Ginevra, What Were You Thinking?

Chapter 6: Lunch and Quidditch

Harry and Ginny entered the Great Hall and took seats across from Ron and Hermione. Ron, as usual, was filling his plate with food--that is, whatever food that he didn't put directly into his mouth. Hermione was wearing her revolted look, as if, after nearly five years of eating at the same table with Ron, this was a new occurrence.

When she finally drew her eyes away from Ron's eating habits, Hermione immediately lit into Harry. "Have you decided yet?"

"About what?" Harry asked, still filling his plate.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "The DA, Harry. Are you going to reform it?"

After glancing at Ginny and seeing her nod, Harry answered in the affirmative.

Hermione, all business now that she felt she had a task to complete, began riddling off ideas and suggestions. "We should ask all of last year's members if they want to join first, of course. . . . I'll have to make more galleons. . . . Maybe we should have a teacher sponsor--I mean, it's not illegal now to have a club. . . ."

Why does she have to talk so fast?

"Maybe we should hang fliers in the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff common rooms," Ginny inserted tentatively. "And Harry already got permission from Professor Dumbledore--Tonks is going to supervise."

"Yeah," said Harry. "You girls come up with the best ideas. Shall I just leave you two to it, then?"

"No!" Ginny laughed, swatting at his arm. "It is your club, after all, Harry."

Harry turned his face towards Ginny and grinned. "You're right, of course. So, what do you think, Ron?" Harry asked, still looking at Ginny. "Should we kick out the girls first thing?"

Ron couldn't respond, as his mouth was full, but Hermione certainly could. She gave Harry a swift kick in his shins under the table; Ginny was too engrossed staring at Harry to notice.

Is he flirting with you? Ginny, he's flirting with you! Harry Potter!

What? No, he's not.

Yes, yes, he is! Flirt back.

No!

Yes, go ahead, Ginny.

What do I say, though?

Oh, c'mon, Gin. It's not like you never flirted with Dean and Michael.

"You know, Hermione," began Ginny while looking at Harry, a twinkle in her eyes, "we did pretty well for ourselves back at the Ministry. Maybe we should quit the DA and start our own defense club."

"Oh, now you wouldn't want to do that," replied Harry. "Besides, don't you think everyone would rather take lessons from the Boy-Who-Lived?"

Hermione gasped--Harry had never spoken of himself like that.

Ginny was nonplussed, however, and she came back to earth pretty quickly. Lowering her voice, she taunted, "You know, Harry, I don't think that everyone knows who really opened the Chamber of Secrets that year. Maybe I should tell them--it sure would give you a run for your money."

Hermione finally understood what was going on--it took her a little longer than usual to grasp the situation--for Ginny never brought up the Chamber, so Hermione continued to gape at her two friends from across the table. Ron, as usual, was stuffing food into his mouth and didn't notice.

***~~~***

After lunch, Harry and Ginny, who both had free periods, hung a flier in the Gryffindor common room and gave one each to Luna and Ernie to hang in their respective house common rooms.

As this didn't take too long, Ginny suggested they grab their books and head to the library to work on OWLs and NEWTs.

~~~***~~~

The next two days passed in a blur for Ginny. She and Harry spent their mornings in the common room, and when people began to crowd the room, they headed down to breakfast. Though neither noticed, other students became accustomed to seeing Harry and Ginny together. They never held hands or mentioned that day in Hogsmeade; they just spend their time together in a mix of comfortable conversation and silence. While Ron and Hermione were oftentimes found to be walking with Harry and Ginny, as was normal, they were too busy arguing with one another to see what was going on between Harry and Ginny.

You sure are spending an awful lot of time with Harry, Gin-Gin.

Am I? I didn't notice.

I know. Aren't you glad that Harry's finally paying attention to you?

What? Harry and I are just friends.

Sure you are.

***~~~***

Friday afternoon came up real fast, and Ginny was dressed and on the Quidditch pitch almost before she realized it.

There are a lot more people here than I thought there would be.

Harry came out of the changing rooms and welcomed the crowd. Being appointed team captain gave him an extra boost of leadership skills--the captaincy was definitely cursed. "All right, folks," Harry began. "You're all here to try out for the team, I guess. Seeker and Keeper positions are already taken, as is one of the Chaser positions. As you all probably know, Katie would be captain this year, but since she's Head Girl and has NEWTs at the end of the year, she decided to pass it along to me. She'll remain as my co-captain, and she'll also help decide who will be on the team. As there are more people who can tryout for Beater this year, Andrew and Jack have decided to re-tryout. So, everyone trying out for Chaser on my left, and those trying out for Beater on my right.

Ginny quickly moved to Harry's left, and she noticed that Dean, a third year, a fourth year, and two second years joined her. Seamus and a couple of second years, as well as Kirke and Sloper, grouped together on Harry's other side.

"Okay, now each Chaser is going to get ten shots against Ron in the first round. The top four will move onto the second round, so that means two of you will be out. Beaters, you hang out here, and we'll get to you in a few minutes."

The six of them lined up. Ginny was third, and Dean jumped in behind her. On Harry's command, they mounted their brooms, and Ron flew to the nearest goal post. Harry took the quaffle out of the ball box and passed it to the first in line--a slight third year girl. She took the ball, flew straight at Ron, headed toward the right goal post, and at the last second, she threw the quaffle through the center hoop.

The next person, a second year boy, also put the ball through the center hoop. When Ron passed Ginny the red quaffle, she zoomed straight for him. He came up to block her but left his right goal post unattended. Ginny took advantage of the opportunity and lightly tossed the ball through the right hoop. Dean also scored on his first shot.

The group continued taking turns, but as Ron got warmed up, it became harder and harder to get the quaffle past him and through a hoop. All the while, Harry watched from his vantage point about fifteen feet above the tallest post.

Ginny ended up getting eight goals, as did the third year girl. Dean and the second year girl each scored six times, and the fourth year and second year boys only put the ball through the hoop five times. When everyone had taken ten shots, Harry politely thanked and dismissed the boys.

"Now," began Harry, looking at the Beaters, "I want to see how good your aim is. Each of you grab a Beater stick, and mount your brooms. I'm going to have each of you aim at moving targets across the field. As there are five of you, the two who miss the most will be out. You have to aim for different targets on each shot. All right, line up."

The five lined up, and Harry removed one of the bludgers. The first in line swung his bat and connected. The bludger sailed straight at one of the targets that Harry had bewitched to fly around the pitch. After everyone's turns were up, only last year's Beaters and Seamus were remaining in the contest.

"Okay, now I'm going to see how well you all play together. I'll be posting the results of tryouts on the Gryffindor message board some time tomorrow morning." Harry gestured to a spectator tower, where they could barely make out Professor McGonagall and Hermione. "I'll have to have time to discuss my selections with the Professor and Katie. Now, I want you all to act as a team, okay? Beaters, you're going to try to keep the Chasers from scoring, and, Chasers, I want you to play against Ron. On my whistle, then . . ."

All of the players lined up around Harry. He released the bludgers and tossed the quaffle, then blew his whistle. Ginny shot straight into the air and grabbed the quaffle. She zoomed towards Ron's end of the pitch, but a well-directed bludger from Seamus came shooting by, and she did a sloth-grip roll. She passed the quaffle to the third year girl, who had been flying beneath her. The girl snatched the ball out of the air and put the quaffle past Ron and into the left-hand hoop.

The Gryffindors continued in this manner for at least two hours, if not longer--for Harry wanted to test their endurance as well as their technique--before he called them down.

"Okay, everyone did great, and I'll have the results posted tomorrow. Thanks for coming out, all of you." With that, Harry and Katie strode off towards McGonagall's spectator tower so they could review the footage that she and Hermione had recorded on a couple of sets of omnioculars.

Ron and Ginny replaced the balls in the box and walked off to the changing rooms. In the distance, they could hear Harry say, "So, what do you think, Professor?"