The Right Thing

Ginny sighed as she spun with Neville to the jazzy music of The Weird Sisters. She wished that she wasn't such a kind person, or she could have broken her promise to be Neville's partner. It wasn’t that she didn't like Neville, it was just... Ginny wasn’t sure what was wrong. Was it that he kept treading on her? Or maybe it was simply that she would rather be with someone else– with Harry. She had had the opportunity to go with him; she could have just told Neville she was sorry but she was going with someone else. But no, she hadn’t done that, and no matter how much she wished she was with Harry, she knew that going with Neville had been the Right Thing.

Then, right on cue, on the seventh beat of the repeating rythym, Neville attempted to twirl Ginny and instead ended up stepping on her foot. Ginny winced and tears came to her eyes. Neville seemed not to notice. Still, she waited till he turned away to grimace and wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her dress robes.

As she did this, out of the corner of her eye she noticed Harry, staring at her with a sympathetic and apologetic look on his face. Ginny whipped her head around to see him properly, but Parvati had steered him around so that he was facing away from her. Still, Ginny was sure that Harry had been looking at her, and by doing so he had made Ginny regret even more that she wasn’t dancing with him. If only she didn't always feel the need to do the Right Thing.

"Ginny?" It took her a second to realize that the voice was coming from Neville.

"Yeah?" she muttered, still not quite out of her daze.

"Ginny, you don't need to keep dancing with me, it's okay. I realize you're miserable, I can't dance, I'm apparently stepping on you, and that you'd much rather be with Harry."

"What?" Ginny asked shrilly. Had she really been that obvious?

"I saw you wincing a moment ago and then staring at Harry. Neither of us are with who'd we really like to be with." Neville threw a murderous glance at Viktor Krum as he spoke.

Ginny pretended not to notice. "So I'll just have some butterbeer, listen to the music. You should go enjoy yourself though, okay?" Ginny nodded, and giving Neville one last smile, slipped off into the crowds.

She walked around trying to spot Harry. She finally found him chatting with Ron, while Padma and Parvati waltzed with a couple of Beauxbatons boys. Ginny felt the urge to ask Harry to dance. She knew she shouldn't though, Harry didn't want to dance with her, asking him would just make him feel he had to out of guilt. It just wasn't the Right Thing to do.

Suddenly Ginny was ambushed by someone with a large amount of dirty blonde hair. She turned around to find her friend Luna's arm wrapped around her neck. "Oi, Ginny, can Michael dance with you?" Luna asked, straightening up and nodding at a dark-haired boy.

"Isn't that the boy you came with?" Ginny asked her friend.

"Yeah, but I don't really like him, I only came with him so that I could come at all. When Dad heard that the Weird Sisters were playing he asked if I could ask them what they know about Stubby Boardman... Anyway, Michael says he really fancies you, so go on."

Ginny sighed and approached Michael, her thoughts still on Harry. She wondered if maybe Harry was embarrassed to be seen with someone younger than him. Ginny was fairly sure that wasn't the problem, but couldn't stop herself from wishing she was in fourth year. If she was, then she wouldn't have gone with Neville just to go. And if she hadn't gone with Neville, then when she found out that Harry wasn't going with anyone either, she could have been his partner, rather than worrying about all this Right Thing business.

As a song started and Ginny and Michael began to dance, Ginny had a revelation: There was no point in worrying over Harry and waiting for a chance to make a move, because that chance wasn’t going to come. Giving up on him was just the Right Thing to do. Still, as the music went on slowly and Ginny lay her head down on Michael's shoulder, she couldn’t help but wish that for once, the Right Thing wasn't really right.