Chapter 16 Foolish Girl
“Who’s there?” Harry snapped his head towards the staircase. Although no one was there, he swore he felt a pair of twinkling eyes that just blinked at him. In fact, it was like this the entire day, as if someone was watching him. The feeling became more eerie as the evening wore on, because the castle grew quieter by the minute as the students were leaving for the Quidditch fields to catch the competition.
“Who’s there?” he turned again. “Oh, it’s you, Sam. How come you’re still here?”
“Well, what about you?” she snorted obnoxiously as she carefully made her way down. She was clutching a very large flat black plastic bag that was almost the same size as her. Harry could see a hook was stuck out at the end. On top of the bag was a pair of shiny black dress shoes. There was a measuring tape dangling around her neck.
“What’s all this?” Harry strolled towards her and grabbed them from her unstable arms, noticing that the plastic bag was about to smother her.
“Harry, don’t forget Ginny giving us those backstage passes! She really wants us to be there to support her! We can go cheer her on!” she was hopping up and down animatedly around Harry. “Her git brother and his girlfriend are there already!”
“You go ahead. I… I’ll come a little later,” he planted everything neatly on the coffee table.
“In that case, you’ll have time to do something for me. I have a favor to ask you,” she unzipped the bag.
“I… made something… for my older brother… you know… as a Christmas present. He’s… built just like you. I am wondering if you can… try it on to see if it fits,” muttered Sam uncomfortably, trying to make her story sound believable.
Harry stared at the items as she was pulling them out one by one, apparently trying very hard to not burst out laughing, “Are you kidding me? You… you… made all this? And you want me to model… a bow tie… and a tux… for you?”
“If you tell anyone this, I’ll peck your head off,” she hissed threateningly.
Harry had no plans to make fun of her. In fact, he had been grateful to her the entire time for not bringing up the embarrassing events that took place in the hall that breakfast between him and Oliver. Modeling clothes was the last thing he wanted to do, but since he had nothing else to busy with, he decided to comply with her ridiculous request.
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, you never talk about your family.”
“Oh… nothing interesting… just mum and pa… me and my brother… regular non-magic folksy folks…”
She suddenly seized his hands and slammed all the items onto them, hoping he would stop asking about her non-existent family, “There’s a blazer, pants, shirt, belt, and a bow tie. I want you to put everything on for me!
“Put these on too!” she pounded the shoes over the pile of clothes that she had just shoved into his face.
Harry was gaping at the red bow tie, but he already knew it was fruitless to argue with her. He sighed and trudged upstairs, regretting to have agreed to this.
After making sure that Harry had disappeared into the boys’ dormitory, Sam growled and began to stomp on the floor angrily. It was because she was furious with herself for not having done enough to ensure her plan would run smoothly. In fact, she had no plan at all. Up until last night, she had been obsessed with only creating the perfect outcome she had completely neglected to plan what she needed to do to reach the outcome. It wasn’t until this morning that she finally realized how crazy she was, thinking Oliver would just disappear because the stars heard her cries. She was blaming her naivety on her inability to keep her human emotions in check.
That was the reason why she woke up early in the morning and immediately dashed to the North Tower towards Oliver’s quarters, hoping she could find a way to knock him out of the competition. She finally realized that things do not automatically fall into place just because you wished for them. Many interesting and appalling ideas popped into her head, including dislocating some parts of Oliver’s body and making it look like it was an accident, or putting a puddle of water at his doorway so he could slip and break a hip. However, she was blaming herself for not acting sooner, and doing more than just pray. She could have found a way to dislocate his shoulder during one of the supplementary flying sessions, but she knew the perfect opportunity to do that had passed, because there were no classes today.
All hope wasn’t lost, however. While Sam was spying on Oliver this morning in the North Tower, looking for a way to knock him out, she saw him madly storming out with his broomstick shortly after two people whom she had never seen before exited from his quarters. She hid in the North Tower for hours, waiting for him, but he still hadn’t returned.
Not knowing what to do, she could only hope Oliver would never come back, so she turned her focus on someone she could control, Harry. She had been following him the entire day, keeping an eye on him, making sure he was safe and unharmed, because he had to be in top physical shape for tonight. This was extremely easy because all he did was eat and then he would sit alone by the fireplace in the common room. She made up the story about her brother on the spot to get him to wear the costume. The next step was to get him to the fields with the costume, alter the name list, change the music selection, and find a way to get rid of Oliver, but those felt like monumental tasks. Her mind was going crazy and spinning wildly, because she still didn’t know how to proceed, and there were so many things to do.
Harry suddenly poked her from behind, waking her up from her convoluted thoughts.
“Harry,” she breathed captivatingly, her heart fluttering uncontrollably and her knees ready to cascade as she spun around. Standing in a complete tuxedo in front of her scorching eyes, Harry was like a knight in shining armor, and the prince in every little girl’s fantasies, including her own.
“Well?”
“You look… like… what you usually look like… a nerd with glasses, and now a nerd with glasses in a tux!” she barked breathlessly, quickly reminding herself to not let her human emotions take over as she took the measuring tape and pretended to measure his shoulders. In fact, she was using it to distract her by focusing on it so she wouldn’t have to look at Harry.
“Everything fits me perfectly, including the shoes,” he replied somewhat smugly, deeply aware that he was looking sharp. “I hope your brother likes the glitter and stuff… because it looks… very showy…”
“Kick up your leg and throw your arms around!” she demanded.
“Just do it! I want to make sure nothing rips in the seams or something.”
Harry reluctantly kicked up his leg and spun his arms around as Sam circled around him and examined him from behind.
“WOE…WOE…” he squirmed, covering his backside with his hands. “Sam, there’re certain places your hands shouldn’t go__”
“Get real, Harry! I was just trying to straighten out the tail! Perfect!”
“Can I take it off now?”
“Erm… Harry. Sit down,” she pushed him into the seat. Her mind was racing, frantically thinking of a way to convince him to go to the fields in this outfit.
“Let’s go to the competition now!” she hollered, tugging at his arm.
Harry didn’t understand why she was behaving more oddly than usual. She had just shoved him into the chair two seconds ago, and now she was yanking him up.
“Fine. Let me change and__”
Sam suddenly ripped his glasses off his face and stormed to the common room doorway.
“I’m going to flush them down the toilet!” she hopped up and down, laughing like a hyena. “Catch me if you can!”
“What are you doing?” he fumed and chased her out of the common room.
Because he didn’t have his glasses, Harry was slow coming down the castle stairs, but once he was on the ground floor, he immediately caught up to her. From the corner of her desperate eyes, she could see him quickly catching up to her now. She knew she could never outrun him, but this was the only way she could think of to get him to the fields wearing the costume. Determined to not let him catch her before reaching the fields, she ran as fast as her little feet could carry her, but tears were gushing out of her eyes, because she knew it was hopeless. She would not make it. Harry was too fast for her. She was going to fail at this juncture.
“AARGH!” she tumbled at the castle entrance.
“Sam!” he hurried over to her. He wanted to yell at her for acting so foolishly, but he swallowed his tongue when he spotted her tears, “Are you okay? You’re hurt! You’re… crying?”
“I don’t cry! You must be seeing things without your specs, you blind bat!” she struggled out of his grips and limped towards the fields, wiping her face in the process. Seeing her hurt and sensing that she really wanted him to head to the competition, he decided to let her go and only follow her from a distance.
Security of the event was one of the top priorities for Dumbledore. Ever since he was cleared of all the misunderstandings regarding Voldemort last year, he has seen his popularity in the wizard community increase. As a result, many wizards and witches gladly volunteered to stand guard all over the castle premises to ensure a smooth and enjoyable competition with no incidents. Harry spotted lineups of people waiting to get in, with many wizards and witches watching on. The Quidditch fields fell silent because it appeared the competition was about to begin.
“Harry, Sam, have you seen Oliver on your way here?” Hermione hurried towards them as they approached the backstage area.
“Oliver’s not here?” Sam beamed hysterically. It appeared she had completely forgotten the pain from her limping foot.
Hermione’s eyes quickly became enthralled by Harry’s dashing appearance, “You look hot! Where are your glasses? Why are you in a tux?”
Harry gave Sam a dark look as she quickly handed the glasses back to him.
“Ginny hasn’t seen Oliver all day. I looked all over the castle and couldn’t find him,” added Ron worriedly, studying Harry’s outfit curiously.
“Where the heck is he? He should be here in his costume now, like the rest of the competitors!”
Harry glanced towards the back of the room, and there were a group of people in costumes, pacing around nervously, but Ginny wasn’t amongst them. He grimaced because the costumes of the girls were so whimsical, overdone, and gawky they all looked like last year’s Christmas trees with lipstick. In his mind, Ginny would blow away the competition with her gown alone.
“Where’s Ginny?” asked Harry.
“She’s hiding in the back. She doesn’t know what to do. She’s thinking of withdrawing, but I told her they’re the final competitors, so maybe Oliver will make it by then,” Hermione frowned.
“Let me go look for__”
“No!” Sam cut in fiercely before realizing she should not have been so rude to Harry in front of his friends.
“Harry, I’ll go look for Oliver,” she chirped in a much calmer tone. “You stay here with Ginny. This is the time she really needs her friends.”
“But you’re limping__”
“I’m fine!” she flashed a bright smile and gave Harry a soft kick in the shoe.
Hermione’s expression suddenly appeared as if a bright zealous light had lit up on top of her head. She quickly shoved Harry to the back, “I agree with Sam. Harry, sit with Ginny. Ron and I both ran out of comforting words to say to her.”
After checking that Harry had disappeared, Sam pulled out a cassette tape from her pants pocket, but something else fell out in the process.
“You dropped something,” Hermione picked it up but her mouth fell open as soon as she noticed that it was a jigsaw puzzle, because seeing it reminded her of stealing a piece of Oliver’s puzzle from Ginny back at the Burrow. She quickly reached inside her own pocket and retrieved hers; it was from the same set.
Sam was trying to force a look of innocence, but Hermione was too smart for that, because she could still remember the way Sam was trying to block Oliver from reaching Ginny at the hall. With the puzzle, she finally understood that Sam shared the same intentions as her regarding Harry and Ginny, and she was wondering nastily if she had anything to do with Oliver’s disappearance.
“Oliver won’t make it,” Sam muttered. She knew she had to come clean, because a battle of the minds with Hermione was futile.
“WHAT?” Ron and Hermione both bellowed in disbelief, wondering what a fragile little girl like her could have done to stop a very competitive Oliver from competing.
“I swear I didn’t do anything to him. I… just know… Wouldn’t he be here by now if he wanted to show?”
Hermione and Ron stared at each other, not knowing what to say.
“Anyway, tonight… it’s supposed to be Harry and Ginny’s night… That’s what I call the perfect combination!” Sam insisted.
“Harry’s in a costume! His Firebolt’s in the castle! Plus, he knows the routine by hard! He’s good to go with Ginny! I swear! Everything is paved perfectly for them!” Sam choked very quickly. Both Ron and Hermione were still in shock.
“You want to see Harry perform with Ginny, right?” she shrieked, finally waking them up from their frozen tracks. “You’ve got to help me! I know it! You’ve got to trust me!”
It was the most ridiculous feeling for Hermione, but as she gazed at the puzzle pieces in her hand again, she recalled how ridiculous it was for her to steal one piece, thinking Ginny would never complete the puzzle without it and she would not have to fulfill Oliver’s promise to visit Angeline’s Café together. Sam was right, she thought to herself. She really wanted Harry to be paired with Ginny. In addition, she also agreed with her that Oliver would have arrived by now if he had the intention to compete tonight. But she also remembered the heated argument she had with Ginny when she tried to convince her to pair with Harry, and she ended up pushing her over the edge. Ginny’s voice from that argument was still ringing in her head to this day, when she told her fiercely she would never speak to her again if she would mention her name and Harry in the same sentence. That was why Hermione had since stopped her efforts at matching them together.
“I… love to help… but Ginny… if she finds out I’m involved… she will… she…” Hermione murmured, giving her back the puzzle.
Sam immediately breathed a sigh of relief, “Then we’ll keep all this a secret! You don’t tell them I’m involved and I won’t tell them about you!
“Please, Hermione! I’m begging you! We must do this for them! We must get moving now before it’s too late!”
“Alright!” Hermione could hear herself yell out. “Tell me what we can do!”
“I need to get Harry’s Firebolt here… but I also have to make sure he stays put in his costume… and I have to alter the name list… but I don’t know the spells to bewitch__”
“Madam Hooch is the master of ceremony for the evening. Dobby is in charge of the music… I’ll find a way… to bewitch the list or something. Ron can go fetch his Firebolt!”
Ron was scratching his head, “Are you sure about__”
“JUST GO!” Hermione blasted and yanked him along, ignoring the little voice in her head that was telling her she was going mad for taking instructions from a little girl.
Sam was happy to see Harry’s friends were willing to help. Staring at the cassette tape and the puzzle in her hands, she believed she could make the evening more magical by changing the music selection. She peered towards the back and noticed that it was very quiet back there.
“I’m sure Harry will stay put. I know Harry… he’ll stay with Ginny… because he knows she needs him now…” she nodded confidently.
“I have to try… I’m sure Dobby will understand,” she limped out of the backstage with her cassette tape.
****
Seeing a shadow of someone in a costume, Ginny turned her head up.
“Oliver?”
“I hope you’re not disappointed,” Harry smiled mildly. “You look… beautiful, Ginny.”
Ginny looked up at him and was spellbound by his handsomeness. She had never seen him in such formal attire before. It had been a while since she had a private conversation with him these past few months. For some reason, the usual hostilities she had for him have dissipated. She was wondering if it could be due to the fact that every ounce of her hostility was being channeled at Oliver for abandoning her, or perhaps she no longer remembered the reasons she was angry with Harry in the first place.
“Thanks,” she gazed at him up and down impressively. “Why are you…”
“Sam,” he replied indignantly. “She tricked me into wearing this outfit and lured me here. I think she wants me to get mixed up with the competitors or something. It’s one of her many many attempts to make a fool out of me.”
“You… you’re not… a fool…” she mumbled soulfully.
“Your dress is… backless, aren’t you… cold? It’s a December evening after all…” he removed his blazer and draped her in it. It was a simple gesture, but she couldn’t help but remember how many times he had offered his jacket for her. In her mind, he was always a gentleman.
“Harry… I…”
“Shh… everything is going to be okay. Ron and Hermione are looking for Oliver now… Sam too…
“Speaking of Sam, I think she likes you very much… She was determined to come here to cheer you on…
“She adores you the same way her mentor does…” Harry could hear himself babble before he realized he might have just accidentally confessed his love for her.
“NO… I mean… she adores you… just like she adores her mentor…” Harry was panting and his face reddening. “WAIT… her mentor is me! No… that’s not what I mean… There’s nothing between Sam and me…”
Ginny giggled. Harry was thrilled because he finally made her laugh. Sensing that she was warming up to him, he timidly reached over her shoulders and gently pulled her closer. She did not object. Instead, she closed her eyes and rested herself in his embrace, because it was exactly what she needed right now. They remained like this quietly in the back room, the two of them sitting side by side to each other, with her in his arms, and it felt like as if time had stood still for them.
“Ginny, I… want to…” he broke the angelic silence and choked hoarsely.
”The final competitors of this evening is Miss Ginny Weasley…”
It was Madam Hooch’s voice in the speakers. Harry quickly breathed back his words as Ginny opened her eyes and gazed at him fearfully.
”Miss Ginny Weasley and… hmm… let me put on my reading glasses…”
“Don’t worry. I know Oliver. He’s a competitor. I’m sure he must be waiting for you at the fields or something,” muttered Harry softly, gazing into her misty brown eyes.
”Mr. Harry Potter!”
The Boy Next Door by gossipweaver
Chapter Notes: She blames herself for not having done enough, but is it ever enough… when it is for the boy she loves… when she is willing to give up her all for him… a boy who doesn’t love her…