Simple Joys of Maidenhood

"Ginny?"

Ginny, who was setting out dishes for dinner, looked up inquisitively. Harry stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame, an unidentifiable expression in his bright green eyes. Her heart gave the slight flutter she always experienced when he walked into a room, and privately she thought--as she always did--that he had never looked sexier.

As she was supposed to be his ex-girlfriend, however, she covered this up by inserting a little extra brusqueness into her voice. "Yes, what is it?"

Harry gave her a swift, searching glance. "George said you liked musicals?"

"Liked", Ginny reflected, was a mild term to describe her level of interest, rather like calling someone a "heroin fancier". Noncommittally, however, she replied, "A bit. Why?"

Harry drew something out of his pocket. "I happen to have acquired a pair of tickets to Camelot next Friday. Like to go with me? It's got Alan Rickman and Michael York," he added to sweeten the deal.

A dreamy look came into Ginny's eyes. "An honest-to-God professional performance?"

"It's touring the country. Interested?"

Ginny set down the plates in her hands quickly before she dropped them. "Absolutely!"

Harry gave her the beginnings of what might have been a smile, all the more precious because he rarely managed even that these days, even now that Voldemort was really gone. "Great. I'll be looking forward to that."

~~~

After dinner that night, Ginny practically threw herself onto her bed.

"Hermione?"

"Mmm?" Hermione looked at Ginny over the rims of her small, square reading glasses, recently acquired.

"Hermione, if you liked a guy and he used to like you but he broke up with you and you still loved him and he asked you to go out with him somewhere, what would you do?"

Hermione raised her head to look Ginny directly in the eye. "Harry asked you out?"

Ginny blushed and nodded. "To see Camelot next week."

Hermione, for the first time since Ginny had ever known her, dropped her book. "My God. Did he really?"

"Yes. He said..."

"Tell me you said yes," Hermione begged.

"I did. I love musicals," Ginny confessed. "I'm excited, but...Hermione what does it mean? You've got to help me."

"It means he still loves you," Hermione answered gently. "It means he knows he's made a mistake and he wants to fix it. Those tickets don't come cheap, you know."

"I know," Ginny said softly. "Hermione, what do I do now?"

"Well, right now, you focus on getting your sleep. Friday I'll help you get ready for your date."

"Hermione." Ginny blushed again. "It's not a date."

"You're going to the theatre. I think that's a date." Hermione smiled. "Now go to sleep."

~~~

A week later, Hermione dragged Ginny into her room at two o'clock, shut, locked, and bolted the door.

"Really, is this necessary?" Ginny protested.

"Yes." Hermione was immovable. "You need to look nice. What time are you leaving?"

"Er--the play's at eight, but we're going to dinner at five-thirty to give ourselves time to eat first."

"Good! That gives us three hours to get this perfect." Hermione opened her trunk and started rummaging through it, talking the whole time. "When I bought my dress robes, Mum insisted that I get a regular fancy dress too, just in case. Now I'm glad she did. I was thinner back then...it ought to fit you."

"You're still thin."

Hermione smiled. "No, I'm not." She emerged triumphant, holding something. "Ah, here it is." Ginny tried to look at it but Hermione covered it. "Uh-uh-uh! You're not allowed to look at it until we're done. Close your eyes."

Ginny sighed but obliged. Hermione pulled off her threadbare sweater and skirt, then slid something that felt cool and light onto her.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" Ginny asked humorously.

"Not just yet." Hermione draped something heavy over her and pushed her into a seat. "There. Okay, you can open your eyes."

Ginny did and immediately looked down. To her mild dismay, Hermione had wrapped her Hogwarts cloak around Ginny. "Hermione, what's this all about?"

Hermione shook her head. "We don't want to get goop all over the dress."

"Goop?"

"We have to do your hair, not to mention makeup."

Ginny couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Aren't we taking this a little far?"

"No," Hermione said stubbornly. She pulled a large plastic case out of her trunk and opened it. The case contained makeup, hair doodads, a bottle of hairspray...

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive. Now hold still. I'm going to start with your hair."

Ginny sat patiently for what felt like forever as Hermione brushed, tugged, sprayed, and pinned Ginny's long red hair back into a complicated mess...or at least that's what it felt like. Finally, Hermione came around to the front and put two empty cardboard sheets and the hairspray back into her box, looking satisfied. "There we go. Let's do your face now."

Hermione studied Ginny's face critically. "Actually, I don't think you need too terribly much, but..." She popped open a compact and brushed blusher onto Ginny's cheeks, then painted her eyelids, brushed her lashes with mascara, and coloured her lips.

"There," she finally said with satisfaction, sitting back. "Okay, close your eyes again."

"Hermione..."

"Come on. One last surprise."

Ginny trusted Hermione, or she would never have closed her eyes. Hermione unwrapped the cloak, stood her friend, and guided her across the room. "Okay...open."

Ginny did...and gasped. "Is that really me?"