For Play

"Alright, does anybody have any idea how to raise money for the costumes?" Cho tapped her quill against the paper as she looked around. "I'll front some of the money, to be repaid with ticket sales, but I don't think that will be enough."

Dennis raised his hand, trembling. "W...well, in Muggle schools, students ask companies for money in exchange for an advertisement in the program that everybody sees."

"Ooh!" exclaimed Ginny. "Maybe Madam Malkins or Gladrags will donate some costumes in exchange for big ads!"

Parvati raised her hand, and Cho nodded to her. "Advance ticket sales could help, too. We could create the tickets now, and start to sell them."

"We could try fundraisers, like find a company that sells us stuff cheap and we sell it for more," Hannah Abbot volunteered.

Cho was busily scribbling these ideas down on paper. "Okay, everybody, great ideas here. I'm going to break you into committees to actually make them happen."

"Hey," said Parvati, "Wait a second, you're the manager/director, or whatever, aren't you supposed to do these things?"

Cho sighed. "Parvati, I have only so much time. It will be more likely to get done if everyone works at it. You do want costumes for the play, don't you?" She raised her eyebrows at Parvati and leaned back, tapping her quill against the table again. When the girl didn't answer, Cho went back to business. "Alright, who suggested selling ads?"

Dennis raised his hand again. "Me."

"Alright, Dennis, you head up that committee. Ginny, you'll be in charge of finding out if any clothing stores will donate clothing in any amount. Parvati, you mentioned advance ticket sales, right? Your committee will put together tickets; show them to me before you sell them though. Who said fundraisers?" Cho was busily writing as she said all this and glanced up now to see who had suggested that option.

"Alright, then, Hannah," Cho continued, "You'll be in charge of that. Selling ads and getting together a fundraiser are the more difficult jobs, so more people should be in them. Alright... Natalie, Owen Cauldwell, and Eleanor, go with Parvati. Stewart, Mandy Brockehurst, and Terry Boot, help out Ginny. Everybody else, I'm splitting you right down the center." She drew a line with her finger. "Everyone to the right of that line, you're in the ads committee. Everyone on the left, fundraiser. Okay everyone; let's get to work. There's more to plays than memorizing lines, you know."

Everyone got into the groups, and Ginny smiled at everyone as they sat in the circle. "Alright, first I think we need to get permission to go to the stores. You know, off Hogwarts campus. I'll ask Dumbledore."

"I'll go with," suggested Terry.

"That's good," agreed Ginny. "The two leads should carry more responsibility in this sort of thing." She looked towards Mandy and Stewart. "How about you guys?"

"Well, we could make a list of clothing makers," Mandy played with the hem of her robe as she spoke. "Smaller, less known stores would be more likely to want publicity, and also might be cheaper."

"Ok, I'll go get a quill and piece of paper from Cho. Be right back, everyone. While I'm gone, try and discuss what other clothing manufacturers there are." Ginny stood, brushing the dust from her robe. We really need to get this room cleaned up a bit, she thought to herself, surveying the room. Maybe once they got volunteers for stage crew, those things would go better.

"Hey, Cho, can I borrow a quill and paper?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh, sure, Gin, here you go," she said, passing the requested items to her friend.

"Thanks." Ginny turned to walk away.

"Hey, Gin!" said Cho. The younger turned around. "Do you want to get together and run lines or something tomorrow?"

Ginny blinked, following Mandy's example and fidgeting with her robe. "Um, Cho, don't you have a date with Harry tomorrow? What about that?"

Cho looked sheepish. "Yeah, um, that."

"Cho, why do you keep canceling his dates? You don't share a common room with him, but I do, and it's become unbearable. He's always sitting there wondering what's wrong with him and why you're ignoring him and half the time he's blaming me because you're always with me, and the other half he's pumping me with 'You're her friend, what's wrong with her?'" Ginny took a deep breath. "Why do you keep ignoring him?"

Cho looked down and shrugged. "I like being with you more."

Ginny stood there, speechless for a moment. She cleared her throat, trying to figure out what to say. "Oh... nobody's said that to me before."

Cho opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted.

"Ginny!" Terry was calling. "What's taking so long? Come on back!"

"Be there in a second!" Ginny called back. She turned to Cho. "Hun, go out with Harry tomorrow, or he'll probably kill me. I'm running lines with Terry anyway. OK?"

Cho nodded. "Sorry." She turned back to her paper, and resumed scribbling stuff down, and Ginny rejoined her group.

***

"You know," Ginny pouted, "these things really are so uncomfortable. I don't know how you stand it."

Ginny was sitting on the back of Cho's broomstick, her arms wrapper around the older girl's waist. Ginny couldn't afford a broom and they didn't have enough time to try and bully one of the ancient school brooms into working, so both of them were sitting atop.

"I mean, they dig into your butt, and you can't shift because if you do, well, you may have this little inconvenience of plunging into a rather painful death after a few terrifying seconds of falling." Ginny peered down at the ground, which was rather far away. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."

"Nope, not at all," agreed Cho with a laugh. "Don't worry, we're almost to Farah's Formalwear."

"Good," said Ginny. Both of them were quiet for a few minutes, until Ginny spoke up again. "Cho?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been wondering something." Ginny cleared her throat and looked off across the sky. She didn't say anything for several minutes while Cho waited. Then: "Why do you like being around me more than Harry?"

Cho didn't answer for a moment. She sighed. "Because you are a wonderful, interesting person who I love to be around and..." She trailed off.

"And, what?" persisted Ginny, tightening her arms around Cho's waist.

"And I haven't told anybody else this before... Harry is a nice boy, and he's very brave. I don't know why I feel this way, but... I often dread being around him. And I even more dread him kissing me." The last part came out quickly, as if Cho wanted to get it out of the way.

"You dread being around... Harry?" It was a rhetorical question, and one that gave Ginny a lot to think about. She started off marveling at how anybody could not like being around Harry, and thinking about how much she'd like to go out with Harry. After a while, though, she realized that for the past month, she really hadn't been interested in Harry much at all. She hadn't followed him at all in the past 3 weeks. In fact, she rarely thought about him. It was something new to think about; maybe she was finally getting over her crush on Harry Potter!

Cho finally broke the silence. "There it is, Farah's Formalwear." She swooped the broom down, causing Ginny to shriek and hug the older girl tighter. Cho smiled, not sure why.

As they landed and dismounted the broom, Ginny turned to look at Cho. "If you dread being around him, why do you still go out with him?"

Cho just looked at Ginny for a long while. She had a strange look on her face, almost as if she were weighing something in her mind. Eventually, she just said, "I don't know, Ginny." She briskly walked towards the town, Rowenaston, a mostly-wizarding town with only a few Muggles, with charms on them not to see the stores, living on the outskirts.

Ginny ran to catch up, trying with her smaller legs to keep up with the quick pace the athletic Cho set. They walked into town, and quickly saw one of the clothing stores they were searching for. Cho pushed open the door, and heard the gentle tinkling of bells as she walked into the musty-smelling store. "Hello?" she called.

A kindly-looking elderly woman came out from a back room. "Hello, dears, can I help you? I'm Farah Jenice."

Cho glanced behind her to make sure that Ginny was still there. "Yes, my friend and I are organizing a school play, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and we were wondering if you would either donate some costumes in exchange for an advertisement in the program, or would like to buy space on the program for an advertisement."

"A school play, you say?" she asked, looking back and forth between Cho and Ginny. "Hogwarts, ah, I remember going there. You two are putting it on yourselves?"

"Well there are other actors and actresses of course," said Cho, "But it was my idea and Ginny here helped a lot." She gestured to the girl behind her.

"Ginny, eh?" the women peered over her spectacles to look closer at the younger girl. "Weasley, are you?"

"Er... yes, yes I am," she said pleasantly.

"I know your father, wonderful man, and you seem like such a nice girl," said the woman with a smile. "How many costumes do you have to make, dear?"

"Well, Ms. Jenice, a few of them have appropriate costumes already, and many costumes could be re-used for several minor characters with small changes to make it clear who is who." Cho resumed her position as spokeswoman. "Altogether, we need about 5 dresses and the same amount of appropriate men's attire."

"Ohh, how about this dears. I'll supply all of those costumes, and you give me a full-page ad and let me come and see your show!" Farah smiled and whipped out a quill. "When is it? And where?"

Cho smiled excitedly towards Ginny, who returned the look with enthusiasm. This was better than either of them had hoped! "Hogwarts, they'll direct you to the room, it'll be March 7^th, the 8^th too."

The woman smiled. "Alright, dearies, I'll have your costumes ready in about two weeks. Tell your father that Farah is sending thoughts his way, Ginny dear!"

"Goodbye!" said Ginny. "And thank you very much."

"My pleasure, dear," Farah said. "My pleasure."

Cho smiled at Ginny as they walked out into the street. "It's a good thing I have you here!" Cho joked as they checked the street for Muggles and, assured there were none, mounted the broom.

"Yeah, I guess that's my use huh? To make store owners more willing to do stuff." Ginny grinned and punched Cho in the back. "Nice to know I'm loved."

"You are, Gin," whispered Cho. "You're loved more than you know."

"Hmm? What was that?" asked Ginny, straining to hear her friend. "I didn't catch it."

"Oh, nothing," said the older girl, as the broom lifted from the ground and the two of them were soaring over the forest again. "Just thinking out loud, is all."