The Matchmaker

Ginny felt horrible. It had been a couple of days since her late night chat with Hermione and subsequent encounter with Harry. She had not had a chance to discuss it with Hermione, but Ginny trusted her, and she knew that Hermione would not have repeated the conversation to Harry without her knowing. Ginny also knew that there had to be some other way that Harry had found out what she had said, and she guessed that it probably had to do with a certain cloak he owned.

Harry was still not talking to her, of course. During the pre-game meeting for their Quidditch game the previous night, Harry had purposefully avoided looking at Ginny the entire time he had spoken to the team. He had completely ignored her during the entire game, giving directions only to the other two chasers. Ginny's pride forced her to reciprocate the silent treatment, but she had made many attempts to meet his eye. If there was one thing Ginny couldn't stand it was having a friend upset with her. They had won the game, of course, stomping the Hufflepuff team with a score of 210-30. But even during the post-game celebration, Harry had completely ignored her, forcing Ginny to do the same. She just couldn't bring herself to offer the olive branch; Ginny may have said some hurtful things, but he had been the deceitful one. Strange, but she never thought she would use that term to describe Harry Potter of all people.

Harry was many things but dishonest, Ginny realized as she sat brooding over the situation in her Divination class, was not one of them. Brave, kind, intelligent, stubborn, and lately it seemed - depressed and angry, more often than not. But the one thing that came to mind when she thought about Harry was how good he was. Harry had a tendency to put other people and causes ahead of himself, and he was probably the most moral person she knew. Not that Harry was perfect, by any means. Harry had been known to break the rules on more than one occasion. But Ginny was very aware it was almost always for the greater good when he did.

Ginny had not lied to Hermione, at least not completely. Harry was not the most attractive guy at school, but that didn't mean that she thought he wasn't good-looking. There was just something about him, something in his brilliant green eyes that intrigued Ginny to no end. It was the whole package, all the little things that made him Harry that made him so much different than any of the other boys she knew. She absolutely loved his complexity and the passionate way he lived his life. She remembered the way he had taken charge of the DA, and the night Harry had led them to the Department of Mysteries. He was so inspiring; he made her want to be a better person and look beyond the trivialities of her own life.

No, Ginny had not been completely honest with Hermione when she confided that she had no interest in Harry. She believed that she was over her crush, or as over it as it was possible to get. Ginny had spent a long time convincing herself that she was over Harry and to take a look at the other options that had been steadily presenting themselves as she had gotten older. But the truth was that the more time she spent with Harry and the better she got to know him, the more he scared the absolute hell out of her.

When she had first come to Hogwarts, Ginny had been so nervous around Harry that she had hardly spoken to him at all. He had made her incredibly nervous, and every time she would see him, her whole body would flush to match her hair. Age and confidence had helped her get over that hurdle, but the butterflies in her stomach had never completely gone away, although she had become quite adept at ignoring them. Now that she could talk to him normally, she and Harry had become much better friends. But she had noticed only recently that her old feelings for him seemed to have morphed into something much stronger than she was ready to admit, even to herself.

It had begun when Harry had held onto her at their last Quidditch practice to help steady her on her feet after injuring her knee. The physical closeness of him had given her a reaction that she had never expected. It went beyond the feelings of a crush or the usual nervousness in her stomach. This was attraction. What was worse, it was much stronger than she had ever felt before. Ginny had been so angry at herself for having those feelings that she had turned her anger on Harry, picking a fight just to cover her true reaction. When he had come to apologize to her later, Ginny had tried to get away, not wanting to deal with how he had made her feel and afraid it would happen again. They had talked, and Ginny had done a good job of covering her true feelings, or at least she thought so. She was trying to play the part she thought he wanted her to play in his life - just one of his friends, like the sister he never had.

Ginny hated lying to Hermione, and she hated even more that Harry had heard the way that she had talked about him. But her relationship with Harry had gotten so much better now that they were friends, and she would not have that ruined with him or anyone else knowing about how she really felt. It had taken her a while, but she had been able to put her crush behind her. Ginny was convinced that sooner or later she would be able to move past these new feelings also.

Waking up from her thoughts, Ginny realized that her classmates were slowly leaving the room through the trapdoor. She had managed to daydream her way through the entire class. Ginny packed up her books, star charts, and quill and followed her fellow Gryffindors down the ladder and through the hallways back to the tower. A few of her friends tried to make conversation, but Ginny was not feeling very talkative. They left her alone and she dropped back to walk alone behind them, still lost in the thoughts that plagued her earlier.

Arriving back at the tower, Ginny went to her room to drop off her bag and decided that it was time to go find Hermione. She had put off talking to her about Harry's comments, wanting to avoid causing a row between the two friends. But she had decided earlier that day that Hermione deserved to know what Harry had found out, and it was better just to get it out in the open.

After finding Hermione in her room and filling her in on the scene with Harry, Hermione had come to the same conclusion as Ginny. Neither of the girls could figure out what had possessed him to do such a thing, but Ginny left that to Hermione to sort out. Hermione had been very angry and in no mood to join Harry and Ron at dinner, so she had asked Ginny to sit with them to have someone else to talk to. Hermione was afraid that talking to Harry would cause her to let something slip, and the last thing she wanted was to get into an argument in the Great Hall. Ginny was glad to help her out, knowing that Harry would be very unlikely to speak to her at all.

So the girls went down to dinner and chatted with each other, Harry sneaking glances at Ginny when he thought she wasn't looking. Since he was not talking to Ginny, Harry got into a lengthy discussion with Ron about the Chudley Cannons and their outlook for the year. Ginny was tempted to jump in at some points, but decided against it.

The rest of the evening was rather boring for Ginny. She sat with Colin in the common room, helping him with his Potions essay while trying to work on her star chart for Divination, which probably would have been easier if she had paid even the slightest bit of attention during class earlier that day. She noticed Ron and Harry sitting across the room working on their own homework and thought repeatedly about going over to try to talk to Harry. But the last thing Ginny needed was to involve her brother in such a mess, so she decided to try to speak with him tomorrow if she got the chance. Once Colin had completed his work and the common room was beginning to clear out, Ginny decided to head up to bed, hoping to be able to keep away all thoughts of a certain green-eyed boy.

After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, Ginny finally gave up and decided to go down to the common room and read for a little while. According to the clock on her bedside table, it was close to two o'clock in the morning. Sure that no one would be up at this hour, Ginny passed up her dressing gown and grabbed a book out of her school bag. She then very quietly slipped out the door of her room and tiptoed down the hallway to be sure not to wake anyone. She needn't have worried though. As soon as she came close to the landing leading to the stairs, Ginny heard the sound of familiar voices coming from the common room. Not wanting to interrupt a midnight interlude, Ginny quickly pressed herself into the shadows in the hallway and was just getting ready to head back to her room when she realized who she heard speaking. Her curiosity won out, and she shuffled further down the hallway where she remained hidden but was able to see the scene below. Ginny was surprised to see the pair up so late, but was not at all shocked by the argument.

"What gives you the right to eavesdrop on other people's conversations?" asked Hermione angrily. Ginny suddenly felt very guilty listening to an argument about the very thing that she was doing herself. However she rationalized that Harry had eavesdropped on her first, and it wasn't as if they were talking about her after all.

"That was an accident! The question is just who are you to interfere with my love life?" Harry said loudly, and Ginny noticed his green eyes flashing dangerously.

"What love life?" Hermione said viciously. "You've said you're over Cho, but what about somebody else, Harry? There are lots of girls around here that would love to spend time with you - not that you would notice when you are so busy moping about Sirius!"

"How dare you talk about him like that!" Harry yelled.

Hermione must have noticed how loud they were getting because she replied softly, "I'm just saying, Harry, that Sirius is the last person who would want you to miss out on your own life just because you miss him."

Ginny watched as Harry paused for a moment. He seemed to be considering Hermione's last statement. Ginny thought for a moment that the argument was over, but then Harry responded, "That still doesn't answer my original question. Why are you bothering with my lack of relationships? I don't see you doing anything about your own," he challenged.

"Well, um...I," Hermione stumbled over her words, obviously not expecting this turn in the conversation. "For your information, my life is just fine the way it is, thank you very much!" Ginny wasn't sure, but she thought she saw Harry raise an eyebrow. "The point is, Harry, I just want you to be happy. Ron and I both do. We know you haven't had much in your life to bring you happiness, and I just thought..."

"You thought you'd set me up with the first beautiful girl you could find?" Harry asked.

Ginny's breath caught in her throat, and she was very glad that she was leaning against the wall. For a moment, it was the only thing keeping her from crashing to the floor. She felt like she was eleven years old again. Had Harry Potter just said she was beautiful? Her heart was racing and she willed it to slow down as she tore her gaze away from Harry. Hermione was looking at him curiously, but a knowing smile was tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I don't know what you're thinking, by the way," Harry said, ignoring Hermione's expression. "Ron would be off his nut if he knew....if he knew that you were trying to set me up with his sister!"

Ginny had a sneaking suspicion that was not what Harry had started to say. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," Hermione said, now beginning to relax and taking a seat in an oversized chair.

"Well, I bloody well am," Harry said, falling into a chair beside her and running a hand through his dark hair. "He'd hate it - what a great row for the two of you that would be! And Ginny said herself that she doesn't think of me that way anymore. She refers to me as a brother practically on a daily basis..."

The pair fell into a comfortable silence, and Ginny knew that the row was over. She wondered what to do with herself. She had gotten up because she couldn't sleep, and now she was certain to return to bed only to be kept awake by the thoughts racing through her head. On the other hand, she thought, I can go down there and see how Harry reacts. Although it was late, that seemed like a much more interesting option. She realized suddenly that she was wearing only a white tank and flannel pants, but then reminded herself that it was only Harry. After all, he had been to stay at Ginny's house many times. And although it had been a few years, he had seen her in her pajamas before. Besides, when has Harry ever been known to pay attention to me? Ginny wondered. Although he did just say I was beautiful... Rationalizing that he was probably talking about someone else, Ginny pushed all of her crazy thoughts out of her head. She slipped quietly out of the shadows and then walked down the stairs to the common room.

Harry and Hermione looked up quickly in surprise as she came into the light on the landing. Ginny noticed that Harry's eyes were a bit wider than usual, as if wondering if she may have overheard anything. Let him wonder, she thought happily.

"Ginny!" said Hermione. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep," Ginny replied. She gave the two friends a mischievous grin, and knowing full well the answer, she asked, "Should I ask what the two of you are doing up together so late?" They responded by giving her sarcastic smirks, and Harry rolling his eyes. Ginny walked over to sit on the arm of Hermione's chair, putting herself between them. "Oh, I'm only kidding. So what were you discussing anyway?"

Ginny wasn't really sure what made her ask the question, but after all she did not want Harry to know that she had been eavesdropping on him. She hoped that this would throw him off. "Just my completely rubbish love life," Harry replied glumly.

Ginny was shocked that he had told her the truth. She had assumed that she would be the last person he would want to include in this type of discussion. But then she realized that he thought they were just friends. We are just friends, she told herself firmly. Aloud she said cheerfully, "Oh, Harry, don't fret. I'm sure you'll find someone. The school year's only just started, really. You just need to get out a bit more."

"You know, it really is getting late," Hermione said, getting up out of her chair. She obviously did not want to rehash these things with Harry again so soon. "I think I'll go up to bed. Are you two coming?"

Harry started to get up also, but Ginny put a hand on his arm to stop him. "I'd actually like to have a word, if you don't mind," she said, her brown eyes meeting his.

Harry gave her a questioning look, but said, "Okay." He relaxed back into his chair, obviously curious about what Ginny would want to talk to him about at two o'clock in the morning.
"Suit yourselves," said Hermione as she walked across the room toward the stairs, bushy hair bouncing behind her. "Have a good night."

Ginny waited until Hermione had gone up the stairs and disappeared before she turned back to Harry. It was then that she realized that her hand still rested on his arm, and she quickly pulled it away. Ginny looked over at Harry, gazing into those haunting green eyes currently rimmed with red from lack of sleep, and wondered what in the world she had been thinking.