Why me? or The Real Midnight Duel

Why me? Or the real midnight duel

Chapter Three: Admired no Longer

It seemed to take whole centuries just to go down to the Great Hall. Harry felt tired, almost exhausted, and not just from the long walk through Hogwarts. Why was being Harry Potter so difficult?? Nobody liked him anymore. They masked contempt for respect and when you found out the truth, it did nothing but made you more miserable.

This time there was someone to blame, at least... a blond someone...

He reasoned, and following the thought, and walked straight into a Third year Ravenclaw carrying a stack of heavy books. They dropped to the floor, some landing painfully on his feet. The girl looked vexed, but Harry didn't care much in his despair. He left her to pick them up on her own, something he usually wouldn't have done so thoughtlessly.

I'm acting just like a Slytherin!

Startled, he nearly walked into something else but managed to avoid it. Harry felt strangely empty with the realization. Should he feel glad, or upset? He had no clue.

It took a lot of bumping into hard walls that seemed to appear from nowhere, trick steps on the stairs, not to mention almost being chased by Peeves on a close call while he was trudging miserably through a corridor, but he finally reached the double doors leading into the majestic dinner room. Then he was faced with the task of getting them to open. He thought he'd just discovered that doors all had a personality and these doors must have been in a malicious mood today. They wouldn't budge. While he was pushing and pulling with all his might to get a door that was always changing the way it was supposed to be opened, open, he thought.

Suddenly he saw a red-headed figure turning a corner and beginning to walk in the other direction. His eyes widened. Ron?!

He ran up to him and touched Ron's shoulder. It startled both of them when the person swirled around- because the person clearly wasn't Ron. It was Ginny. They both gasped, probably because neither of them expected to see each other.

Harry opened his mouth to speak- when they started talking at exactly the same time.

"Ginny have you seen-"

"Harry! We haven't-"

This was followed by a brief stretch of silence as Harry and Ginny were both mutely apologizing and insisting that the other start speaking first. The Boy who Almost Never Spoke His Mind said this aloud.

"Sorry, you can go on, Ginny."

"I...uh..."

There was another uncomfortable pause between the two. Neither of them could look each other in the face. They stared fixedly at the floor, wondering what to say and do, and Ginny turned to go. Harry grabbed her arm. She looked at him in surprise, and Harry quickly let go, looking just as self-conscious as her.

"Yes?" she said, and tilted her head slightly.

"Er... where is Ron?" he asked, not noticing that his fingers were twisting exuberantly in his hands. Ginny started to blush.

"I don't exactly know," she replied shyly. He could see some of the truth showing in her pretty gaze, eyes avoiding his...

But I know someone else with even prettier eyes... gray eyes...

Noting the trail of thought that had just appeared inside his weary mind, Harry flushed. What a wonderful time to be thinking of Malfoy, just wonderful. He knew he would have drifted to the subject sooner or later; it wasn't so terribly difficult to avoid...

Harry looked up, greeted back to earth by the girl's curious expression. Harry jumped, alarmed by her presence.

She drew back, and, raising an eyebrow, looked at Harry strangely.

Harry wondered what that glance meant, as Ginny started fiddling absently with her Hogwarts robes, bored and unsure of what to do next... she had already given him an answer, though vague, but how should she know what Ron was doing? It's not as if someone had given her that responsibility...

Ginny rocked on her toes impatiently. She looked embarrassed and ready to move on. Harry sensed that their attempted conversation wasn't going very well. Suddenly she spoke up. "Well I... might have an idea about where he is," she went on. Harry had almost forgotten what she was talking about.

Quite unexpectedly, she giggled, and looked straight into his eyes. "He's either fighting with that blond guy from Slytherin again or having it off with Hermione," Ginny said, and was then overcome with frantic laughter. But inside, Harry groaned. Shagging Hermione was bad, but he had also forgotten about how Ron might hurt Draco.

Damn it, he thought, yet another problem. But Ginny might help him with the more demanding one right now- how to open that doorway.

When Ginny was done with her fit of nervous laughter over a subject Harry refused to find funny, he looked straight into her deep brown eyes and began to speak about the doorway problem.

Ginny began laughing again, this time with a true ring to it, right during his explanation. It was very irritating. He felt as if anything serious he'd say would get her wheezing helplessly on the floor, mocking him incredibly as she howled nonstop. At this moment, it didn't seem to be that close to his vision, but she was honestly continuing without end. Harry started to get angry with her at being so amused at his failure to open a door. He was either weak or there was something seriously wrong with it...

Finally she started to speak-between gasps for air from laughing so hard- and explained the problem. "Peeves...h-he put a c-curse on that door this morning just to make a joke-"

And there she was, laughing her lazy arse off again. She didn't stop until she saw Harry giving her a surprisingly dirty look. Ginny coughed, and her expression was quite innocent. She grinned.

"Why don't you just use the other one over there?" she suggested with a very sweet smile.

"You could have told me earlier, Ginny!" Harry found himself yelling at her before he was able to stop himself, and immediately wiped the smile off her face. She looked put out, and walked smoothly away, giving him a hurt and exasperated look before disappearing through a doorway down the hall. Harry regretted his 'words of thanks' as soon as he said them, but followed her advice and went, even more glumly, through the other entry to the breakfast hall.

Everyone he thought liked him was angry at him. Ginny especially.

She would get him back for the rudeness and carelessness all these years...

Smiling softly to herself in the empty room, Ginny formed a careful plan.