For Play

Ginny didn't want to wake up. In her dreams she had been plagued by the same questions and worries she'd have to face today, but at least she didn't have to live the problems of her dreams. She didn't have to sit near them awkwardly during breakfast.

"Come on!" Sadie exclaimed. "Up! Rise and shine! This is supposed to be your day, Ginny darling, so act like it!"

Ginny groaned, and rolled out of bed, knowing that she officially had No Choice. People were waiting to congratulate her, and she knew that a bunch of people were planning to throw her a party tonight, and Sadie would not let her stay in bed. Plus, she didn't need anyone to suspect anything, especially not after the way she ran through the Common Room crying last night.

So Ginny pulled on a nice pair of robes, spent some time on her makeup, and plastered a smile on her face.

"Now that's the Ginny I like to see!" Sadie teased her friend. "You really were great, you know."

"Thanks," murmured Ginny, charming her eyelashes thicker.

"But really, everybody was wondering: why did you run upstairs like that last night? You know: crying like that?" Sadie looked over at her friend cautiously, gauging her reaction.

"Oh, you know," explained Ginny lightly, "all that stress. It was difficult keeping up with schoolwork and being in the play and helping organize it. Sometimes that stuff hits you the hardest after it's over, you know?"

There was a reason Ginny won the lead in the play, and it wasn't because of her admittedly adorable face. Sadie was nodding, understanding dawning on her face. "Hey, that really makes sense."

Ginny lifted her head a little higher, glad that at least the question of her excuse was out of the way. "Alright then, I'm ready. Let's go down to breakfast."

Ginny and Sadie made their way down the stairs, coming out at the common room where Lavender and Parvati were talking.

"Lavvati!" Ginny grinned and waved at her two friends. The name was a joke among some of the girls of Gryffindor, because the two were always together. "How are you guys doing? We were just going to breakfast."

"We're on our way there, too," said Lavender.

Ginny laughed. "That's why you're lounging on the chairs talking?"

"Yep," nodded Parvati solemnly. "Oh, Ginny, I don't know how you did it, but you were even better than in rehearsals!"

"Shh!" said Ginny, looking over at Sadie jokingly. "Don't let them know that I'm not really that good!"

Sadie blinked, looking from her friend to the other two. Somehow she'd failed to realize how much her dormitory mate had changed. This Ginny was confident, happy, and funny, everything that Sadie seemed to remember the old Ginny having difficulty with.

Ginny, as you may well guess, was not happy, but she could sure act it.

Colin and Dennis came down the steps. "Marguerite!" called Dennis. "Morning!"

"Morning, Dennis."

"What are you guys doing?" asked Colin, looking at the four girls.

Ginny, Parvati, and Lavender all exclaimed, "Going to breakfast!" and the latter two fell over laughing while the former gave the largest grin that she could.

"Oh, no," said Colin dramatically, dropping his head into his hands. "Now it's Gavvati, I suppose?"

"Sounds like some old Italian painter," said Lavender, and Parvati grinned.

"Maybe we should go to breakfast now," suggested Ginny. "After all, I was dragged out of bed so that people could congratulate me down there." She threw an evil eye at Sadie as she said this.

"Fine, blame me," Sadie threw her hands into the air and walked out of the door.

The group of students followed Sadie down to the Great Hall. Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table with them, looking with relief to see that Cho was sitting at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey, doesn't Cho normally sit with you?" asked Colin, standing up. "We should call her over here."

"No!" Ginny said quickly, and from the looks of the people around her, a bit too loudly. She assumed an embarrassed grin. "Sorry. Just, now isn't a good time for her."

Colin looked at his friend strangely, but sat back down, just as several people crowded around Ginny to congratulate her on her performance in "The Scarlet Pimpernel", and Ginny proceeded to crawl under the table.

"Hide me," she whispered to Parvati, who obligingly slid over a seat so that nobody could see last night's star.

Sadie leaned under the table to talk to Ginny. "Hun, you're really confusing me," she told the girl scrunched between people's legs. "Are you shy now or aren't you? You really need to make up your mind."

"Of course I am you twit!" hissed Ginny. "Now get out from under the table before someone thinks there's something wrong with you!"

Sadie sighed and pulled her head out from under the table, sitting up again. "Maybe somebody should pass her bacon or toast or pancakes or something."

Just then, Hermione stood up from her place at the other side of the Gryffindor table and walked over to Ginny's friends. "Do you know where Ginny is?" she asked them.

Lavender and Parvati both pointed to under the table.

Hermione blinked. "Why?"

"The moment anybody came near her, she just crawled under there and refused to come out," Dennis informed her helpfully.

Hermione nodded.

"Wait, that's not true," said Sadie, "she was perfectly fine around you guys."

The two actors, two actresses, and techie looked at each other with their eyebrows raised. "Sadie, we don't count," Lavender told her.

"Why not?" asked Sadie, but Hermione had already leaned in under the table and pulled Ginny out.

"Owwww," complained Ginny. "'Mione, why'd you do that?"

"Come on, you're following me," said Hermione, walked out of the Great Hall, holding Ginny by the wrist and dragging the younger girl behind her. Ginny didn't say anything until they were out in the corridors.

"Hermione, what are you doing?!" she exclaimed, pulling out of the older girl's grasp as Hermione kept walking.

Hermione turned around and folded her arms. "Ginny, you can't avoid a confrontation forever."

"I've only tried to avoid it for about ten minutes!" argued Ginny.

The Head Girl sighed, rubbed her temples, and tried again. "And you can't hide under the table every time you're not sure about what you're feeling."

Ginny backed several steps away from Hermione. "What are you talking about?"

"Are you sure you want to talk about this where people might hear us?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Come on, we should really discuss this in private." She whirled around and quickly strode down the hallway, and Ginny reluctantly followed her, deciding that it was better than going back into the Great Hall where everybody was no doubt talking about her.

"Where are we going?" asked Ginny as she was led down corridors that she hadn't even known existed. "I don't think anyone's around, Hermione."

"Alright then," agreed Hermione, sitting down on the floor. "Sit. Spill."

Ginny sat. "What are you talking about?" she asked cautiously, looking at Hermione's face to try and figure out exactly how much she knew. Why did that girl have to be so smart?

"You leave the house party at ten fifty to meet Cho. You come back at eleven fifteen crying your eyes out and refusing to tell me what's wrong. Cho has been ogling you for weeks, and you've been blushing whenever you're around her." Hermione listed all of her points, and finally when she was finished she looked over at Ginny significantly. "This morning you hide under the table just because there are people around you, obviously meaning you're doing anything to avoid somebody. You seemed cheerful with your friends, but of course we all saw last night what a great actress you are."

Ginny looked like a deer in the headlights. She just sat there for a moment, feeling trapped, then abruptly climbed to her feet. "Hermione, you're a smart girl, but maybe you need to learn what is and isn't your business."

"Ginny-" Hermione stood as well, and grabbed the red headed Gryffindor girl's arm before she could bolt, as she was so famous for doing. "Why are you so upset? It's obvious you like her."

"As a friend!" Ginny's voice was approaching a shout. "Friend, friend, friend. I most assuredly do not like her in, you know, that way, and it was wrong of her to kiss me like that without permission. I didn't like it, and I don't want to do it again, so do not use your psychology bullshit on me to try and convince me that I do."

"Well you should have thought of that before you sent her all the signals that you like her!" replied Hermione, giving her younger Housemate a shake.

Ginny went white. "I didn't."

"Ginny, you did." Hermione stated firmly. "And I should have warned you earlier, I'm sorry, but everybody saw it."

"Everybody?" whispered Ginny, suddenly feeling like she was sweating.

"Well, everybody in the play, anyway. Some of them assumed that you were already together."

"They did?" Ginny felt weak. She leaned against the wall for support.

"They did. And poor Cho this morning! Not that you bothered to look over at her to see how she was after the way you treated her. She was-"

"The way I treated her?" Ginny stood up again and glared at Hermione, daggers flying from her eyes. "She's the one who kissed me! How did she expect me to react?!"

Hermione sighed, realizing that she had gone too far. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I shouldn't have said that to you."

"Just-leave me alone." Ginny turned and stumbled away from Hermione. "I need to think about this. A lot. How can everybody have thought it?"

"Honestly, Ginny, I exaggerated. It was just the play members."

"That's everybody," Ginny told her, trying to sound firm but failing.

"Ginny, if you need to talk..." Hermione trailed off, looking worriedly at her red-haired friend.

"No, I think you've said enough," Ginny said quietly, closing her eyes so that the tears welling up in them would not spill. "You've said everything that you should have told me months ago." Ginny opened her eyes again, and looked straight into Hermione's with all the anger and confusion that had governed her life since the kiss last night. "Congratulations, Hermione."

With the little pride that Ginny could still muster, she straightened, turned, and made her way down the hallway, walking slowly away from Hermione, and hopefully not into a mob of people trying to find out what had happened.