Ginny's Fate

The Wedding Reception:

'... To Bill and Fleur!' As Charlie finished his best man speech, food appeared on the glittering plate in front of Ginny. She had just realized how hungry she was and began to eat immediately. Suddenly she heard a particularly loud giggle from her right, and looked up, only to see Hermione, giggling hysterically and Ron, grinning sheepishly as he let his spoon hang off his nose. Ginny found this somewhat odd as she had never heard Hermione giggle like that before. Hermione, almost breathless with giggles then took the wine bottle in front of her and tried to pour more wine into her drained wine glass. However, the wine spilled on the table and drenched the tablecloth.

'Ooopsy ...' she giggled, and she began to drink the rest of the wine straight from the bottle. Ginny, feeling seriously concerned for Hermione, took the wine bottle out of her hand, spilling a considerable amount of it on her dress, and put it out of her reach.

'Hey, why'd you do that for, Ginny?' Hermione sounded quite retarded when she said this, which really did not suit her, as she had always been extremely clever and somewhat wise.

'Yeah, give the bottle back, you stupid brat!' Ron said, taking his spoon off his nose and pointing it at Ginny. As he did so, Hermione burst out in a new fit of giggles, pointing at Ron's nose.

'I think you took your nose off, Ron,' she giggled. Ron touched his nose and started to giggle too.

'I think I did, Hermione!' he said, and they both burst out laughing.

Ginny was in a state of shock. She had never seen her best friend or her brother drunk before and she really wished she didn't have to see it now. Deciding not to interfere with Ron and Hermione's business, Ginny turned to talk to the person on her left, and was disappointed to see Gabrielle sitting there, staring at her food.

Ginny looked down the table and her eyes immediately fell on Harry, who was sitting at the opposite end, laughing with Fred and George. It seemed as though Harry's attractiveness intensified with every second Ginny spent staring at him. Ginny sighed and dreamily thought of exactly three months ago when Harry had kissed her for the first time. How she longed to kiss Harry again, but she knew she couldn't, and knowing that made her heart fill up with unbearable pain.

It was a while before Ginny realized that the food on her plate had disappeared and that people were no longer eating. She looked up and saw Fleur and Bill and her parents all dancing to "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love" by Celestina Warbeck, Charlie, talking to Hagrid, most likely about dragons, and Fred and George talking quietly with Mundungus Fletcher, in a corner far away from everyone else.

Ginny then looked down the table and saw Harry staring at her. Ginny waved and smiled at him. He smiled at her too and suddenly, without warning, he got out of his chair and made his way towards her. He then sat down next to her.

'Hey,' he said, sounding somewhat awkward.

'Hey,' Ginny replied, sounding equally awkward.

Harry then took a deep breath. 'I'm really, really sorry about last night,' he said very quickly. 'It's just that it's really hard for me to be away from you, and I just can't help myself because you just look so beautiful all the time, especially now and I just -'

Ginny was suddenly overpowered by the urge to kiss Harry, so she leaned in and kissed him. Harry kissed her back.

They broke apart and looked at each other. Then, without warning, Harry leaned in and kissed her more passionately than he had ever done.

When they broke apart, they just sat and stared at each other. Ginny looked into Harry's large green eyes and smiled. Harry smiled back, but soon his expression changed from pure contentment to a mixture of fear and regret.

He quickly got up, careful not to look at Ginny and said, 'I got to go ... find Ron and Hermione.' And with that he dashed into the Burrow.

Ginny sighed. She hated her relationship with him. She hated the awkwardness and the instability. If she couldn't be his lover, she wished she could at least be his friend. Anything was better than what they had now.

Making up her mind, she made her way up to the Burrow. She was going to find Harry and tell him that she hated their awkward situation, that if Harry wasn't ready for an intimate relationship, she wasn't going to pressure him. She was going to tell him that she was after all, his friend and it was about time he started treating her like one.

Ginny entered the Burrow and was about to go upstairs to find Harry when she heard a crashing noise from the living room. Her curiosity took the best of her and Ginny went to see what caused the noise.

Ginny's eyes first caught the turned over coffee table and slowly moved up to the loveseat where Ron and Hermione were kissing furiously. Ginny's face turned red with embarrassment and she looked away.

Once she had recovered from the mortification of what she had seen, Ginny cleared her throat loudly, much like Professor Umbridge, her evil fourth year defense against the dark arts teacher used to, hoping that upon hearing her, Ron and Hermione would stop. This however, far from working only made the matters worse, as at this point Ron took of his jacket and threw it on the floor.

Knowing that she had no other choice, Ginny walked over to Ron and Hermione and whacked Ron on the back of the head. Ron's head smashed into Hermione's and they both looked up.

'Get up! Now!' said Ginny forcefully as she pulled Ron's arm. After much pulling, Ron finally got up, although he was still a bit shaky. 'You too,' said Ginny, pointing at Hermione, who was still lying on the couch, staring dreamily into space. Hermione looked at Ginny again, as though she was seeing her for the first time, and tried to get up, but fell back on the couch. Ginny wondered how much alcohol could do this to Hermione, and rolling her eyes, grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her up too.

They looked like the survivors of a hurricane; Ron's hair was messier than she had ever seen it, his dress shirt was completely unbuttoned and his tie was loosely hanging on his neck. Hermione's once elegant bun now looked like a bushy, brown, beehive and the wine stain on her wrinkled dress was somehow magnified.

'What the hell were you guys doing?' Ginny asked sternly.

'Nothing,' said Hermione stupidly.

Ginny would have been more than happy to see Ron and Hermione together if she didn't think that they were going to wake up in the same bed the next morning and not remember how they got there.

'Just get out,' she said wearily.

'You can't tell us where to go!' said Ron, pointing his finger at her and trying very hard to sound angry.

'Watch me!' said Ginny and she grabbed both Ron and Hermione by the wrist and dragged them outside, where they would be watched by Mrs. Weasley, and therefore couldn't do anything. She then ran back inside the Burrow and locked the door behind her.

Ginny looked around the living room. She knew her mother would be livid if she saw this mess. So, deciding to talk to Harry later, she began to clean up the mess her brother had made.

When she was done, she sat on the couch and looked at her watch. It was 5:30 pm. She had woken up about 12 hours earlier. It had been such a long day. Ginny closed her eyes, only wanting to rest for a few minutes. However, when she opened them, it was night.

She was curled on the couch and her neck was at an uncomfortable angle. Parts of her hair had come out of the bun and were now covering her face. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked down at her dress, which was very wrinkly by this point.

Ginny yawned, got off the couch and slowly made her way up to her room. She was just about to open her door when she heard whispers coming from upstairs. Her curiosity got the best of her again and she tiptoed upstairs to see what was going on.