The Secret Admirer

The Secret Admirer

Prologue: A Christmas Wish

"No," Ginny repeated, tucking a strand of her flaming red hair behind her ear.

"Oh come on!" Hermione persisted. "He isn't going to the ball with anyone yet, and he hasn't asked anyone to go with him." Ginny slammed her book shut.

"Hermione! For the millionth time, I am not asking Harry to the Christmas Ball!" She stuffed all her books into her bag and started to walk out of the library.

"Oh come on Ginny!" Hermione sighed and jogged after her. "I know you like him, so why don't you just ask him? What have you got to lose?"

"My dignity maybe?" Ginny replied. "Besides, just because you built up your guts and asked old what's his name-"

"His name is Kevin Entwhistle, Ginny."

"Okay, whatever. Just because you asked him, doesn't mean that I am going to ask Harry, or anyone for that matter."

"Ginny," Hermione groaned. "You are fifteen now, you can't fly solo forever."

"Yes I can," Ginny stated. "Some people stay single, that is why they invented Happy Hours."

"Why did you say no to Colin?" Hermione asked, changing the subject from Happy Hours. Ginny groaned.

"Hermione, as I told you before, I said no to him because-" Ginny turned the corner and ran into someone. Her books came pouring out of her bag. "Sorry," she apologized. It was Draco Malfoy. Ginny began to gather her books.

"Next time watch out where you're going Weasley," Draco muttered. Ginny's cheeks flushed with anger.

"It was just as much as your fault as it was mine," she mumbled. "And I was the only one that apologized."

"And that's how it's going to stay," Draco sneered and walked off.

"What were you two saying?" Hermione asked and she glared at Malfoy as he walked by. "I couldn't hear you at all. I only heard mumbling."

Ginny watched Draco stroll down the hallway.

"Nothing," she said and started to walk back down the hallway.

****

Ginny sat in the Gryffindor common room. She had her journal open and was writing in it.

Dear Journal,

Nothing interesting happened today. Hermione is still pestering me to ask someone, preferably Harry, to the Christmas Ball. Personally, I don't think I'll go at all. I think I will just stay in the common room and catch up on schoolwork.

The girls already have begun to fuss over dresses and how they will wear their hair, though there are still three weeks until the ball.

Well journal, one thing is for sure. I will not be going to the ball with Malfoy. We ran into each other today, literally. I absolutely hate him. There's no way will I ever be, in any way, with him.

Ginny

Ginny shut her journal and the portrait door swung open. In came Ron and Harry from the Quidditch field, their cheeks flushed red from the blowing of the wind outside.

"Hey Gin," Harry said. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Ginny replied. Hermione, who was sitting next to Ginny, shot her a look that read, "Ask him to the ball". Ginny did nothing.

"You know," Hermione said, talking to Ginny. "I think you should ask a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor," she said as if they were continuing a conversation.

"What?" Ginny and Harry asked.

"I said that I think that Ginny should ask a Ravenclaw to the Christmas Ball. What do you think Harry?"

"Well," Ron said as he looked over the homework Hermione was doing. "I think that Ginny is still too young to go to a ball."

"No one asked what you thought Ron."

"I am just saying," Ron said.

"Well, don't just say, just shut up," Hermione said in the sweetest voice she could, trying to direct Ron out of the conversation. She glanced at Harry and nodded towards Ginny.

"Okay," Ginny announced. "I am going upstairs, you all can continue to talk about what you were talking about because I don't have a clue." And with that, Ginny left the common room and headed up the staircase to the girls' dorms.

"Harry!" she heard Hermione shout. "You bonehead! You missed your chance!"

Of course, Ginny thought to herself. Hermione is trying to play matchmaker with Harry and me. She just doesn't get that life doesn't always turn out happily ever after.

Ginny walked into her dormitory and over to her bed. A letter rested on her pillows. She opened it and read:

A Christmas Wish

It's late at night
As I look upon the sky
I see all the stars
Just shinning bright

I looked upon
The brightest one
To make the biggest wish
On this Christmas night

A Christmas wish
That won't come true
No matter how much
I desire it to

You see, my wish
Is to be with you
To see your smile
And kiss you too

But no matter how far you are
I know you're looking at the same star
And it will whisper back to you
That I'm missing you and loving you too.

Merry Christmas Ginny.

The letter was unsigned and Ginny didn't recognize the handwriting. She looked, puzzled, at the letter and wondered whom it could be from. She couldn't help but smile.

She had a secret admirer.