Something to Prove: A GoF Missing Moment

-----

"Something to Prove: A GoF Missing Moment"

As soon as she was out of the portrait hole, Ginny took off running. She darted by several Ravenclaw, ducked out of Colin Creevey's sight to avoid talking with him for a moment and accidently tripped up Draco Malfoy. Okay, she admitted, maybe the last one wasn't quite so much an accident. There was something satisfying about seeing the blond-haired Slytherin floundering about on the floor after being knocked aside.

She reached the Great Hall, grabbing hold of the door while she tried to catch her breath. She scanned the tables and was thrilled to find that not only was Neville Longbottom sitting at the end of the Gryffindor tables, but that none of her brothers were anywhere in sight.

"Neville!" Ginny waved to him and headed to the table. She slid across from him. "Hey," she said, leaning close enough so they could talk with some privacy. "Do you have a date to the ball yet?"

Neville gave her a miserable look. "No," he muttered, pushing his pudding around the plate. "Hermione's going with someone else. I thought Ron asked her, but she said it was someone else. I'm going to be the only one there without a date."

"No, you're not," Ginny told him. "Neville, would you like to go to the ball with me?"

Neville gaped at her and Ginny ignored his expression for the moment. "I know it's incredibly forward of me, not to mention I'm just a third year, but you're a nice guy. You don't deserve to go alone."

"Yeah, but... I thought you were going with Harry. I mean, Ron was suggesting it and all, and...," Neville stammered. "You're such a pretty girl, I thought he'd ask you long before now."

Ginny flushed. "I'm not that pretty, Neville."

"Sure you are. I think so, at least. Did Harry ask you?"

Ginny sighed and shrugged. "In a way. Ron tried to set us up."

Neville started to take a sip of pumpkin juice and nearly spat it out. "You passed up a chance to go to the Yule Ball with Harry? You?"

Ginny glowered at Neville. "Yes, I did. It's not like I have a crush on him or anything."

"You have a crush on him," Neville told Ginny in such a matter-of-fact manner that for a moment, she was reminded the Ravenclaw girl, Luna Lovegood, the one everyone called "Loony." "I might be slow at times, but I'm not blind."

Ginny sighed again and took up a piece of bread. She started to tear it into small chunks. "You know," she muttered, "I've really been trying to work on that."

"It's not easy getting over someone you like," Neville told her in such a soft voice that Ginny sat up straighter.

"It's hard," she admitted. "You know, I'm just now getting to the point that I can hold a civil conversation with Harry without turning the shade of Parvati's ink? Going to the Yule Ball with Harry would be a dream come true. But, I can't. Hermione's been coaching me and she says I've got to come out of my shell. I won't be able to do that if I go to the ball with Harry."

Ginny dropped her bread and gave Neville a hard look. "Believe me, Neville, I do want to go with Harry. If Ron had gotten him to ask, I wouldn't had been able to say no. But if I did go with him, it wouldn't mean anything. Harry's head is so full of Cho Chang, even though she's dating Cedric Diggory. If we went together, it would strictly be because I'm Ron's sister and he has no one else. I'm not going to be Cho's, or anyone's, leftovers. If Harry wants to take me to the ball or anywhere else, it'll be because he likes me for myself. End of discussion."

Neville beamed at Ginny just as they heard soft clapping. They looked up to see Hermione standing at Neville's shoulder. "Good for you, Gin," Hermione praised. "I'm glad to see my talking is starting to sink in." She looked pensive for a moment. "Now, if only your git of an older brother would do the same..."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Ron is a git, Hermione. He'll come around, or else I'll threaten to lock him in a room with Percy for three hours."

Hermione paled. "There is such a thing as cruel and unusual punishment, you know."

"Say, Ginny?" Neville spoke up. "Why didn't you just say you weren't interested in going? I mean, you are a third year and all."

"Two reasons," Ginny explained and picked up a fork. "The first was that I lied and told Ron I was going with you. Well, I was mad," she hastily added when Hermione started glaring at her. "Ron was being a git and I wanted to get back at him. But, I was planning to ask you anyhow."

Ginny smiled at Neville. "You're my friend, Neville. You deserve a chance to walk into the ball with a girl on your arm like anyone else. Friends don't abandon each other."

Neville rapped his fork against his plate and Ginny held her breath. He had every right to refuse her. After all, she was essentially using him as an excuse to avoid Harry and to help get over him. The way she made things sound, Neville was a charity case to adopt. But the more she mulled it over, the more Ginny wanted to go to the ball with Neville. She'd heard the jokes about both of them - about how Ginny was so hung up over Harry and how Neville wouldn't ever find a girl to date, not even Millicent Bulstrode from Slytherin. And that was uglier than ugly.

"You're not doing this out of pity, right?" Neville asked and Ginny shook her head.

She reached over and grasped Neville's hand. "I'm doing it because you and I deserve to be happy just like everyone else. I may not be your first choice. You're not mine. But we're friends and we like each other. So we deserve to have just as good of a time as everyone else."

Neville squeezed her hand back and smiled. "You're right, Gin. Let's do it."

"Great!" Ginny withdrew her hand from Neville's and turned to her dinner. She winked at Hermione, who was giving her a very strange look. Ginny shrugged. Okay, so maybe the reason she was going to the ball with Neville sounded self-serving. But it seemed pretty clear to her and to Neville as well. They had something to prove to the world. The Yule Ball was just the place to do it.

"Oh, by the way, Neville? You know how to dance, right?"

"Not really, Gin..."

Ginny winced and made a mental note to seek out Madam Pomfrey for some healing cream for her feet - just in case.