you know… what you did to Oliver… that was… brave… to stand in front of a speeding freight train… for whatever reasons you had…”
Harry could see Sam was pretending to not understand what he was talking about, even though he noticed a glimmer of appreciation in her gray eyes. It was the same glimmer she had on the first day they met at the feast, when he agreed to be her mentor, except this time it was coupled with a vividly pressurized expression on her face.
“Just go!” she lunged at him. “There’s no time!”
Harry was wandering aimlessly in the school halls, mindlessly following Sam’s order to search for Hermione in between his classes, but for some strange reason he couldn’t locate both her and Ginny. He didn’t understand why Sam sent him to this goose chase. Admittedly, he wasn’t trying very hard to locate them. After all, he knew what Hermione must be doing now. Being Harry’s long time loyal friend and being the smart girl that she was, she must be trying to convince Ginny to choose Harry and not Oliver.
After what happened this morning, he was certain Hermione was now aware of his feelings for Ginny. At the Burrow, he still remembered how she was nudging him to go to Ginny’s room, asking him to give her back her broom after that Quidditch game. On the day the Knight Bus broke down, Hermione forced Lupin to tell Ginny to ride with Harry, and then teasing Ginny about having to wrap her arms around him before taking off in roaring laughter. He could now see how obvious her efforts were in trying to put them together and he smiled satisfyingly because he realized she was clearly on his side, favoring him with Ginny. Knowing she was a great communicator, he was hoping she could help his cause.
“Hermione!” Harry, anxiously waiting for the good news, finally saw her elusive tail by the end of the school day, but she zoomed away and hid her face with her books, dashing awkwardly into the common room when she heard him.
“What’s wrong?” an ominous feeling was starting to engulf Harry.
“Please don’t be mad! Let me explain!” she pulled her books away from her face hesitantly. Harry noticed her eyes were slightly puffy.
“I thought I could knock some sense into her, but…”
Harry leaned closer to her, eager to absorb every word that was coming out of her shaky lips.
“I said to her it’s totally a mistake teaming with Oliver because…
“Because I said he… competes like a madman! He’ll destroy her in no time because all he cares about is winning!
“Harry, you should know!” she started to pace around the common room in a directionless manner, and Harry reluctantly had to follow her confused steps. “He dragged you and her twin brothers out before sunrise to practice regardless of the weather when he was captain!
“So I reminded her of this, that Oliver would do the same horrible thing to her, and she would have to spend a lot of time practicing, waking up before sunrise.
“I was hoping this would discourage her, because she’s not a morning person, unlike me…
“But she was actually encouraged by all this… Said it would give her an opportunity to work off her excess energy… lose a few pounds… blah blah blah… that with Oliver on her back, she will have no excuse not to exercise…”
“He better not be on her back!” Harry halted his steps and growled, his hands in balls of fists.
“Harry, I’m serious! I know this is just her excuse. She just wants to keep herself occupied and tire herself beyond repair so she can collapse into her bed and fall asleep at night.”
“Ginny can’t sleep at night? Did she tell you why?” asked Harry worriedly.
“Erm… you know… she puts a lot of pressure on herself… to do well in school,” she stopped pacing and muttered evasively.
“So… I got desperate! I went on saying that her mother would definitely not allow her to team with Oliver.
“I brought up the age thing… and Mrs. Weasley hating his earring…
“Plus, Oliver was out of our lives for a few years. Who knows what has become of him… maybe he’s no longer the same wholesome nice boy Oliver we remembered…
“But she went ballistic on me… saying she doesn’t have to answer to her mother…” Hermione’s face was contorting grimly, “that she’s tired of being the good little girl… and…
“She started defending Oliver aggressively… that we misunderstand him… that he also has issues…” Hermione abruptly stopped because she noticed Harry’s downcast expressions creeping across his face.
“Anyway, I changed topics… and talked about you instead,” Hermione suddenly buried her hand in Harry’s hair and gazed longingly at his forehead, as if she wanted to crack open his skull and insert something inside but couldn’t.
“I guess I should not have brought up… certain things…” she murmured apologetically, pulling away hopelessly.
“What is it?”
“Never mind! I swear I said all the good things about you… and her… and the two of you together… but I think… I…
“She screamed at me like never before… how it is none of my business who she chooses…
“There are things that can’t be pushed too hard. I realize it now! I guess I want to see you two together so bad I might have… I…
“Pushed her over the edge… and all the way to the other end…” her eyes darted darkly to a piece of parchment dangling by the posting board.
Harry immediately bolted to the list. He was ready to howl and scream at what was in front of his blazing eyes. On top of the list as candidate number one was Ginny’s name, carved deeply in the parchment, and in the same angry cursive handwriting, was Oliver’s name, written next to hers. To add insult to injury, there was a very big plus sign in the middle.
“Just because they’re partners doesn’t mean they’re… you know… It’s only a stupid competition…” Hermione pleaded to him.
“Ginny Weasley + Oliver Wood!” he snarled angrily. Somehow, the plus sign was flickering brightly in his eyes, as if it was mocking him, telling him it would be fitting now if he were to draw a heart shape around their names.
“What a turn of events… Who would have figured this would happen… What a long day…”
“It’s all Dumbledore’s fault!” Harry tore the posting apart and tossed it onto the ground.
“Harry, please don’t give up…” Hermione muttered helplessly to his disappearing footsteps.
The Boy Next Door by gossipweaver
Chapter Notes: Storm clouds will always give way to sunshine, just like mismatched peoples will always find their destined partners at the end… or do they?