Harry Potter and His New Standards

CHAPTER 11 - Hufflepuff, Moonlight, Nightmares, & Accidental Confessions

That night Harry grouped together the team for a 'surprise practice'. He felt this was quite the Oliver Wood move, but necessary. As the team gathered around him and sat down on the deadened grass of the pitch, he cleared his throat and began his talk.

"Okay, team," he started, "I've been to see Eric Lundon, the Hufflepuff captain... 3 of his number have injuries and he requested that we play Ravenclaw next week instead of them."

"What?!" Brandon said, wide-eyed and open mouthed. "Harry! If they don't have reserve players they have to play with only 4 people! That's the way it works..."

"Yes, but it's not very fair, Brandon," Harry replied. "I agreed to take their spot... but in doing this we're going to have to practice every night this week." There was a very quiet but agreeable groan from the team. "I know it's going to be hard work! But you saw how they played Slytherin! Could any of you tell me what the final score was?"

"280-10," said the team in unison.

"Correct! Don't you see? They are an excellent team. We're going to need to practice harder than we have all year to beat them... we need new plays, strong offense and defense... the only way we won't be kicked out of the running for the cup is if we get a fairly strong win... that way we'll have points in our favor. I've spoke with the Ravenclaw captain, Cho Chang, on a number of occasions-" Holly cleared her throat loudly and Ron gave a huge fake cough, but Harry chose to act as though he didn't hear them. "She says her team doesn't want to face us... they think we're just as good as we think they are. When she catches wind that we're replacing Hufflepuff in the next match... she'll have them practice like mad as well."

"Alright, Harry," Ginny said, "We'll do it. 14 hours of practice in the next 7 days starting... now."

"Thank you, Gin, for your... enthusiasm," Harry said. Ginny smiled and he grinned back at her, sheepishly.

"Hey, Harry! You're face is turning red," Seamus piped in.

"Thanks for that contemplation, Seamus..." Harry replied. He tried to ignore Holly's troublemaker grin and the look of horror that was slowly creeping onto Ron's face.

"It's getting redder and redder and-" he continued.

"OKAY!" Harry shouted, which made everyone go silent. "Alright..." he said, more calmly, "Ron, you said you read up on a new Chaser diversion?"

"Yeah..."

"Conjure up a board and show us what to do."

"All right," Ron said, standing up and brushing dead grass off of his legs. He shook the hair out of his eyes and with a few movements of his wand there floated a blank diagram board. He began drawing out the play with separate markings for each player (Chaser 1, Chaser 2, Chaser 3, Beater 1, & Beater 2). After Ginny had called Chaser 1, Holly called Chaser 2 (although she claimed two was a cursed number without explanation), and Seamus and Cameron had sorted out who would do what... they tried it out.

The Gryffindors practiced for a full 3 hours without further complaint, as it seemed they were pretty determined to beat Ravenclaw just like Harry. They practiced some of their old plays, adding new twists to them here and there to throw the Ravenclaws off, as it seemed they had quite memorized each move their team made. Harry wondered whether Cho had put her team up to this... the more they knew about how the Gryffindors played the easier it would be to work against them.

When they finished up their practice, everyone hit the ground, much more tired than they had been before practice started. As Holly had explained to Lavender, Parvati, and Hermione, the boys were all shirtless (November or not... it was sunny and windless), Ginny was fanning herself off with Ron's diagram board and Holly was holding up her hair, panting.

"I wish we could just fly around shirtless like boys...life would be so much easier," Ginny said.

"I have no objection to that!" Cameron said.

"I DO!" Harry and Ron both piped in. Holly and Ginny laughed weakly.

Brandon plopped down on the ground and rubbed his head. "Look at you! Ohhh..." he began mockingly, "Is practice making Holly sweat?"

"It's glisten! I'm GLISTENING!" Holly shrieked, looking aghast.

"Well whatever it is... eeuurrgh!" Cameron inserted with a shudder.

"Fuck you," she growled, letting gravity pull her straight down so she was spread-eagled on the ground.

"Did you hear that? An angel just got its wings!" Brandon said. They sniggered and Holly frowned, rolling over onto her side.

"Good practice team, keep up the good work and we'll have this game in the bag... I hope..." Harry panted, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "You can go back to the castle."

"Maybe later," Ron said, "I think I'll just take a nap riiiight here..." He laid down on the bench. He shut his eyes and his arms went limp as he dropped his broomstick on the ground.

"You know what I don't understand?" Seamus questioned, yawning. "How you can get tired and sweaty from flying around on a broomstick... that hardly takes any muscle work or anything..."

"It's called throwing Quaffles, beating back Bludgers, and making wild grabs at Snitches while trying to concentrate on maneuvers, tactics, contrivance, and strategy..." Ginny said, slowly getting up to her feet. Holly opened one eye and squinted through the glaring sun, saw Ginny standing, and held out her hand. Ginny helped her up, although it really looked as though it took a lot of effort as Holly wasn't too keen on doing her part.

"I think we need cheerleaders," Holly said.

"Cheerleaders?" Seamus echoed, giving Holly a quizzical look. She nodded.

"Yeah you know... wait let me get my pep on..." She closed her eyes tight and shook her head then drew in a sharp breath. "Okay. Gryffindor House - Hats off to thee! To - our - colors, true we shall ever be! Firm and strong - united are we! Rah-rah-rah for Gryffindor! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah for our Hogwarts high!"

She seemed to have done a cheer on these lines before because she had a routine to match. After jumping up and down waving around imaginary pom-poms for a second she bent over and rested her hands on her knees. "That took way too much energy..." she breathed.

"Was that cheer not more or less directed to an entire school?" Ginny questioned.

"Look, I'm working on it..." she responded, straightening up once more.

*()*()*

Late that night Harry found that he was having a lot of trouble sleeping. Somehow, he hadn't been aware of this. His body had shut down, for the most part, but his mind was still awake and weary. Of what? He had no idea. His eyes had been open for hours, although he didn't feel like he was seeing anything. The rest of his comrades were sleeping, he knew, and he squinted at his watch through the moonlight that filtered in through the window. It was 1:00 in the morning.

He got up and walked out of the dormitory, then down the stone staircase. He didn't have any place to go, in particular, so as he made his way into the common room he simply sat down in an armchair by the fireplace which was occupied by the dying embers. He stared blankly at the reddish glow of the ash and wood in the fireplace for a long time before his ears picked up a sound of movement.

Harry decided to tear his eyes away from the fireplace and see where the movement was when a voice broke his train of thought. "Watch out! Stop!!!" The exclamation startled him greatly, and then he realized the source of the voice and movement was the same thing.

Ginny.

Ginny was lying on the couch, apparently asleep, but writhing about greatly. She was dreaming, obviously, and Harry was on his knees at the edge of the couch in a split-second. "Ginny!" he said, "Ginny! Wake up!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly, but she only squirmed violently in her sleep.

"No!" she said firmly. Harry began to shake her harder.

"Ginny! Wake up, Gin!" he exclaimed, trying to stir her enough so she awoke but not so much that he hurt her. Suddenly she sat bolt upright, and Harry dodged out of her way. She was gasping for breath, and looking around wildly. "Ginny... are you okay?" Harry asked, scrambling back up onto his knees.

Ginny was wide-eyed and she looked terrified. In the small glow of the fire Harry could see she was pale and sweating slightly. "What just happened?" she asked suddenly.

"I don't know... I came down here and you were asleep on the couch... you were talking in your sleep... you must have been having nightmares, it didn't sound pleasant," Harry explained. He didn't know much of what had happened but he had told her what he did know. "What were you dreaming?" he asked.

Ginny stared at the air in front of her for a few moments, and her expressions showed that she was thinking very hard. "I...I don't know..." she said faintly. She turned her head and looked at Harry. "I don't even remember falling asleep... what time is it?"

Harry looked at his watch, which he had put on when he was walking out of his room. "About 10 after 1:00..." he answered. Ginny moved so her legs were over the couch and she was sitting in a more proper fashion. She was still fully dressed, and her cloak was hung over the back of the sofa.

"When did I fall asleep?" she asked herself, rubbing her eyes. Harry got up and sat next to her on the couch. Harry asked her if she could remember absolutely anything of what she was dreaming. "I... I don't know. It was really horrible... I remember there were lots of trees and... and a river... there were more people but..." she struggled with the answer, "I remember there were hundreds of these... these... these creatures. That's all, really."

Harry sighed. If he wanted information from this dream, he certainly didn't get any. He noticed, now, that Ginny was shaking violently. He didn't truly understand how a dream you hardly remembered could affect you so strongly, but he didn't question her. He knew, though, that she really needed some comfort. "Stay there, Ginny," he said.

He scrambled back up to his dormitory and slipped on a shirt and his cloak. He grabbed a second cloak, the Invisibility cloak, and descended back down the staircase into the common room. Ginny was looking up at him with a puzzled expression as he stepped in front of the sofa. "Okay, Gin, I'm sorry I never told you about this... this is my father's Invisibility Cloak," he explained hurriedly.

Ginny's jaw dropped and she stared at the silvery material in Harry's hand. "No way," she said in awe. Harry sighed and nodded.

"Yes, and now, I think to get your mind off... stuff you... don't know, we'll take a little walk," he said in the most charming voice he could put on. So when he stuttered with what to say to get her mind off of, it wasn't sexy, but in the last 5 words he was impressed at how good he sounded. Ginny smiled weakly and got to her feet, swinging her cloak over her shoulders and fastening it. Harry held his arm out to her and she took it. 'God I'm good!' he thought. He crouched down a bit and managed to throw the cloak over both of them.

"The thing about this is that Invisibility cloaks don't stop you from being solid or from making noise... so we've got to be careful," Harry explained. Ginny nodded and said 'okay' and they were off. It wasn't until they passed by the split in the corridors where Harry and Cho usually went in separate directions that he felt a pang of guilt. 'What am I doing?' he wondered.

But he didn't stop walking.

Soon they were outside, walking across the grounds in the direction of the lake. They sat down beneath a towering oak tree that sat out on its own, the majority of it's leaves all around on the ground. Harry pulled the cloak off of them and laid it down next to him, just in case they needed to put it on quick again. The lake was an icy black in the dark of the night. There were patches of sky that were black, as it was partly cloudy. The moon only just shone through two of the clouds, casting the world around them into deep shades of navy and black.

"What were you doing awake, anyway, Harry?" Ginny asked, turning her head and looking at him. Harry just continued looking straight ahead at the smooth surface of the lake.

"You know what? I don't really know... I just couldn't sleep," Harry replied. Then a thought occurred to him. "Why in the world were you sleeping on the couch?"

Ginny, who had turned back to face the lake, glanced at him. "Well... I uh... I was having trouble sleeping too..." she stated, drifting off and looking down at her knees.

"Could you tell me why that is?" Harry questioned. They sat in silence for a few moments. Ginny was biting her lip and Harry was wondering whether he really wanted the answer to this question.

"Well it's just... er... I wasn't in too good of a mood. In fact, I'm still not in too good a mood... that's all," Ginny replied. She squirmed uncomfortably. Harry looked at her, but she didn't return his gaze. She was staring at her knees once more.

Harry, whose gaze hadn't faltered, asked, "Would you mind telling me why you aren't in a good mood?" He sincerely hoped his tone hadn't been at all cold or unkind, because he cared about Ginny and wanted to know what it was that had put her in a bad mood.

"Er... it's... well..." she spluttered. She looked over at Harry, and her stomach seemed to disappear from her body completely. Those green eyes...

He raised his eyebrows as to urge her to continue. You had to love the innocent puppy-dog look about him that he got when he tried to pull a questioning expression. "Well...you know Cameron?" Harry nodded. "Well...it's him. We've sorta been... together for a few weeks now and-"

"You have?" Harry injected, not being able to stop himself. She nodded. Really, no one had said anything about it and he wondered whether this 'relationship' had been hidden from everyone or just from him.

"Yeah we've kind of been keeping it... you know... a secret. More me than him, really," Ginny explained. Harry almost took this as a relief. "For some reason I just didn't want people to know. I wonder why I even went out with him now..."

"Hold on - went out with him? That is past-tense," Harry interrupted once more. Ginny nodded once more.

"Past tense is the way to speak of this now... tonight he broke up with me. He said... he said he felt like I didn't want to be open about all of it. He thought I was holding back and keeping us a secret because I was embarrassed to be with him, or some shit like that..." Ginny explained. Harry gave a small start when she swore... Ginny never cursed - or so he thought, anyway.

"Well... were you embarrassed to... be with him?" Harry asked. Ginny sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know... it was just different you know. Everyone probably thought that I still liked-" she stopped abruptly, and even in the dark Harry could see her go scarlet.

"Me," Harry finished for her. Ginny glanced over at him for a second then looked back down and nodded. Harry smiled to himself... he knew he had admirers but this kind of admirer he probably liked the most. It had taken him quite a while to come to this point.

"Uh...yeah. I don't know, I think Cameron wanted me to commit, and to be open with the public about what was going on... God... I'm only 15 years old... what do I know about committing?!" she asked, angrily. Harry had the feeling she was asking herself this question more than she was asking him, but he answered anyway.

"Probably more than I do..." he said quietly. He shook his head at his own stupidity... here he was sitting next to Ginny and thinking somewhat about how much he loved her and how it had taken him so long when only a couple nights ago he had kissed the girl he had had a crush on since he was 13 in the Astronomy Tower... it wasn't quite the fairytale-lifestyle.

"Explain..." Ginny commanded.

Harry looked into her eyes and sighed deeply. He wouldn't name names... that was the only way to do this. "Okay, so I've liked this girl since I was... 13. She had hardly taken the time to notice me too much - it's not like she was a ignorant bitch and hated me... of course not, she was extremely nice. Anyway, she confesses to me - 3 years later - that she likes me. So there's opportunity right there... and so I seize it. Great. Not like that, Gin," he added hastily as Ginny's eyes widened and her mouth was open in a horrified shock. She closed her mouth quickly.

"So... what happened?" she questioned. She looked almost as though she didn't really want to hear the answer but she needed to know, nonetheless.

"I kissed her. That's all.. someone showed up only a while later so we stopped before they saw us... anyway! But, before all this happened... before she told me - I started liking someone else. Well... 2 someone 'elses'. Now one of these people I still have feelings for... the other they just sort of died somehow. Don't ask... because I don't know...." Harry groaned in exasperation. "Sometimes I really, really hate being 16!" He hardly realized how much he sounded like a teenage girl right there.

"Well who do you feel stronger for, out of the 2 that you like now?" Ginny asked.

"Right now?" Harry asked.

"Be honest with me..." she said.

Harry's thoughts accidentally escaped his mouth. "The one sitting to my left," he said dully. He suddenly had the mad urge to clap his hand over his mouth and curse into his palm. "Good God!" he thought, vainly. He chanced a half-glance over at Ginny. She was staring at him with her mouth slightly open. It seemed she was turning this information over in her mind.

"Are you serious?" she whispered.

"Yeah. I hate when I think out loud... I hate it..." he replied, apparently cursing his speech mechanism. Ginny blushed deeply.

"Now...um...could you just tell me who these other people were? Please?" she said. Harry's thoughts slipped out of his mouth again.

"Cho and Hermione... Hermione is the one I don't think I like anymore... I don't think... oh my God," Harry replied. He smacked his palm on his forehead. Ginny actually giggled. Harry didn't understand why he was spilling his thoughts to her when she was the one who had just been dumped by her boyfriend... she should have been the one talking, not him. That was just his luck, that he admitted the entire truth to her... the truth that not even Holly with her screwy 6th sense couldn't figure out.

Ginny nodded. "I understand. At least I know that having a crush on you for 5 years wasn't completely useless..." she replied. Harry was blushing along with her now. After all these years they were finally being open with each other... it just didn't make sense. "I mean... I've had this dream of you suddenly just out and loving me and kissing me since I was 11... it's got a bit more passionate since then, though," she said.

They both laughed. Ginny was surprised at her own daring... telling anyone that... telling Harry that... was one thing that she was sure she would have never done under any circumstance. Only proof that no matter how strong you feel that you know something - you can be quite incorrect.

Harry had a definite instinctive urge to do something just then - but he tried and struggled to hold it off. "I wish I could control my feelings and fall for only one girl," he said more to himself than to Ginny.

"Harry... you're a teenage boy. With the hormones, you get all those mushy gushy-"

"Hard," Harry inserted. Ginny burst out laughing.

"If you insist," she continued as she regained control, "hard feelings about someone pretty easily. And you're a boy... so you have a lot less control over these things... like those hard feelings..." She burst out laughing again. It was amazing that someone who had been having a bad day could laugh like that. Harry managed to smirk and shake his head.

"You know?" she said after she had stopped laughing a while later, and breathed deep for a few moments - as she had hardly done so during her laughing fit. "I've heard that the longer you wait for something, the more you love it when it happens, or when you get it. I mean - I bet you wanted to hear Cho confess all these feelings to you for ages..."

Harry shrugged, "Yeah. It was a good feeling but obviously my euphoria over the whole ordeal didn't last long." He grumbled and clenched his mouth shut. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this," he repeated in his mind with his eyes closed tight.

"Let's get up, if I sit here much longer I'll go crazy," Ginny said. Harry wasn't exactly sure why that was, but they both got up and walked away from the tree, Harry's Invisibility Cloak tucked under his arm.

Harry could feel his love for Cho ebbing away as he walked with Ginny closer to the lake. They had only gone a couple of steps when Harry stopped. "Well that was a well-worth-it move," Ginny said, giving Harry a questionable look.

"It's enough for now," he sighed.

"I wonder if it's true..." she said after a moment of looking at him. "The whole 'The longer you wait the better it is when you finally get it' theory."

Harry grinned at her. He stepped forward until he was nearly touching her. His heart was pounding but somehow he managed to say, "Let's see, shall we?" in a smooth voice. He put his hand on the back of her head and bent down a little then pulled her towards him.

Ginny went rigid with surprise for a second but her body didn't stay tensed for very long. Soon, in fact, she had tangled her fingers in Harry's wild but soft black hair, and was kissing him back.

Harry felt like this was nothing like kissing Cho. Ginny had waited - had waited 5 years for Harry to make a move, and as it seemed she had forgotten completely about Cameron or any other thing that seemed to be bothering her. She kissed him back and it wasn't the gentle and careful kisses that you would have expected from little Ginny...oh no. And Harry by no means felt that he should be careful in return.

In no time Harry had steered her over to the tree they had just been residing under. He dropped the cloak on the ground and pushed her against the trunk, and kissed her fiercely. His mind was fogging over... and then he drew back. "What just happened?" he whispered.

"I have no clue but it wasn't half bad..." Ginny recalled.

"No... I mean... wait..." he stuttered. He thought back to Thursday night. He remembered kissing Cho... but something inside of him was twisting and flailing. It was a hunch that didn't feel quite right. It wasn't a feeling that worked against kissing Ginny... he couldn't quite explain it. He felt like he knew something... he knew something was going on but didn't know exactly what it was. It was all really quite strange. "I don't know," he said after contemplating this for a moment.

"Then what in the world did you stop for?" Ginny demanded. Harry smiled and the hunch faded away.

"Can I try something?" he asked.

"It depends..." she replied, giving him a searching look. He grinned wider.

"Oh c'mon it's nothing bad," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Are you for sure?" Ginny questioned in a cautious manner. Harry shrugged. He moved closer to her, lowered his head, and let his nose touch her neck for a second before he began kissing it lightly. He sucked lightly on it just below her jaw before moving to her throat. "Wh-whoa-where'd you learn to do that?" Ginny asked.

"I have no idea...just experimenting," he said. She opened her mouth to reply but he seized the opportunity, in a manner of speaking, and kissed her again. The feel of her lips nodding against his was enough to knock him straight to the ground. Soon beneath the parting of Ginny's mouth their tongues met. Harry had little to no experience with TONGUE other than his own - using it to speak and help himself swallow food - which was it.

They moved away from the tree once more and Harry found that he was a quick learner in more than just flying on a broomstick. In fact... he was thinking that kissing was something he must do more often. After a few moments he had to break for air and decided on nuzzling at Ginny's neck as he took in oxygen.

She was breathing rather hard and from this position he could feel her heart beating just as fast as his was. Harry straightened himself out and placed 3 of his fingers underneath Ginny's chin and guided her lips up to his. He experienced a new thrill as Ginny wrapped her arms around his neck to assure he didn't get away and when he responded by beginning to wrap his arms around her waist she let out a tiny moan and wriggled as close to him as she could.

They kissed for a good amount of time. Harry hadn't experienced something so wonderful in all of his days... but kissing is where it ended - just as it had started. At 3:30 that morning they made their way back to the castle, under the Invisibility Cloak once more. Harry slept in his dormitory with a very smug look about him.

An hour before lunch the next day Harry awoke, a feeling of guilt pressing on him that wasn't there the night before. When he set eyes on Cho when he had walked into the Great Hall for lunch... his stomach tightened and he became nearly incapable of thought. How in the world would he ever make up his mind? He didn't know it then... but sooner or later he'd find a way.