“Ms. Weasley, Ms. Weasley!”
I looked around and tried to find a face within the sharks that swam before me to whom I would allow my blessing for them to question me. The flashing lights were blinding but I was used to it by now. I pointed into the crowd, trusting that I had picked someone trustworthy.
“Ms. Weasley, is this book a recreation of your life? Can you relate to any of it?”
I smiled. I had expected this question sooner or later. I laughed politely before answering.
“Well, I guess every girl on the planet of Earth can certainly relate to a bit of the book, yeah. I guess it just is what makes us, us, really.”
I smiled as the room buzzed with a return of polite smiles and laughing.
”Err…but I guess this book is really trying to get in a girl’s head. No, these experiences are not directly from my life, but they pretty good, eh?”
I smiled to let the room know that I meant well. The room began to grow loud once again as they realized I was done with that question and was ready for the next. I randomly pointed, once again, into the crowd.
“Ginny- excuse me, Ms. Weasley-“ the lady said as she corrected herself which made me smile.
I recognized the lady’s voice as she spoke, but I couldn’t place why it was so familiar.
She continued, “I think I can speak for the entire room when I say that I am so very curious as to whether or not the rumour of you being engaged is true.”
I felt the smile slowly fade from my face and my eyes mechanically moved to looked over the crowd to find the eyes I ached to see. Those eyes, those wonderful eyes that I knew I wouldn’t find within the crowd today. Not today and not ever. It hadn’t even taken that much time for me to accept. It was just a fact and nothing more.
I took a deep breath in and then let it out slowly before answering. “Err…well…yes. The rumours are very true.”
I had never been much of a liar. That is why I chose not to, despite the feeling of wanting to keep it to myself. My eyes, once again automatically, began to surf the crowd and, once again, I realized I wouldn’t see the other face that I longed to see. His eyes, my hair, and freckles on her little face; the face I wouldn’t find. I took another deep breath. This was not a subject that I particularly liked to talk about.
“And may I ask to whom?” the lady asked.
I focused on her a little more closely and I finally realized who she was. Rita Skeeter, the most famous of all of the sharks in this small, cramped room. I didn’t have the time to concentrate on her, though, because my head was too busy spinning with the words in her most recent question. I had to close my eyes to keep from crying.
And suddenly - I was sixteen again.
(Flashback)
“Oh, Harry, that would be wonderful!” Hermione reached up and grabbed Harry’s hand as they went out to dance on the dance floor.
The room was vibrant and energy was everywhere. The roses that were dangling from the clear and gorgeous sky were perfect for the occasion. They were at the rehearsal ceremony for Bill’s and Fleur’s wedding. Fleur had wanted an outside wedding and wedding rehearsal. The ceremony was Mrs. Weasley’s request. She had made tons and tons of food for tonight with the help of Ginny, Hermione, and Gabrielle. Bill wanted the rehearsal three days before the wedding for an unknown reason but it had been alright with Fleur and Mrs. Weasley, so that is how it was planned.
Ginny and Ron sat at the table decorated in a white and teal tablecloth to match the bridesmaids’ dresses and watched them leave.
As Ginny saw Harry grab Hermione around the waist and pull her closer, memories of just a few months ago surfaced to the front of her mind. This was not a new occurrence, as it had been happening since Harry had arrived just two weeks earlier. She remembered the first day they kissed. It was perfect.
And then there was Dumbledore’s funeral. It had been an awful day but she could still make out the look on his face when she told him the truth.
“I never really gave up on you,” she’d told him. “Not really,”
Ron glanced at his sister and noticed that she was deep in thought. He gestured a shrug toward her that she knew meant, ‘Wanna go?’
She smiled, glad to be rid of the painful memory of Harry breaking up with her and nodded.
As they went out onto the floor, they shared a slow dance. Ginny was kind of sad that soon they would all return to school and it would be her brother‘s last year. She knew he was, too.
“Look, Harry, they’re sharing a brother-sister dance! Do you think they think anything of this?” Hermione asked him as they danced slowly and watched the siblings.
Harry considered this for a moment before answering. Hermione and Harry were like Ron and Ginny: brother and sister. Not by blood officially, but by friendship. Them sharing a dance as intimate as they were trying to be, it just wouldn’t look that suspicious.
“Actually, no,” he finally told her.
He could tell she agreed because she didn’t object. She just stayed quiet and went back to dancing.
“Slow songs, I hate them,” Ron told Ginny and she laughed as she new this was true.
Once they had gone to a friend of Charlie’s wedding and Ron had tried to dance with a really pretty girl. He did fine and they had been having fun when the regular music played. Then they put on the slow songs and she was so happy with his regular dancing that she had insisted that he slow dance with her. After he stepped on her four times, she gave up and left him standing alone in the middle of the dance floor while surrounding people tried to find which part was his face and which his hair because he was blushing so deeply.
Ginny smiled at the memory of watching him and started glancing around when she noticed-
“But they are looking now.” As Harry said this he grabbed Hermione around the waist and pulled her closer.
He knew in his heart that this was awkward. It wasn’t Hermione he wanted to be holding. It would always the fiery red-head with amber eyes blazing into him at that moment with a look of disgust. Oblivious to his thought, Hermione smiled.
“Maybe that will,” Hermione’s voice snapped Harry back to reality and they both laughed. Now they could both see the looks on Ron’s and Ginny’s faces out of the corners of their eyes.
“Don’t let them know that we know they are watching. Come a little closer and put your head on my chest like that,” he told her.
He situated her head so it was lying on his chest once again thinking of how Ginny used to do this to him and it had felt so right.
For effect, Hermione closed her eyes and smiled. She wanted so badly for Ron to be angry. She wanted to know his true feelings. Harry really did smell good, though, and she was able to stop thinking about Ron for just a moment. Harry was just tall enough that when she laid her head on his chest he could rest his chin on her head. Ron was so tall he had to bend down to rest his chin on her head. Although for some reason, she would always prefer him over Harry.
“Oh my goodness, Ron, look at Harry and Hermione! Is it just me or are they a little close, even for them?!” Ginny almost sounded a little worried.
When she’d found them within the crowd she had to do a double-take to make sure they weren’t kissing. But they were really close! And why was his hand so far down her back and travelling further?
“Bloody hell!” Ron whispered. “Yeah, I reckon they’re too bloody close!”
By that time they had stopped dancing. Thank goodness they were toward the outside of the dance floor and not front-and-centre like the last time he’d danced with a girl. He could feel his face turning a darker and darker shade of red. The anger was taking over his body. ‘But it is Hermione and Harry!’ he thought. ‘They are like me and Ginny! Why are they so close?’
“Oh, Harry, they are leaving!” Hermione sounded guilty, but Harry wouldn’t let her stop dancing.
He held her tight and put his hand on her neck to keep it plastered to his chest. He wouldn’t let them ruin his and Hermione’s plan. At least he wouldn’t let them ruin it yet.
“Let them. Don’t let them know we know they are leaving. It will screw things up,” he told her.
She new he was right once again and without further question, she obeyed.
****************
“Where did you guys disappear to last night?” Harry asked Ron and Ginny nonchalantly the next morning in Harry’s room.
Harry and Hermione were sitting on the bed together, staring at Ron and Ginny, who were sitting in chairs, facing them.
They met like this every morning before going to breakfast. Ron and Ginny both started mumbling incoherently. Harry thought he heard something like, ‘homework’, ‘tired’, and ‘feeding Pigwidgeon’, from them.
“You know,” they grumbled together.
Ginny looked up as if seeing Harry and Hermione sit together for the first time and gave them a dirty look. Then, before they knew it, she stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her.
Ron looked startled at this sudden sound, for he had been very interested in the spot on his floor. As he looked up to see who ran off, he noticed Harry and Hermione as well. You could tell the family resemblance as he gave them a dirty look and stalked off after his sister, slamming the door even harder to announce his discontent.
“Very nicely done, Hermione!” Harry gave Hermione a high-five and they smiled satisfyingly. “What do you say we cluelessly find out why they are angry?”
She smiled. “Harry, my dear, ‘cluelessly’ is not a word, but I do agree, lets.”
They left Harry’s room to follow their angry friends.
“Hey, what’s up?” Hermione asked Ginny as she reached the room they had been sharing.
Ginny concentrated hard on the blank sheet of paper on the desk in front of her. Then she glared at Hermione before turning back to look at her homework.
“Harry, it’s not like you don’t know!” Ron threw at Harry, still staring blankly at his paper on the desk.
He suddenly felt like his room was too small. Then he felt a sharp pain of anger as he silently cursed himself for not locking his door before Harry had come up.
“Please, Ginny, tell me what’s going on!”
“YOU KNOW I FANCY HER!!!” Ron screamed at him.
Harry backed away a little as he wasn’t expecting him to be this angry.
“Ginny, you need to settle down! He broke up with you!” Hermione felt like she was doing really well after having practiced this with Harry after the party last night.
“Mate, seriously! You never made a move! You were too busy snogging Lavender! You had your chance-”
“And I want mine!” Hermione yelled.
“Just cool down a bit! I’m out of here!”
And when Harry left Ron’s room and a speechless Ron, he was pleased to find Hermione already waiting for him in his room.
“Its love,” they said to each other at the same time.
“Wait - he was mad?!”
Harry nodded. The feeling was creeping back into his gut. All he wanted was to hold her. He just wanted to tell her how much he loved her. He wanted to relive that day in the common room when he’d kissed her after they won the final Quidditch game of the season last year. He wanted to erase in her memory as well as his the day he broke up with her. The day of Dumbledore’s funeral.
“I figured she would be mad. I really want to tell her, Hermione!” he whined.
Hermione gave him a hug. They had been through this conversation a million times before.
“You have to do this, Harry! Not just for me but for her! You know she wants to come with us. We know she can’t!”
“Hermione-when things start to work more and we finally tell them the truth, it will work out for you. You and Ron will live happily ever after. But it won’t make any difference with Ginny than if I told her now.”
She seemed to consider this for a moment. What he said was true.
“Not yet Harry! Maybe after she gets back to school and realizes that we aren’t there is when Ron can know the truth! Harry he will use her and you know it!”
At this last statement Harry couldn’t respond. Hermione was right, as always. It was the reason he broke up with Ginny in the first place. He could never live with himself if it was his fault that she got hurt or even killed. And he would know, as he always does. He would use her as bait like he did with Sirius. The hate rose inside him once again. Voldemort would die before anyone else got hurt and he would make sure of it.
A/N: Okay, guys “ Thanks for bearing through this chapter. Unfortunately, there is no way to rewrite it, but I now have a beta and the story is better, I promise! Sorry if there are questions, but they are all answered in the next few chapters! Hope you read all of it (until whatever chapter I am still writing!). Thanks so much for reading, now please REVIEW!
Manda*