Title: The Letter
Date: August 1st, 1998.
Time of Day: 8:25AM
Characters: Ginny Weasley, Molly Weasley, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, George Weasley (mentioned), Percy Weasley (mentioned)
Location: Ginny's room and the Burrow kitchen
Status: Personal
Brief Summary: Ginny gets some extremely good news.
Completion: Complete
Warnings: N
Ginny woke slowly, a smile on her lips as the last images of her very pleasant dream faded away. For the first time in weeks, she had slept through the whole night, with no sign of a nightmare.
Feeling refreshed and almost unusually cheerful, Ginny brushed her hair and dressed quickly, the smell of bacon wafting up the stairs from the kitchen, where she could hear her mum moving around, and someone chattering on the Wireless. For a moment, it was almost like nothing had changed: she half expected to smell smoke coming from the twin’s room, or Percy making a fuss over being disturbed.
Her smile fell as she pulled herself back to reality: Fred was gone, and George hadn’t come home to the Burrow in weeks. And even though Percy was back, he rarely scolded anyone these days. Feeling her happy mood slip away, Ginny forced herself to remember the dream she’d been having (the memory was vague, but it had something to do with her, Harry, and a Quidditch game which turned into a different sort of game entirely).
Managing a smile once again, Ginny made her way down to the kitchen, and kissed her mother on the cheek as she sat down, reaching for the pile of post in the middle of the table.
“Your Hogwarts letter came, dear,” Molly said absently, flicking her wand at the pan of bacon, which dumped itself onto a plate next to Ginny’s elbow.
Sorting through the letters, Ginny found the one addressed to her and broke the familiar seal, expecting nothing more than the usual ‘welcome’ letter and her booklist. Instead, a tiny gold and scarlet badge fell out, and Ginny stared at the embossed letters across the front: “Captain”. Quickly, to avoid her mother’s notice, she slipped the badge into the pocket of her pyjamma pants, and pulled out the letter that remained in the envelope.
Quiddich Captain for Gryffindor. Ginny felt for a moment as though someone was having a very good laugh, although there it was, the letter signed and sealed with the Hogwarts crest, so it was certainly true. It felt strange to be thinking about Quidditch at Hogwarts, after the misery of last year, but already she could feel her excitement building at the prospect of beating out Slytherin for the House Cup.
The sound of her mother greeting Ron and Harry made Ginny look up from her letter, her gaze meeting Harry’s almost immediately. Grinning, she held up the letter and mouthed ‘I’m Quidditch Captain’ to him, and watched a grin break out on his face. It meant something to her that Harry be the first to know, partly because of him being the previous Captain, and more so because of what had happened last night.
Later, she'd tell everyone her good news, but for now, she savored the pride and affection in Harry’s expression, something just for her that she didn’t have to share with anyone else. Being able to make Harry look at her like that was even better than being Quiddich captain, she decided, and grinned at him, snatching a piece of bacon off Ron’s plate as per their usual morning routine.
As Harry sat down beside her and Ron started to gripe about his sister being a bacon thief, Ginny grinned and caught Harry’s hand under the table, giving it a brief squeeze before she helped herself to the scrambled eggs that her mother had just set on the table.
Today was looking to be a pretty good day.