"Are you awake?”
Ginny pulled the fluffy quilt off her head and looked towards her bedroom door, where Hermione was standing wearing a silky blue night gown. Ginny didn’t know what time it was, but it must be into the early hours of the morning. The whole house was very quiet.
“Yeah, how did you know?” Ginny asked quietly. Hermione quietly crept over to Ginny’s bed and sat on the side of it. The bed dipped slightly as she sat down on it.
“I heard you tossing and turning on the way to the bathroom,” Hermione replied softly.
“It’s just, I can’t sleep,” Ginny confessed, trying to smooth her blue quilt on her lap as she sat up. She was very surprised to see that Hermione didn’t look very sleepy, she was practically glowing.
“I know that something happened earlier that you haven’t told me. I just want to help,” Hermione said, taking hold of Ginny’s hand and squeezing it gently. Ginny lowered her eyes, and told Hermione the whole story. Hermione was like the older sister she had always wanted, the person she could have girly talks with, tell all her secrets to, and not have to act so boyish like she did in front of her brothers. When she finished, Hermione just stared at her, her mouth agape. She frowned.
“Why didn’t you kiss him?”
Because you interrupted us, Ginny thought immediately, but she squashed that line of thought down instantly. “Because it would have been stupid,” Ginny said miserably.
“How is kissing Harry, the man you are obviously head over heels with, stupid?” Hermione inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“Because it just is,” Ginny replied shortly, fidgeting on her bed and fiddling with the corner of her quilt. They were still in semi-darkness so she couldn’t see all of Hermione’s facial expressions and reactions.
“I don’t see how showing how you feel is bad-”
Ginny took a deep breath in as Hermione was talking and then cut her off mid sentence.
“I can’t tell Harry how I feel! I’ll ruin our entire friendship; because I know he doesn’t feel the same way as me. I was just a teenage crush for him, we didn’t even go out for that long before he broke up with me, if he wanted me, he would have told me after he defeated Voldemort, but he didn’t! I’ve seen him virtually every day for the last five years and he hasn’t said a word! We’re just friends now, and I don’t want my big mouth to ruin one of my most important friendships in my life!” Ginny exclaimed, clenching her fists and stopping herself from crying. She bit her lip, willing herself not to cry. Hermione leaned into Ginny and hugged her tightly.
“I see you’ve given it a lot of thought, but it’ll be okay in the end, you’ll see. Everything will work out just fine,” Hermione said soothingly, hugging Ginny tightly. It wasn’t often that Ginny became so emotional. Growing up with six older brothers made her tough, not many people got to see the vulnerable side to her.
Harry had slept very badly that night.
He was so sure he was going to kiss Ginny in the garden he had somehow convinced himself that Ginny was actually moving towards him, which is obviously ridiculous! That almost-kiss brought back all the old memories and nightmares he thought he’d left behind years ago during the war. He had dreamt again that Ginny had been kidnapped because they found out how much Harry cared about her, and when he finally found her, he was too late, she was already dead. It was a horrid mixture between his own imagination and the Chamber of Secrets. But now, instead of Voldemort being the kidnapper, it was an unknown figure that loomed in the shadows, and instead of a sixteen year old Ginny, it was a twenty-one-year-old one, her long hair cut out in chunks, blood streaked and muddy.
Every time, he woke up, slicked with sweat, the quilt twisted round him. Harry tried to detangle himself and stop himself shaking, with no luck with either of them. The war still haunted him, and would do until his dying day. He had seen so much destruction and violence in his life, but for some reason, the nightmares that concerned Ginny were the ones that affected him the most at the moment. Sometimes, he didn’t dream about Ginny, but of events during the war, but more often or not, it was about Ginny and tonight it was all about her. Even though he was still told Hermione and Ron everything, his nightmares were the one thing he kept to himself, along with his feelings towards Ginny. Some things were best not spoken about and he didn’t need to bother Ron and Hermione with his problems. They had moved on from the war and were happy, they didn’t need Harry dragging it back up from them. He closed his eyes and tried to fall back asleep, although he knew all his attempts were futile. After ten minutes of tossing and turning, Harry cursed and sat up. He froze as he caught a pair of blue eyes peeking round the edge of the door.
“Can I come in?”
Harry nodded his head. Holly crept in and perched on the side of his bed, her hands in her lap. She fidgeted slightly, her features filled with concern. A slash of light sliced through Holly’s face where she sat. She was slightly pale and her hair was tied back in a loose bun.
“How long have you been having nightmares?” Holly asked, looking directly into Harry’s shocked and slightly guilty eyes.
“What?”
“I heard you when I was on the way to get a drink of water,” Holly explained quietly. “And it’s not the first time, either.”
Harry fell silent, unable to speak. He couldn’t help but feel irked that Holly seemed to know about something that he thought only he knew. He just grunted in reply.
“You can’t carry on like this, Harry. You can’t just keep suffering in silence, they’re your friends, and they deserve to know. They can help you,” Holly continued after a prolonged pause where she realised that Harry wouldn’t say anything.
“I don’t want to add this burden to them,” Harry muttered when he finally found his voice. Holly looked aghast.
“Is that what you think you are? A burden? Merlin, Harry, I thought you were past all that! You’re not a burden, Harry, it’s what friends are there for, so they can help you when you need it! Don’t you think that they’ve ‘handled’ bigger things than this in the past anyway? I don’t know what your nightmares are about but they don’t sound very nice. Trust them with this,” Holly said, shaking her head at him.
“It’s not about trust-“
“I think it is, Harry. You don’t trust that they will be able to handle it. Give them a bit of faith for once. Think about it.”
Suddenly, Harry felt irrationally angry and he ripped the quilt off himself so he could sit up better, but in the same time almost knocking Holly off the side of his bed.
“How dare you just come in here and try to tell me what to do! Who do you think you are?” Harry said angrily. Holly didn’t say anything for a minute, but looked like she had just been slapped.
“Fine then, ignore me, I was just trying to help. You’re right, I have no right to tell you what you should do, you barely know me. Don’t try and take anyone else’s advice, just do what you want to do,” Holly said coldly, standing up and leaving Harry’s room. He didn’t hear her mutter quietly as she left the room,
“Like always.”
There was definite tension at the breakfast table the next morning. Barely anyone spoke, with only the sound chewing and the clattering of cutlery. Hermione was exchanging glances with Ginny, and there was a real coldness felt between a certain two people in the room, as well as a sense of unease between another. It wasn’t long before Ron beckoned Harry out of the room.
“What’s happened? Why aren’t you talking to any of us and why has been Holly glaring at you ever since you came down for breakfast?” Ron asked. Harry sighed.
“Holly and I had a bit of an argument last night,” Harry replied shiftily.
“What about?”
“It was about me, not-”
Harry stopped halfway through his sentence when he remembered who he was talking to.
“It wasn’t anything big, just something trivial,” Harry said quickly, covering up his slip up. Luckily, Ron didn’t press for what the argument was about.
“Well you’d better apologise soon, she’s already snapped at us all this morning and I know she’s dangerous with a wand, so I don’t want to end up inside out or something just for not passing the butter,” Ron said.
“What makes you think I need to apologise?” Harry replied defensively.
“Well, judging from the fact you’ve looked guilty all this morning and that it’s usually one of our faults...”
“Okay, okay, I’ll apologise,” Harry said, sighing.
“Good, now let’s go back into the kitchen, my eggs are getting cold,” Ron said, clapping Harry on the back. Harry smiled faintly and then followed him back into the kitchen.
Just as he walked back into the room, he saw that Holly was getting up.
“Holly, can I have a word?” Harry asked quietly. Holly jerked her head and started to walk towards Harry, not speaking or looking at him. After he shut the door behind him, he turned to Holly, who was now looking at him. He felt a stab of guilt as he saw the hurt in her eyes.
“Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I really didn’t mean it, I was upset about the nightmare and about you being right, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m sorry,” Harry said. Holly didn’t reply for a minute and her face was emotionless.
“It’s okay,” Holly said finally. “I’m sorry too, I’ve been so caught up living here, I’ve forgotten that I’m here to help stop the dark wizard, you barely know me, I have no right to try-”
Holly was cut off by Harry.
“No, you have every right. Just because we haven’t known you as long as we know each other doesn’t mean you should be left out of sharing your feelings. I was completely out of order last night,” Harry said quietly. Holly gave a small smile.
“Thanks, Harry,” Holly replied, patting Harry on the shoulder before leaving. Harry smiled faintly before walking back in the kitchen to finish his breakfast. Hermione and Ron were chatting cheerfully and Ginny was washing up her plate. The back door was just shutting, Holly must have just left.
“What were you talking to Holly about?” Ginny asked from the sink.
“Oh I was just apologising about something,” Harry said vaguely, picking up his toast and biting into it. Holly’s words echoed in his mind, but as he looked at Hermione and Ron laughing and Ginny putting away her clean dish then picking up the newspaper, he thought that now wasn’t the time to bring up his nightmares. It would wait.
“So what are we going to do today?” Ginny asked Harry, leaning across the table to face him. Harry shrugged.
“No idea,” Harry replied.
“Well, we could go shopping-”
“No!”
Harry looked round and saw a horrified Ron staring at Ginny.
“No way are we going shopping, it scarred me for life last time, all those bags and shops...” Ron said, shuddering.
“Oh it wasn’t that bad, you git,” Ginny said, waving her hand dismissively at her brother. “Besides, I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to Harry.”
“I agree with Ron, shopping is not an option for us,” Harry said, nodding his head towards Ron.
“Oh come on, you haven’t bought any new clothes for years! I know for a fact that you still have some clothes from when you were seventeen!”Ginny replied, raising an eyebrow and eyeing Harry’s clothes with distaste.
“It’s true,” Hermione added, grinning. “You two definitely need some new clothes.”
“Me too? No, I’m quite happy with what I’ve got, thank you very much,” Ron exclaimed, crossing his hands over his chest.
“Perhaps we should give them a bit of a makeover as well-”
The two chairs that held Ron and Harry were vacant as the two men fled out of their seats and out the back door. Hermione and Ginny instantly burst out laughing.
“Where are you two running off to?” Holly asked, half-amused and half-confused, as she saw Harry and Ron running away from the house. They didn’t even notice her walking back towards the house with a bag. The two boys abruptly stopped, skidding across the pavement, dust and gravel flying everywhere, and looked at Holly.
“The girls want to give us a makeover. So we ran,” Ron said, looking quite terrified. Holly laughed.
“I guessed it would be due to them two. You’d never run from a fight but when it comes to women, you’d flee for the hills,” Holly said, laughing.
“Can you blame us?” Harry exclaimed. “Ron’s twentieth still haunts us!”
Holly looked confused.
“Oh that’s right, we haven’t told you yet,” Ron said, giving Harry a look. “It’s not an event I like to be reminded of very often, or like to tell. Thanks, Harry.”
“Why what happened? It can’t be any worse than what my cousins did to me on my sixteenth...” Holly said, shuddering.
“Why what happened?” Ron asked, interested.
“That’s a story for another day, besides, you were explaining what happened on your birthday,” Holly pointed out.
“Oh yeah...” Ron said, his voice trailing off. He cleared his throat as Holly looked at him expectantly, and opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“Well on Ron’s birthday, we went out with Ron’s brothers to the pub and got totally pissed, which was pretty bad because we promised that we would stay sober... Ron was meant to go on a big date with Hermione that evening, but he couldn’t do that because we were passed out on the floor with our lunch all over the floor. Let’s just say that the girls were a little less than pleased,” Harry said, exchanging glances with Ron.
“Yeah, particularly when you’ve eaten chocolate cake and cheesy puffs for lunch,” Ron added, looking a little bit sick. “And Harry had promised to play Quidditch with Ginny later because she hadn’t played for a while and she wanted some competition. Apparently, she was really looking forward to it, but I don’t see why...”
“What did the girls do?” Holly asked, the beginning of a grin growing on her face.
“Something completely unforgivable,” Harry muttered, digging his hands in his pockets.
“I never realised that they could be so cruel, I could have guessed something like this from Ginny, but not Hermione...” Ron mumbled.
“Well you did blab a bit about yours and Hermione’s relationship and threw up all over her shoes-”
“No need to remind me,” Ron grumbled. “But when we woke up the next morning with the worlds worst headache, we found we were locked in Grimmauld place alone, which I still don’t understand because we don’t even live there, with no hangover potions or Potions books to help us and-”
Ron cut off, his face twisted in horror. He closed his mouth.
“Is it my turn?” Harry asked, sighing. Ron nodded. “Okay, we woke up wearing women’s clothes-”
“What?”
“It gets worse.”
“With full makeup, and no eyebrows,” Harry said, grimacing. Holly stared at them incredulously, not looking like she could quite believe what she was hearing
“Oh that’s not all...” Ron groaned, burying his head in his hands.
“What could make this any worse!”
“Well, they took pictures of us and published them in The Prophet,” Harry added, also with his head in his hands.
That last remark was met with silence, until Holly couldn’t hold it in anymore. She doubled over with laughter.
“You find it funny? We couldn’t go out into public for months, going to work was a nightmare! We were made a mockery of for ages! It was just plain cruel, showing the pictures to The Prophet was just one step too far!” Ron said hotly, his ears glowing.
“It sounds like it was a nice touch,” Holly said through laughter.
“Yea, you and those evil girls,” Harry muttered darkly. “Why did we tell you this? We should have guessed you would just laugh.”
“Yes, you should have known I would have laughed but it was very good that you told me, I haven’t had a good laugh like that in ages.
“I’m glad you’re finding this so funny,” Harry growled. “Come on, Ron, let’s go to the Three Broomsticks or something.”
“Yeah, go and get completely smashed so I can help with your next punishment,” Holly said, still laughing, her eyes filled with mirth as the boys both winced. “What did you do after you found out?”
“We didn’t talk to them for about a month and tried to repair the damage,” Harry said, shrugging. “Not that it helped much.”
“What? Why in the world did you stop talking to them?” Holly asked, looking shocked. Ron looked at her, bewildered.
“Didn’t you hear the story?”
“Of course I did, but still-”
“Still nothing,” Harry said firmly. “I don’t think they quite realised the impact what they did had on us.”
Holly started to laugh and Ron turned to Harry.
“Shall we go? I don’t think I can stand being laughed at any longer,” Ron said, gesturing to Holly, who was laughing again.
“We’re going to go now, and for the love of Merlin, Holly, calm down! Whatever you’re on, please get off it,” Harry told her, looking alarmed at a still giggling Holly. Then the two of them rushed off, evidently to the pub for a drink.
Holly gave one last laugh and then walked back towards the house, smiling. One thing about being in the past, was that it was never boring, or for the moment, very predictable. As she opened the back door and caught sight of Hermione and Ginny, she burst out with laughter yet again. She felt slightly hyper today.
“What’s the matter with you?” Hermione asked curiously. Visibly trying to control her laughter, Holly collapsed into a chair.
“...Just talked....to the guys...told me about...Ron’s twentieth....” Holly said through gasps of laughter. The image was too much. Hermione and Ginny’s eyes gleamed.
“Oh they told you about that? That was a fine evening, wasn’t it, Hermione?” Ginny remarked, smiling. Hermione grinned mischievously in a most un-Hermione-ish way.
“I never expected Hermione to get on board with it, but in the end she gave the prank a real flair,” Ginny said, grinning at the brunette.
“Well they deserved it, they’re always getting drunk and Ron specifically said that he wasn’t going to drink. He deserved to be punished,” Hermione said crossly.
“I’m not judging, I think it was brilliant. I just wish I could have seen it,” Holly said.
“Well it’s worked, they’ve never done anything like that again since, have they?” Hermione added. Ginny nodded cheerfully.
“And they came back to us in the end, they couldn’t have ignored us forever, they had no-one to cook for them and to-“
Ginny cut off, glancing at Hermione and giggling. Then she turned towards Holly, her hands clasped together.
“Oh, didn’t they mention we still have a copy of the pictures?” Ginny said evilly. Holly’s eyes lit up as she shook her head. “And did they mention what people called them when they went to work and what people sent them because of it?”
Once again, Holly shook her head and bit her lip to contain her laughter. “This is just getting better and better...”
“Well that’s just say, the nicest was about who was wearing the trousers in Ron and Hermione’s relationship and leave it at that...”
Holly by A_Pink_lady
Chapter Notes: I’m not a big fan of this chapter, it starts angsty, but I’ve tried to lighten the mood a bit, and have realised that all my attempts at trying to make something cheerful become a little bit mad. I hope you like this chapter anyway, I sort of like it. Let me know what you think, whether you like my type of cheerfulness or whether I should stop it.