Chapter 20 Rain Chain, Snowman, Gray Star, Angel Face
It was a very calm early morning at the castle and everyone, with the exception of four sleepless souls, was still in bed because of the competition that lasted well past midnight. As usual, Harry couldn’t sleep, so he decided he would lounge in the common room to enjoy the fireplace by himself and to organize his thoughts; after what happened last night, he reckoned he had a lot to think about.
For once, his sleeplessness was not due to his nightmares; he couldn’t sleep because of all the wonderful things that took place with Ginny merely hours ago. The perfect details of the competition, the coincidences of him wearing a dashing costume, the unlikelihood of his name appearing on the competitors’ list so he could perform with Ginny, the sensation of having her in his arms at various points of the night, the way they argued like a loving couple when they bowed, and the unusual pair of stars blinking at him at the end of the performance…
However, all of this were overshadowed by the earth-shattering kiss they shared in the common room as the night concluded. Ginny kissed him, he thought sweetly to himself, and it wasn’t a dream, even though it happened well past midnight. He was certain he didn’t imagine the kiss because the ones in his dreams were always longer and much deeper, and he would always find his arms tightly around her at the end. As pleasant as the image was for him, all the sweetness from the kiss quickly morphed into panic, because he simply didn’t know what to do next to further this relationship, if he could call it a relationship. One thing he would agree on was that he basically couldn’t describe what they shared last night, because it was so new for him.
Harry had expected the common room to be deserted because it was so early. However, his lips immediately curled disappointedly to the downside as he was marching down, because in the middle of the staircase was none other than the little silver haired rascal. He didn’t care to know why she was perched on the steps by herself, but she was definitely the last person he wanted to see. Still slightly upset at her, his mouth tightened sternly, because he would never forget all the things she did to him yesterday, from tricking him into wearing the costume and grabbing his backside intentionally in the process, to tearing off his glasses, threatening to toss them down the toilet, and making him chase her in the fields. He only took solace in the fact that all her nastiness somehow miraculously fell into place for him at the end.
Noticing her there, he wanted to sneak back upstairs because it was simply too early to have to deal with her madness. All he wished for was peace and quiet, so he could assemble his thoughts and figure out what to do next regarding Ginny; the last thing he needed was to have his ears be pounded with useless rubbish. Regrettably, she heard his creaking steps before he was able to do his u-turn, and as expected, she would pour out all her craziness onto him. Strangely, he could sense a slight degree of tiredness from her; her tantrums lacked the usual spunk, but her volume was still loud enough to burst his eardrums.
“Come on, Harry! It’s Hogsmeade day tomorrow! I really need to buy something for dream boy!” Sam nagged and tore at his arm feverishly.
“First years aren’t supposed to go--”
“That’s why I require your invisibility cloak, you dumb-dumb!” she raised the pitch of her voice by yet another octave and jabbed him in the chest.
Harry was trying to glue himself in his seat by the fireplace, madly wondering why his mentee was always yanking him around repeatedly like a rag doll. He was adamant he would not let her have her way this round, even though his eardrums were begging him to comply.
“How do you know about my cloak?” he cut in, trying fruitlessly to free his sore arm so he could cover both his ears.
“What about our early sunrise broom flying practices?” he continued, squeezing as many words as possible into the split second of silence she granted him. “You didn’t practice yesterday because you never showed up, that means we have to do it today and tomorrow to catch up…
“Do you want Oliver to give you a hard time again? You know, by the way, I forgot to ask you about your no show yesterday…”
She immediately blinked a glimmer out of her eyes, remembering that yesterday morning, she had been busy hiding in the North Tower to spy on Oliver’s whereabouts.
“Did you shove a cork down your throat, Sam? Why so quiet all of the sudden?” he peered at her, only to have his cheek meet her cold hand as she pushed his inquisitive eyes away.
“Oliver… says… I’m okay now,” she lied as she found herself running out of mean things to say to him.
“Thanks for… helping me, Harry… during these past few months,” she could hear herself mumble with her quivering voice as she blinked another glimmer out of her eyes.
“You can thank me by releasing your claws!” he frowned and gave his sore arm a helpless shake.
“Hi guys,” Ginny beamed radiantly and slowly strolled into the common room.
Harry delightedly rose to his feet, blushing heavily and his heart popping, as Sam smiled broadly and finally released her mentor.
“At ease! At ease, guys!” she laughed mildly, gesturing them to relax.
“You’re up early,” he sputtered, trying to lower his blood pressure. “I figured… after a long night yesterday you’ll… sleep in…”
She grinned warmly and inched closer to him, her arm brushing unwittingly against his, “I guess my biological clock is still used to those early sunrise practice sessions.”
Wanting to control the conversation so he wouldn’t ask where she was earlier, she remembered Sam’s earlier outburst and used it to her advantage.
“Is he bullying you? I… know a surefire way to get your mentor moving. He’ll do anything after this…” Ginny giggled slyly as she eyed Harry up and down.
A look of fear crept across Harry’s face as he took a few steps back. He had no idea what she had installed for him.
Suddenly, Ginny lunged at him and sank all ten fingers into his abdomen, and he immediately crashed into the sofa in roaring laughter as Sam took her cue and attacked him as well. All three were screaming hysterically as two pairs of hands were tickling him all over. Before they knew it, they had Harry pinned on the floor, begging helplessly for his life, at the mercy of two very aggressive girls. Crying out for help, he didn’t understand how they both seemingly were able to locate all his weak spots with such uncanny precision as they began to tear him apart.
In the midst of their craziness, suddenly Harry could hear his own voice echoing in their background of laughter.
”I think the hammock gave way and became undone! Are you okay?”
It was quickly followed by Ginny’s voice, also echoing distantly, followed by sounds of their laughter ricocheting from afar.
“Are you implying that I’ve gained a few pounds? Just for that, TAKE THIS!”
It was as if there was another couple laughing at each other not too far away, and they possessed the same voices as them. He knew it was impossible because there was no one in the common room other than the three of them. He was unable to check the origins of all these odd sounds because Ginny and Sam were still dismantling him.
“Stop it!” It was his voice again, but he swore he didn’t say anything because he was too busy laughing.
His own roaring voice was harmonizing itself with Ginny’s shrieks, and ringing in his ears at the same time were the same kinds of crazy voices from afar. Gradually, he somehow could feel a sense of familiarity emerging inside him. For some reason, he remembered he had heard this kind of thundering outburst from himself before. The vigorous tickling sensations were also too familiar to be normal. It was as if he had been like this with Ginny countless times before, and just like now, she would attack all his weak spots and he would be begging for his life as tears would rush out of his eyes. Coupled with the distant voices, the whole experience was becoming more eerie for him by the second.
Between all the chaos and confusion of bodies, he suddenly felt a nasty hand digging relentlessly through his pockets and grabbing him inappropriately. Short of breath and frantically covering himself to avoid embarrassment, he had no choice but to mount a fight, as gentlemanly as he could, against the two girls.
“WOE… SAM! STOP! TIME OUT! SAM! Didn’t… I… tell you…” he barked indignantly between his choking gasps of laughter as he covered his backside. “There are… some… places… your hands shouldn’t… be grabbing?”
“It wasn’t me! Honest! I swear, it was her!” she bounced away, hackling and pointing at a red-faced Ginny, who was squirming and shaking her head, trying to maintain her innocence.
Harry struggled to get up from the floor. He quickly straightened his glasses and tucked his shirt back in his pants. Looking at Sam disapprovingly, he couldn’t believe he was almost on his way to losing his pants. Judging from her nasty giggles however, he knew he was not going to win this battle.
“The invisibility cloak for tomorrow… OR ELSE!” Sam snarled between her chuckles, flashing her claws as Ginny smirked in the background.
Harry sighed dejectedly in disbelief; he had just allowed his own mentee to bully him once again. Just as he was about to head to his room to retrieve his cloak, Sam hopped across his path.
“I know where it is, Harry. You… just stay here. I’ll get it myself! See ya!” she glanced furtively at Ginny before zooming happily upstairs, leaving him extremely confused and pondering how she knew so much about him.
“Ginny, you know that wasn’t fair. Two against one,” complained Harry childishly, trying to flatten his hair as he glanced around the common room, searching for the origins of those strange voices, only to find no one other than the two of them.
“You sided with her against me,” he continued.
Ginny inched towards him and stroked his bangs, jolting Harry off his feet with her unexpected touch, because it was the first time she had been this close and this warm to him. In his mind, what she did to him earlier was entirely forgiven.
“Well, we girls always stick together, especially against men…
“And… it wasn’t Sam,” Ginny added wickedly.
Harry stared at her confusedly.
“That naughty hand… it was… mine,” she whispered teasingly and gave him a devilish eye, jolting him off his feet again as his cheeks were about to explode.
It was too good to be true. For a moment, Harry thought his heart was quivering so wildly it had propelled itself out of his body. The idea of having Ginny grabbing him in that intimate way was mind-boggling. Stepping up to the plate, he caressed her hand, convinced that his dream had finally become reality, and he was indeed the happiest man in Hogwarts. The debates and doubts in his mind suddenly fell silent, because it was confirmed by her smiling and receptive response to his caressing her hand; she was finally willing to be his girl.
“Ginny, how did you know… about…you know… that I’m ticklish… especially there and there?” he muttered, rubbing his belly to get rid of the soreness. Well aware that they were alone, he bumped up his courage and inched closer to her.
Ginny’s smile began to faint, because the words he just uttered would unknowingly trigger the memory of her trimming his hair in her room last year. Those were the exact words he said to her when she tickled him.
Quickly remembering her mission, she immediately restored her smile as Harry leaned closer to her, his arm sliding across her waist, pulling her in. As his face was slowly moving towards her, she closed her eyes and tilted her head; she was determined to let him kiss her.
“WAIT!” she suddenly banged Harry away very hard and he almost tumbled to the floor.
“Sorry, Harry! But I… just remember… I didn’t brush my teeth yet,” she swallowed, trying to suppress the streak of pain that had sliced her heart just as their lips barely met.
“Hmm, it doesn’t matter,” he whistled lightheartedly as he approached her again. “It’s because I haven’t brushed mine either.”
“Eeww… that’s… disgusting!” she escaped his arms and stormed towards the stairs, giggling in an exaggerated manner to make sure Harry witnessed her cheerfulness, even as her eyes were beginning to water.
Ginny was hoping she could reach her room before her tear ducts would give way. As she was dashing up the stairs, she unknowingly trampled over an invisible Sam. It turned out she had been hiding by the staircase with Harry’s cloak.
“Ginny, it’s me,” she pulled herself out. “I was… just testing the cloak… to see…”
Ginny was not about to stop and listen to her explanation, because her tears were threatening to gush out. She had to run.
“Sorry,” she choked and bolted around a very startled and apologetic Sam. Even though Harry’s delighted face was directly in front of her as he observed Ginny’s flying footsteps, she wasn’t impressed, because she knew something was wrong with Ginny. Blinking another twinkle out of her eyes, she knew her mission still hadn’t been completed. She realized she must go to Hogsmeade tomorrow.
***
The northern winds were a frequent nightly visitor at the North Tower, especially at the top floor. It was as if they knew a lonely guest resided up there, a man who was always spending his nights gazing out the window. The winds would keep him company and help dry his tears. The winds were also doing their part to ensure that his precious wind chime and rain chain would sing through the night for him, so he wouldn’t have to spend the night in silence, with only his hollow shadow by his side.
“Who would have known that… a final decision from you… one that you made for me… but one you made without me… would burden me for the rest of my life…” he muttered despairingly as he graced the rain chain tenderly, gently clearing the snow from this afternoon that was stuck on its delicate wings.
“As you once said, every snowflake has a purpose…” he steadily freed the fragile white sparkles from the rain chain. The beautiful frosty shapes waited by his window until they couldn’t linger anymore, so they said their final goodbyes to him.
“Every snowflake has a purpose,” he nodded to the departing white stars.
The snowflakes would swirl past the curvy moon and glittering stars, slowly and peacefully, until they joined the winds that were doing double duty tonight, because there was another lonely soul they needed to tend to, a snowman that was napping in a blanket of fresh snow from this afternoon just outside the castle entrance. Carefully, the winds escorted the dancing snowflakes to him.
“What’s this?” he rubbed his glasses and the scar on his forehead. He had just felt something cold landed on him.
The snowman couldn’t sleep under the weight of his convoluted thoughts, so he decided to venture out and admire the starry skies and the curvy moon celebrating across the horizons, reminiscent of the shapes he conjured at the performance. He rubbed his forehead again; he couldn’t help but think back to those familiar voices and laughter he heard this morning echoing from afar when she tickled him. These familiar sensations were oddly similar to too many incidents that had happened during the summer between the two of them: the ten second kiss by the staircase, the sensation of her in his arm when they were on his Firebolt.
”We’ve known each other before…” he recalled a voice of a little girl whispering this to him when he kissed her on the forehead for ten seconds. He simply didn’t know what to do or whom to turn to.
For some reason, the stars tonight were more vibrant than usual. It was as if they were coming together to form her face, if he were to connect them with a line.
“May I ask… who is the voice that accompanies you in your dreams every night?” he gazed solemnly at the patterned stars.
“Who’s there?” he turned his glistening eyes to one of the windows in the castle. He thought he saw a pair of twinkling stars blinking at him from there, the same pair that he had encountered before.
Of course it wasn’t a pair of stars. It was only a pair of gray eyes from a foolish girl, and she was admiring the snowman from a distance, just like she always did, watching over him, to make sure he was safe. They were twinkling because there were too many tears in front of them, just like they’ve always been, right from the beginning, when she met him as a human girl for the very first time at the feast.
“I’ll treasure all the times we spent together… our morning flying practices… our mentoring chit-chats… in my heart…”
She wasn’t prepared for the heartache that came from seeing him kissing his favorite girl this morning. Once again, she had forgotten to keep her human emotions in check. She was mad at herself, but it was too late. She had fallen deeply for him, and she couldn’t turn back, even though she knew it was a love that would never be reciprocated, because he belonged to someone else.
“Why… are you so nice to me?” she pleaded. “I insult you, hit you, yell at you… but you still… worry about me… and our flying practices…”
She headed to her bed and pulled out a box from underneath. The box contained the costume she made for him. He had returned it to her earlier today.
”I’m not sure… if I should thank you, but thanks anyway!” he muttered to her confusedly this morning when he returned the costume.
She carefully folded the blazer and placed it back in the box.
“You’re welcome,” she whimpered.
“You were absolutely perfect yesterday, my hero. I knew you would never let her down… I always knew the ending position would be her in your arms… I had it in my mind the entire time…” she sobbed to the box as she sank to the floor.
Unbeknownst to the lonely snowman, there was a second set of eyes watching over him. This pair came from the common room. They were brown but also glinting in tears, and their angelic owner was clutching his jacket, a jacket he gave her to keep her warm during their unforgettable picnic, just before he lost his memory.
“I’ll always give you my all. I promise you…” she cried to him. “But it’s just… now… I’m…”
She was supposed to share a beautiful deep kiss with him this morning, except she didn’t feel beautiful. Her gut was gnawing in anguish as soon as his lips touched hers. All she could think of was how many times the other girl had tasted those very tender lips. She had to come up with the excuse about her not having brushed her teeth in order to escape. After all, it was around this time last year he lost his memory of her.
“I’ll always love you… but… I’m just… not ready…”
She was worried if her snowman was cold, lying in the snow like that. She didn’t know he was in the snow because he was assembling the stars in the skies so he could visualize her image in the nightly sky.
“I think it’s time I return this to you,” she wept silently and slowly made her way down the castle with his jacket.
The stars finally organized themselves to his wishes. A deep smile graced his face as he remembered he had to do his nightly ritual, something he started doing at the beginning of the school year.
“Goodnight, Ginny, Pleasant dreams,” he whispered to the patterned stars.
“I love you…”
The snowman removed his glasses and closed his eyes because the stars were starting to dim away and everything became opaque. It was as if even they were tired and wanted to sleep because it was past their bedtimes. Rolling to the side, he let himself go and gradually fell asleep, only to wake up soon after, and find yet another familiar item close to him; this time it was a jacket, and it was draped over him. As he poked his head up, he noticed the castle gate was slowly creaking to a close, shielding a girl with an angel’s face, gently crumbling to the ground in her pool of pearls.
A/N: Chapter 19: When You Hold Me While I Cry of “When I See Only You” was the final interaction between Harry and Ginny before he lost his memory of her. The voices he heard in this chapter were from that picnic. I hope you’ll revisit that chapter as the story tackles the last of the four main characters, Harry, the boy next door.
The Boy Next Door by gossipweaver
Chapter Notes: The human emotion of love… the ability to love someone and the feeling of being loved by someone…is it a blessing or a punishment in disguise?