Once in a Blue Moon
AN: I'm not JKR, if I was, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction? Anyway, everything is JKR's
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Sixteen-year-old Ginny Weasley crept silently out of bed. It was very late, as the clock on the wall suggested, its old hands reading 1:30 in the a.m. Ginny undid the latches on the trunk and pulled out her broomstick as quietly as she could, then snuck out on to the landing just outside the sixth year dormitory.
The common room was darker than usual, as the great fire was dwindling out for the night, but outside one of the windows along the stairwell, she could see the stars and full moon shining brightly in the late April sky. Perfect night for a fly she thought as she tiptoed down the stairs, carefully avoiding the fourth stair from the bottom, as it had a tendency to squeak very loudly.
She finally reached the bottom stair, and crept across the common room toward the doorway. Just as she reached as the portrait hole, she heard someone behind her.
“Where you going, Gin?” asked the voice.
Ginny turned around to be greeted by a pair of emerald green eyes that made her heart jump in her chest just a few feet away. “Nowhere, Mr. Head Boy, sir!” she said jokingly.
Harry chuckled as Ginny giggled silently. “But honestly, Harry, where’d you think I’d be going? With me holding a broomstick and all?” Ginny asked.
“Running off to fly in the middle of the night, I’m ashamed. I might have to report you, a prefect setting such a bad example,” Harry said in mock seriousness.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh yes I would, if you don’t let me come with you.”
“Well then go and get your broom, Mr. Potter!”
“Be right back, Miss Weasley.”
Ginny chuckled as Harry dashed across the common room and up the boys’ stairs, presumably up to the 7th years’ dormitory. He returned a minute or so later, clutching his Firebolt in one hand and the invisibility cloak in the other.
“Invisibility cloak? Honestly, Harry,” Ginny said, shaking her head.
“What? How do you propose we get out then?” Harry asked, looking disgruntled.
“Like I always do.” A mysterious spark appeared in Ginny’s eyes as she pushed the portrait open. She grabbed Harry’s hand, but immediately wished she hadn’t, as it sent a round of shivers down her spine. She blushed and let go. “C’mon, Harry, what are you afraid of?” she whispered.
“Being caught and loosing my title?” he answered with a smirk, but followed her anyway.
Ginny laughed silently as they crept into the hall; it was deserted as always. Ginny glanced down the hall towards a window, and dashed silently towards it. Harry ran after her just as quietly. When they reached the window, they stopped. Ginny started to unlatch the window.
“What are you doing, Gin? We’re three stories up!” Harry whispered frantically.
Ginny simply rolled her eyes and turned to him, her finger over her lips, telling him to be quiet. She then returned to unlatching the window. Once it was fully open, it created a four-by-four-foot portal to the sky. Ginny backed away, and mounted her broom. She kicked off the cement floor, but only hovered a few feet off the ground. She grinned at Harry, then flew at the window.
Harry soon joined her. “Honestly, Harry, you scare me sometimes,” she said as Harry stopped his broom next to hers.
“Why’s that?” Harry asked.
“Honestly, ‘Gin, we’re three stories up!’. Harry, did you forget what the general use for broomsticks was?”
“There are some who would argue the general use for broomsticks was to clean.”
Ginny rolled her eyes at him. “C’mon, let’s get down to the pitch before someone looks out their window.”
Without waiting for a reply, Ginny zoomed off towards the vacant quidditch pitch. Ginny flew as fast as she could, letting the wind blow her long, hair out of her face and erase all thoughts from her head. That’s why she loved to fly; it let her forget everything, like how in love she was with Harry Potter.
No one knew, even Hermione, though Ginny suspected she’d figured it out. Everyone else just assumed that when Ginny’d said she’d ‘given up’ on him that she’d also got over the crush she’d had on him for years. In some ways that was true, she no longer had a silly little girl crush on him, no, what she felt for Harry was much deeper than that.
It’d started slow, with them becoming some-what friends in her fourth year, but over the two years since, they’d become the best of friends, but Ginny wanted so much more. He wasn’t perfect by anyone’s standards, but for some reason, Ginny felt complete in every way when she was around him “ completely free, completely calm, and completely safe. Yes, he was everything she needed, but he didn’t feel that way about her, so she resorted to flying late at night to rid her head of thoughts of him, but she found it hard to do when he was flying just in front of her.
Ginny didn’t stop when she reached the pitch, instead flying a few laps. Then she laced in between the goal posts and pulled off a few spectacular dives. Sometimes she could see Harry doing similar things around the pitch.
Ginny finally stopped to catch her breath, hovering towards one end of the pitch. Harry zoomed over next to her. They were sitting in just the right position to see the beautiful full moon over the Hogwarts lake, which reflected it as if the lake was a mirror.
“It’s amazing isn’t it?” Ginny whispered, as if not wanting to ruin the peace and serenity of the moment.
“It is, but didn’t we already have a full moon this month?” Harry questioned.
“Oh yes! I’d forgotten! Tonight’s a blue moon!” Ginny exclaimed.
“What?”
“When there are two full moons in one month, it’s called a blue moon! Like the phrase once in a blue moon.”
“Oh really? I always thought the phrase came from some book or something.”
“Nope, all true.”
There was a comfortable silence for a minute or two. While both of them marveled at just how exquisite the moon was.
“Gin, it seems like forever since we’ve been able to just talk, doesn’t it?” Harry asked quietly.
Ginny nodded silently. It did seem that way. What with Harry defeating Voldemort just earlier that year on Halloween, and then all the press and media and medals, not to mention all the normal things like classes and quidditch, it seemed as if Ginny hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to Harry in forever. “Yes, Harry, it does,” Ginny said softly.
“So what’s up then? With you and all, you still dating what’s-his-face from Ravenclaw?”
“No, we split up about a month ago.”
“Oh, sorry, I guess I’ve been kinda busy lately.” He ran is hand through his messy, black hair. “So anyone new on the scene then? Since I’m so out of it and all.”
“Well, yeah, I guess I like someone,” Ginny said cautiously, making a point not to look at Harry directly, knowing she would blush if she did.
“He like you?”
“No, he’d like me about once in a blue moon, if you catch my drift. So how ‘bout you Harry? Anyone you’re interested in?”
“Well, yeah, there is this girl I fancy; she’s smart, funny, and absolutely amazing.”
Ginny felt her heart drop as it always did when Harry told her of his newest love interest, but she never let it show just how much it hurt to have him talk about another girl that way. “Mm,” Ginny muttered.
“Hey, Gin,” Harry inquired, “this bloke you fancy, does he know that according to what you’ve told me, he’d actually fancy you tonight?”
Ginny looked up to meet Harry’s eyes. “I’d imagine. Why do you ask?”
“C’mon, Gin, let’s go back inside. Meet you by the window.” And with that he zipped off toward the Hogwarts castle.
Ginny sighed, “What the hell?” she muttered as she flew off after Harry.
When she landed just inside the open window, she spotted Harry standing just a little farther down the corridor, holding his Firebolt with an odd expression on his face. She quickly closed the window and sprinted silently to join him.
“Well that was a nice way to avoid my question,” she said, obviously a little irritated.
“What question?” Harry asked with a grin on his face.
“You are incorrigible. C’mon let’s go back to the common room before Filch catches us.”
Ginny stalked off in a huff, Harry followed close behind.
“Ginny please, don’t be mad!” Harry pleaded.
“nitwit,” Ginny muttered the password and pushed the portrait open and waited for Harry to walk in behind her. Then she turned back to him, not really sure of why she was so annoyed with him, “Of course I’m mad Harry, you don’t answer my question and just fly off, how rude...”
Ginny would have probably spent the next hour chewing him out for something that really wasn’t that bad, but Harry brought one finger up to her lips, and that made her stop right there in her tracks. What is he doing? Ginny thought frantically doesn’t he know how hard he’s making it for me to not just kiss him right here and now???
Harry simply smirked at her. “Ginny, I’m intending on answering your question, I just didn’t want to answer it out there. By the way, you’re blushing,” he said raising an eyebrow at her.
Ginny glared at him, but still didn’t say a word.
“Gin, promise me you won’t say anything, okay?” Harry asked.
She nodded as he removed his hand.
“Ginny the reason I wanted to know is that I was trying to figure out who you fancy...and I think I’ve figured it out.”
He smirked at her and she blushed yet again. She opened her mouth to say something, but cut her off quite successfully by kissing her. She stood quite stunned for a second and didn’t do anything, but she got her wits about her again and kissed him back, her hands finding their way through his hair, while his rested firmly on her waist.
The kiss ended, and both parties thought it was much too soon. Ginny was still wrapped in Harry’s arms, and had no intention of moving, because that’s where she felt she belonged. She tipped her head to look at him, a smile on her face. “So does this mean what I think it does?”
“Well I have it on good authority that it is a blue moon tonight,” he replied.
She grinned at him stood up on her tip-toes to kiss him again, which he seemed all too happy to return.