The sound of excited shouting from the common room woke Ginny Weasley. Ginny had just been having a very strange dream, in which Hermione was dating Draco Malfoy and Harry at the same time, whilst wearing a lot of black makeup. Ginny chuckled to herself as she thought of Hermione in such a way.
“Ginny, wake up, it’s duelling today!” called a voice from the bottom of the stairs to the girls dormitory. “Come on, Ginny, get up. I’ll meet you in the Great Hall. Okay?”
Ginny groaned and pulled her duvet over her head. She had totally forgotten about duelling today. It was made worse by the fact that it was a particularly cold October morning.
“Ginny? Did you head me? Get up!” shouted the voice from the common room again.
“Okay, Colin! I’ll be there in a few minutes. Stop shouting! I’ll meet you in the common room!” Ginny shouted back.
She waited until she heard quiet in the common room before she got out of bed. If there was one lesson she did not want to go to, it was Harry’s duelling lesson. Ever since the first lesson, her performances in class were getting worse and worse. At first it was only when Harry watched her that she was unable to focus, but with each poor lesson, Ginny’s confidence slipped lower and lower. She had done so badly in the last lesson that she had not managed to beat Colin or Luna in any of their duels. It was only a matter of time until Harry asked her what was wrong, and what would she tell him? Ginny knew the truth, but she could not tell Harry the truth.
Every lesson it breaks my heart to be so close, yet so far from him, whenever he looks at me, I can’t focus, my mind just blanks.
After pulling on her robes and brushing her hair, Ginny reached under her pillow for the locket and fastened it around her neck. With a sigh, she sat down in front of the mirror in the girls dormitory and took a long, hard look at herself.
You’re in trouble, girl. It’s never going to happen with Harry. You’re letting him hold you back.
Feeling sorry for herself, Ginny headed down the staircase into the common room, which was now empty. Ginny happened to catch a glance of a piece of parchment that was pinned to the notice board, seeing parchment on the notice board was not unusual in itself, however, this piece of parchment had a very poor picture of Harry sketched upon it, and underneath, written in shiny red ink were the words;
Harry Potter “ He’s the best teacher EVER! And he’s soooo gorgeous!
Ginny felt her stomach sink even further, it was bad enough that Harry was at Hogwarts; she did not need his fan club putting things in the common room that would remind her of him.
Ginny sighed once again, and with one last look at the piece of parchment, she climbed through the portrait hole and headed towards the Great Hall.
As Ginny made her way through the corridors of the school as she headed towards the Great Hall, she noticed a group of Fourth-year girls watching and pointing at her, and then giggling to themselves. Ginny was used to that though, it was no secret that she and Harry were an item not so long ago. It didn’t help matters that all of Ginny’s brothers had done something to warrant them being part of Hogwarts Lore, she counted them off in her head.
Bill “ Head Boy
Charlie “ Quidditch Captain, one of the best Hogwarts had seen
Percy “ Head Boy
Fred and George “ The ultimate troublemakers, students still admire the small patch of swamp they left behind when they left Hogwarts. Their actions in their seventh year were responsible for the expression “Doing a Weasley.” Also the best Quidditch Beaters seen in a long time.
Ron “ Harry Potter’s best friend, helped save the Philosophers Stone, went into the Chamber of Secrets with Harry, helped uncover the truth behind Sirius Black, fought in the Department of Mysteries with Harry, won the Quidditch cup as Keeper.
Ginny smiled at she thought of her brothers, sometimes she wished that Fred, George and Ron were still here with her, but they were doing well for themselves in the outside world; Fred and George owned a chain of joke shops. Ron was training to become an Auror, and he was dating Hermione Granger, who was another Hogwarts legend in her own right.
The girls all giggled at her until one of the smaller ones spoke. “You’re Ginny Weasley?”
“Yes,” Ginny replied, looking the girl up and down.
“You know Harry Potter is teaching here?”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Of course I know he is teaching here. What exactly do you want?”
The girl blushed and her friends all giggled. “Are you going to get back together with him? We all think he’s dreamy!”
Ginny was taken aback, was everybody at school thinking about her and Harry? “Umm…I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it,” she lied. “But you’re right, he is dreamy.”
With that comment Ginny carried on walking to the Great Hall, leaving the group of girls giggling amongst themselves.
Ginny entered the Great Hall and took her usual look at the ceiling, it was sunny outside. The smell of various breakfast foods filled her nose as she waved at Luna Lovegood and headed towards the Gryffindor table.
“Hiya, Ginny. You okay?” asked Colin, a little less enthusiastically than usual.
“I’m fine, thanks, Colin,” Ginny lied. She was not fine. Her insides felt like they were dancing a tango.
After a filling breakfast of cereal and many rounds of toast, Ginny looked at her watch, it was nearly nine o’clock.
“We had better get to lessons,” she said to Colin and Dennis.
Dennis looked at his watch, “Holy smokes! You’re right. I better run. I’m in the North Tower first lesson. See you at lunch!”
Ginny and Colin said goodbye to Dennis and met up with Luna on the walk to Defence Against the Dark Arts.
“Hi, Luna. How are you today?” piped Colin, shifting his schoolbag from one shoulder to another.
Luna looked at him, her eyes looked even larger and madder than usual today. “I’m fine, thank you, Colin. I’m really looking forward to this lesson. Aren’t you, Ginny?”
Ginny flushed. “Not really, Luna.”
“Oh. I would have thought you’d have been glad to see Harry,” said Luna.
I am glad to see Harry. More than you could possibly know.
“Oh, well, you know. It’s different now. He’s a teacher and we’re all students. We can’t expect to be friends anymore.”
Luna laughed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
Ginny could not help but laugh with Luna; she had walked straight into that. She could have come up with a more convincing excuse, but nothing came to mind.
Colin, who was a bit slow on the uptake, did not start laughing until Luna whispered something into his ear. “Do you still fancy Harry then, Ginny?”
Luna elbowed him. “There’s such a thing as tact, Colin!” she turned back to Ginny. “You do though, don’t you?”
Ginny looked between Colin and Luna, they were her closest friends at Hogwarts since Harry, Ron and Hermione had left. Slowly but surely she nodded to them.
Colin’s mouth hung open and Luna cheered and hugged Ginny.
“You can’t tell him! Promise me you won’t tell anybody!” Ginny pleaded, suddenly worried.
“Don’t be so silly, Ginny. Of course we won’t tell anyone. Will we, Colin?” Luna murmured.
“What? Oh. Oh no of course not. Well. What about Dennis?”
Ginny made a noise like an angry cat at Colin. “Especially not Dennis! He can’t keep quiet for more than five minutes.”
Luna laughed. “Come on. Let’s get to lesson. We don’t want to keep Ginny’s boyfriend waiting.”
“Oi!” exclaimed Ginny angrily, before quickly realising that Luna and Colin were only having some fun. She joined in with their laughter as she cried inside at the thought of her and Harry together.
When they arrived in the classroom Ginny headed to her seat, staring at Harry as she went. She didn’t mean to, but she could not help herself. She was drawn to him, lost in her own dreams as she stared at Harry. Ginny went to sit down but before she could Harry cleared his throat and began to address the class.
“Morning everyone. Okay I’ve been really, really impressed with what you can do so far. Today I thought we would practise outside so we’ve got a little more room. You’ll also be able to use any jinx, hex or curse you want to, but obviously, keep it within reason, nothing unforgivable.”
The class laughed and murmured excitedly. Harry could tell that they had been practising extra spells to use on an occasion just like this. He glanced in Ginny’s direction, unlike the rest of the class, who were chatting excitedly, she looked worried, and had turned a strange shade of grey.
I hope she’s back on form this lesson, he thought to himself.
“Okay class, let’s head down to the Quidditch pitch. Headmistress McGonagall has kindly agreed to let us use it for this lesson.” Harry smiled to himself.
Wood would have killed me if he saw me using the Quidditch pitch for anything other than seeking.
Harry led the class down towards the Quidditch pitch. It was bitterly cold outside, and many of the students’ teeth were chattering. Once the class had arrived at the pitch, Harry gave the usual instruction to split into pairs, with the former members of the D.A. practising with each other.
The air was soon filled with a mix of noises, including spell noise, and more than a little hollering. Harry began walking around the class, offering advice here and there, and watching to see how they were getting on.
When he arrived at Ginny, Colin, and Luna, it was soon apparent that Ginny was not on form yet again. So far, Harry had watched as Colin had to shrink her teeth back to normal size as a result of a Densaugeo spell from Luna. The only offence she had mounted so far was a shield spell, which reflected a tickling charm back towards Colin, causing him to collapse in fits of laughter.
“Ginny,” Harry called out to her, motioning her to move away from Colin and Luna.
Ginny felt her body seize up and her heart suddenly seemed to beat very loudly. “Yes?”
Harry stood next to her and moved her away from her friends, leaning close to her ear, he began to speak, “I was thinking, just for the rest of this lesson could you practise with him?” Harry indicated, pointing at the same tall, thin Slytherin boy who had back chatted him in his first lesson. Ginny looked at Colm Lucas, and noticed he was looking at her with a look of disgust on his face.
“Sure, why though?” Ginny asked, more than a little puzzled.
Harry lowered his voice even further. “Officially, it looks like I’m doing it so that you can practise with someone more on your level.” Ginny opened her mouth to object when Harry continued. “Unofficially I’m doing it because I think nothing gets your mindset back where it should be like hexing a Slytherin.” He gave her a wink, and she smiled back.
Ginny and Lucas stood opposite each other, glaring at his other, hands wrapped around their wands. Harry stood between them, his wand in his own hand.
“Okay, on my mark.”
Harry pointed his wand up into the air and shot a streak of sparks out of it, following by a loud booming sound.
Ginny spun round, her wand ready, but as she spun she caught a glimpse of Harry, and her mind went blank.
“Ascendare!”
Ginny found herself blasted up into the air, she kept rising and rising until she had reached the peak of the blast, and she began to plummet back towards to ground; unable to think, she screamed. The rest of the class stopped what they were doing and turned to watch as Ginny fell towards the ground.
“Arresto Mementum!” called Harry, pointing his wand at Ginny, she began to slow down, and she came to a stop six inches from the floor.
Harry whirled around to look at Lucas. “That was good, but next time, try something that isn’t likely to result in the death of your partner.”
Lucas smirked and the rest of the class laughed. Ginny went bright red, but she saw Harry smiling at her she steadied herself and prepared to duel again.
Come on, Ginny, you are better than this guy. You’ve got to show Harry that you can do it.
Harry shot the streak of sparks from his wand once again, followed by the loud booming sound. Ginny hesitated, that was all the time Lucas needed, he pointed his wand and shouted,
“SERPENSORTIA!”
A large black snake shot out of the end of his wand and flew towards Ginny, she fell down and the snake landed on top of her, fangs bared, ready for the kill.
“VIPERA EVANESCA!” she heard Harry roar, the snake disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving a shaken Ginny lying on the floor. Harry held out his hand and she took it, and pulled herself to her feet.
What happened next happened in a blur, she saw Harry turn to face Lucas, his wand outstretched. The next thing she heard were the class laughing as Lucas was hanging upside down, as though an invisible hand and grabbed his ankle and jerked him upwards. He simply hung in the air, his limbs flailing about, cursing at the top of his voice, his robes falling down over his head. Harry strode towards to suspended Lucas.
“What did I just tell you? If you are unable to follow instructions, then you will not be welcome in this class. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”
Lucas whimpered and nodded his head, with a flick of his wand Harry released Lucas and he fell to floor in a pile. Harry turned to the class, anger still evident on his face.
“Class dismissed. Ginny, stay behind a moment.”
Ginny felt her face getting redder and redder and looked at the floor quickly. What could he want? He was surely going to criticise her for her poor performance. However, when she raised her head she saw that Harry was smiling at her.
“Harry, what?” she began.
“Ginny, I wanted to apologise for singling you out in class, and for not seeing more of you this year.”
Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. “Harry, its ok, I know you’ve been busy with work, and Petti…”
She stopped herself when she saw the look of Harry’s face.
“Never mind all that, Ginny. Look I want you to come to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom at eight o’clock tonight. I would like to see you alone.”
Ginny’s heart leapt, Her and Harry, alone together, was he ready to forgive her?
“Okay, Harry, I’ll be there,” said Ginny, fighting to keep the smile from her face.
Harry beamed. “Great! Okay you better get going. I don’t want to make you late for your next lesson. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the castle.”
Harry and Ginny walked side-by-side back up to the castle, and when they said goodbye, Ginny couldn’t help but smile to herself.
A/N - Thats it for Chapter 9 - Its good to be writing H/G scenes again! Thanks to Orlaith!