Gift for: cwarbeck - The Best Laid Plans
Title: The Best Laid Plans
Gift for: cwarbeck
Author: nessismore
Pairing: Harry/Ginny; Ron/Hermione; Fred/Angelina; George/Luna; Hannah/Neville
Rating: PG
Word Count: 7,076
Summary: Ginny certainly didn’t plan to spend Halloween with Harry. So what exactly was she doing with him at a haunted house? And what could possibly go wrong?
Ginny sat on the couch at the apartment she shared with Luna in Muggle London and flipped through a magazine, idly thinking about what everybody else was doing. Luna was out somewhere with her dad, she knew, hunting some creature or other that only came out on Halloween….something about a pumpkin that emerged from a pumpkin patch and delivered toys to children. Her brothers and Hermione were all going to a haunted house; Ginny was supposed to go with them, but that was before she’d known that Harry was bringing someone else. She’d overheard Ron and Hermione discussing Harry’s date to the stupid haunted house, and that was around the same time that she’d remembered that she couldn’t possibly go out on Halloween.
That day, unable to think of a sufficient reason not to go to the haunted house, she’d made up a hasty excuse to leave the Burrow, and had studiously avoided Hermione since then. It wasn’t that she still carried a torch for Harry. Not at all. Sure there had been a time during her fifth year where she’d been so sure…but no. Nothing had ever happened and really, Ginny preferred it that way. Truly she did.
It was just that she didn’t want to be a third wheel. Or a ninth wheel, as the case would be, since she was sure that Fred and George would have no problem finding dates. Not that she’d have had a problem finding a date. Ever since being thwarted by Hermione during Hermione’s sixth year, Cormac McLaggen had been suffering under the delusion that Ginny would truly be the perfect girl for him, and he was forever underfoot. He’d even kissed her once, on Valentine’s day of her fifth year. She’d been waiting in the Three Broomsticks for Hermione, her brother, and Harry when he’d swooped out from nowhere and kissed her. It had taken a kick to the groin to dislodge him, but somehow that-and a bat bogey hex she’d been particularly proud of-hadn’t discouraged him from pursuing her, even three years later. If she had truly needed a date, he would have been more than willing to step in. He was harmless, if a bit obnoxious. The fact that bringing him would have tweaked her brothers’ noses would almost have made up for the fact that she’d have to spend an extended time in Cormac’s company. Almost.
There was a knock on the door and stifled a discontented sigh and grabbed the candy bowl. Pasting a smile on her face, she opened the door to find-Snow White? Well, Hermione as Snow White.
Without waiting for Ginny to invite her in, a very frazzled Hermione barged into the apartment, a garment bag and a box balanced in her arms. “Happy Halloween,” Hermione said breathlessly, although Ginny couldn’t see what was so happy about it. “Thank goodness you’re still here.”
“Still here? Hermione, where would else would I be?”
“At that pressing Halloween engagement that was keeping you from going with us to the haunted house.”
“Pressing Halloween engage-oh! Yeah. That…it got cancelled.”
Hermione raised her brows, a faint smirk on her lips. “How convenient. That means you can come with us!”
“Come with you?” Ginny was starting to feel like a parrot. She just barely managed to keep from looking down at her arms to see if she was sprouting feathers.
“To the haunted house, of course. Harry’s date backed out. Apparently she had something pressing to go to, and we don’t want him to feel left out.”
Great. So now she was a pity date. Forcing a regretful smile, Ginny subtly tried to herd Hermione back towards the door. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m really busy tonight-”
Hermione refused to be herded. “Doing what?”
“Things?” Yeah, Ginny figured Hermione wouldn’t buy it. She grasped on another excuse. “Besides, I don’t have a costume.”
Hermione leveled Ginny with a look that made the younger feel like a particularly stupid six year-old. “You know, you are of age. This might come as a surprise, but you are allowed to do magic outside of school now.”
“You don’t say!” Ginny exclaimed in mock surprise, giving up on subtly and attempting to pull Hermione towards the door. Of course her friend wasn’t daunted in the least.
“And besides, you needn’t worry. I’ve got a costume here for you. It was supposed to go with Harry’s, so I hope you don’t mind.” Hermione probably wouldn’t have cared if Ginny did mind, and she had no choice but to except when Hermione pushed the garment bag and box into Ginny’s arms. The battle was lost. Ginny might have had the Weasley determination, but no one could stop Hermione once she had her mind set on something. Ginny usually found that trait admirable-especially when it was being used on Ron-but she found it wasn’t quite so fun when focused on her.
“Do you think it will fit?” Ginny asked, trying to stall.
Hermione gave Ginny a shove towards the bathroom. “Honestly, Ginny, are you a witch or not? Besides, it should be close. I’m confident that you’re similar in size.”
Ginny scowled at her. She wasn’t particularly interested in hearing about Harry’s date. She certainly wasn’t interested in wearing his date’s costume. In fact, she was tempted to tell Hermione just where to shove it, when Hermione pulled out the big guns.
“If you don’t put that on, I’m telling your mother.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would. All I have to do is tell her that you refuse to save Harry from certain embarrassment, which really isn’t well done of you at all-“
“Fine!” Ginny snapped, stomping over to the bathroom. It would have been petty to slam the door, really, but she didn’t anyway. Still, she wasn’t sure who she was more irritated with: Hermione for forcing her to go, or herself for that cursed flip of anticipation in her stomach.
-
“Trick or treat,” Hermione said bright as the door to the Burrow opened. Ron, dressed as some sort of prince, greeted her with a blinding smile.
“Treat,” he said softly as he leaned down to give her a quick kiss.
Ginny made a gagging sound and pushed past them. “You two are nauseating.”
“You want a treat, too, Gin? Alright, I’ll find Harry.”
Ginny froze, then spun around to face her brother. “I will kill you.”
Instead of being properly cowed by the fire in Ginny’s eyes and the lethal tenor of her voice, Ron just grinned and hauled Hermione into his side. “Nah, Hermione wouldn’t let you.”
“Hiding behind a woman, Ronniekins?” Ginny turned and saw Fred and George seated on the couch. Fred was grinning at her broadly. From her angle, she couldn’t tell what his costume was.
George, dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland shook his head sadly. “Never figured you for a coward.”
Ron snorted. “Right, because the pair of you didn’t hide behind Angelina last week when mum was furious with you for blowing up the kitchen.”
Fred was about to launch into an argument with Ron when George interrupted. “What the hell are you wearing?” He was staring at Ginny with such a horrified look, she struggled not to laugh.
Up until that point, she’d been uncomfortable with her costume, which consisted of a beautiful long red cloak and a sweet white frock that would have been innocent if it hadn’t been for the uncomfortably short skirt and indecently low neckline. The look was completed with obscenely high red heels. Little Red Riding Hood, Hermione had told her. Ginny scoffed. The only thing little about this dress was the amount of material used to make it. She thought about Harry’s date wearing this and wanted to rip her hair out. His date’s hair, not her own.
“I can’t wear this!” she’d shouted at Hermione, who’d simply sniffed dismissively and hurried her out the door. Now, looking at the discomfort in her brothers’ eyes, she was perversely glad that she’d worn the costume.
“It’s a costume, George,” she said haughtily.
“You’re practically in your knickers!” Fred croaked. “People can probably see your knickers.”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I’d have expected this from Ron, but not the pair of you.”
“You’ll get cold,” George pointed out.
“I’ve got a cloak,” she said sweetly. She really did enjoy the gaping expressions on their faces. “I’m perfectly decent.” She refused to look at Hermione, knowing that her friend was smirking because on the way to the Burrow she’d been moaning about how perfectly indecent she felt.
“It would help if you were actually wearing something underneath it,” Fred muttered.
Angelina bustled in then, cuffing Fred on the arm. “I think she looks lovely.”
“Thank you, Angelina,” Ginny said primly. She looked at Angelina’s blue and white gingham dress. “Dorothy?”
“Miss Muppet, actually.”
“So that makes Fred…” Ginny laughed when she saw the furry legs sticking out from Fred’s waist, and the huge blob centered around the middle of his body. “You’re the spider?”
“What can I say? I’m good at making her scream.” Fred let out a fair shout of his own when Angelina hit him again.
Angelina turned haughtily to Hermione, changing the subject. “I thought you said that Harry’s date couldn’t make it.”
“She couldn’t.” Hermione had the oddest look on her face, the one she usually gave Ron when he was being particularly tactless.
“But Ginny-“ Angelina broke off when Fred nipped at her wrist. “Stop that!’
“I’m just practicing my spider bites, dear,” he said with a wink. But Ginny didn’t miss the look of gratitude on Hermione’s face.
She probably didn’t want to ruin Harry’s night by having him overhear a conversation about his aborted date. Of course, she thought bitterly, seeing me here instead of her will be reminder enough of that. Perhaps it wouldn’t be too late to apparate home. She was inching towards the door when she ran into something soft and warm. Cringing, she turned, hoping it wasn’t Harry.
“Is the party over, then? Is that why you’re leaving, Ginny?”
Ginny blinked in confusion. “Luna? I thought you were looking for that giant pumpkin creature with your dad.”
“Oh, I was. But George finally convinced me to go with him to the party.”
“Finally?” This night was getting stranger by the minute.
“Ginny, you’re not going anywhere except for with us,” Ron said irritably, but she ignored him and focused on Luna.
“He’s been asking me for a while, but I thought it was a joke. Your brother does love jokes, you know,” Luna said, her wide eyes bright with excitement. “But when he said he’d go with daddy and me to the pumpkin patch instead, I didn’t think he was joking then. Daddy insisted that we go to the party, but I had to bring him dinner first.”
“Oh.” Because really, what was there to say when your best friend was walking over to your brother, perching on his lap like she belonged there?
George smiled and wrapped his arms around Luna’s waist. “It’s not a party, Luna love. We’re going to a haunted house.”
Luna looked pleased. “Oh, lovely! Daddy says that blibbering humdingers are attracted to ghosts. Perhaps we’ll see one.”
Instead of laughing, George said, “Perhaps,” and kissed her on the cheek, daring anyone else to laugh at either of them. They did look rather sweet together, Luna’s Alice to George’s Mad Hatter. Ginny never would have thought of them-George and Luna-together, really, but somehow they made sense. And it explained why George had been stopping by the apartment so often lately.
Still, as Ginny’s gaze went from George and Luna to Hermione and Ron, she couldn’t help thinking that her friends had terrible taste in men. Then again, at least the men they were attracted to were actually attracted back. Not that she was still attracted to Harry.
And then he walked in, looking quite rugged and masculine in a flannel shirt, a ridiculous plastic axe over his shoulder.
She was not still attracted to him, she told herself firmly. She studiously tried to ignore the voice in her head calling her a liar.
-
“Do you think we’ll see any real ghosts?” Luna asked as she and George skipped ahead of the group. Well, Luna skipped and George walked quickly to keep up with her. The entire way he kept her hand firmly in his.
Fred chuckled. “Luna, we lived in a haunted castle. You’ve met ghosts before.”
“Well yes,” Luna said over her shoulder, “but it would be fun to meet new ones.”
As George quietly explained to Luna about Muggle haunted houses, Ginny snuck a look at Harry by her side. He looked uncomfortable, and really she couldn’t blame him. The others, who were getting further and further ahead of them were all holding hands and acting disgustingly lovey dovey. While she and Harry…well, you could probably fit a family of elephants in between them and still have room to spare.
When he’d seen her at the Burrow, she saw his eyes go wide with shock and he’d barely been able to stammer out a hello. Probably disappointment, she’d told herself as she muttered a passably polite greeting of her own. At least, she thought she’d been polite. The mood she’d been in, she wasn’t entirely certain. But the extent of their conversation since that greeting had been a pair of “So…’s” that couldn’t quite manage to stretch themselves into an actual conversation. So that awkward greeting at the Burrow and that awkward hello had transformed itself into awkward silence that settled between them as they followed the others.
She hated it. They hadn’t been this uncomfortable with each other since her second year at Hogwarts and she’d vowed to get over her awful crush on him. She hadn’t managed to attain that goal while at Hogwarts-still haven’t, that awful voice in her head whispered-but they’d at least become comfortable, and eventually friends. Friends who had lunch together once a week (at least until she’d found out he had a date who wasn’t her and she’d cancelled on him as often as she could) and they’d gone to several movies when they’d been lonely for company, and sometimes they’d grabbed coffee just to chat. Friends who weren’t horribly uncomfortable because of disappointed expectations. Really, they were better than this and she wasn’t going to stand it a moment longer.
She turned to look at him and took a deep breath. “Listen, Harry-oof!” Of course with her luck she’d managed to run smack dab into a knight, and she went tumbling to the ground. Merlin, she was clumsy today. She blamed Hermione. And Harry. It was always Harry’s fault when she did something silly. Of course, it was hard to be annoyed with him when he immediately knelt by her side to see if she was alright.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ginny!” The voice coming from tin helmet of the knight in question was familiar.
“Neville?”
After a brief struggle the knight managed to pull free from his helmet, revealing Neville’s rueful grin. “I’m sorry. Hannah and I saw you coming. We wanted to say hello.”
“Hello,” Ginny said brightly, although really wanted to tear her hear out and scream. She smiled politely at the princess at Neville’s side, noted their linked fingers. As she fought to get to her feet, she was irritable. Was Halloween the new Valentine’s Day? It seemed that everyone was a couple here. Everyone except her and Harry. She tried to get to her feet, but trying to preserve her modesty and untangle herself from her cloak at the same time seemed to be a difficult feat. Harry took pity on her and easily scooped her up.
She blinked.
When had he gotten so strong?
Focusing on keeping her lady bits covered, she allowed Harry to extricate her the tangled cloak from her legs. She was extremely conscious of his hand on her thigh and the proximity of his face to hers. If she leaned just a little forward-
“…and thought it might be fun to see how the Muggles did Halloween.” It was then that Ginny realized that Neville had been speaking, and she brushed profusely as Harry set her on the ground.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, avoiding looking at him.
“No problem.” His breath tickled her ear as he spoke quietly, and his voice sounded strained; she wondered if he was thinking about his stupid other date. “You look really nice, by the way. I probably forgot to tell you that.
“So what do you think?” Once again, Neville’s voice interrupted the moment. Another blush flooded Ginny’s cheeks but she tried to smile politely for fear of hurting Neville’s feelings.
“I’m sorry, Neville, what was that?”
“I asked if you’d like to join us. Walking through the haunted house.”
“Yeah,” Ginny said absently, her mind still on Harry. “Sure. We’re here with a group if you wanted to join us.”
And apparently that was about the time the group finally realized that Harry and Ginny weren’t with them, because her brothers and their dates descended upon them en masse.
“There you two are!” Hermione exclaimed as she hurried ahead of the others. “Neville? What are you doing here?”
Neville smiled brightly at her. “Hannah and I wanted to see a real Muggle haunted house. Harry and Ginny said we could join you.”
“Did they now?” Hermione sounded less than pleased and the look she sent Harry and Ginny told them so. What on earth was wrong with her?”
Neville sensed it, too, and he took an involuntary step back. “Uh…unless you don’t want us to?”
Ginny could tell Hermione’s smile was forced, but with determined cheer, Hermione said, “Of course we want you to. Come along.”
The rest of them followed in her wake, but Ginny’s mind was on the delicious feel of Harry’s breath tickling her ear. It was nothing, she knew it was. But she couldn’t help but wish that it wasn’t.
-
“This isn’t so bad,” Harry whispered as he and Ginny led the way through the first room. It was dimly lit and it was difficult to see anything, but she had to agree. While there was a chilling atmosphere permeating the night, the room itself wasn’t so scary. It was just a bunch of old paintings of creepy looking people. The canvases were ripped to shreds and there were cobwebs all over the place. Certainly spooky, but nothing to write home about.
“Did you expect it to be?”
“I don’t know what I expected.”
“Haven’t you been to one of these before?”
Ginny watched Harry’s shadowy form shrug. “No, the Dursleys never took me when they took Dudley.” Ginny’s heart broke for the little boy Harry had been.
“Well,” she whispered, “I’m glad our first time is together then.”
He mumbled something then, but didn’t clarify when she said, “Hmm?” His words sounded suspiciously like, “I hope so.” But Ginny certainly wasn’t going to let her mind go down that road.
A shriek made her jump, and she and Harry whirled to face the group behind them. Harry was brandishing his axe like he’d actually use it. It was almost comical, really. Harry bludgeoning some poor, unsuspecting creature with a plastic axe that weighed less than her cloak. The shriek was followed immediately by the sound of a fist hitting Weasley and an exclaimed, “Fred!”
Chuckling, Harry and Ginny turned to continue on when a huge figure jumped up from behind the door and shouted. The girls screamed, and Ginny leaped close to Harry. Only Luna seemed unfazed as she walked up to the shadow and asked, “Are you a ghost?”
It, of course, didn’t answer as they walked down a short corridor to the next room. Behind them they heard Luna’s voice. “I think I’d like to speak to the ghost.”
George’s voice followed. “Luna love, wait!”
Ginny paused, but Hermione was right behind her. “Just go on without them,” she whispered. “They’ll catch up.” Shrugging, Ginny did as she suggested. This room was much like the last, dark and shadowy, it looked almost normal. She was sure that there were cobwebs decorating the corners, but it looked almost like Hermione’s study. There was a flash of light, like lightning, and the room illuminated briefly. It was nothing like Hermione’s study. Every inch was covered in slashes and in what looked like blood. Ginny knew that it was fake, but she couldn’t help but gasp.
“Scared, Weasley?” Harry whispered in her ear. She wasn’t even aware that she’d gotten that close to him. Apparently she had.
“No,” she said, her voice small. This room was definitely creepier than the other. Another figure popped out from the doorway behind them, this one large and furry looking, almost like a werewolf, and she couldn’t help but gasp. Harry automatically put an arm around her and ran with her towards the next room. The others were close behind them, Neville’s armor clanking all the way.
They caught their breath in the connecting corridor. Ginny winced as her feet protested running in heels. She looked at Harry, who still had his arm around her. “I don’t think I like haunted houses,” she muttered. It wasn’t that the two rooms had been particularly scary, she just really could have done without things jumping out at her. And chasing.
“I thought you weren’t scared.”
“I’m not. I just don’t like things jumping out at me.”
“Don’t worry, Gin.” He was so close his nose brushed against her temple. “I’ll protect you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes. They’ll take one look at your puny axe and be laughing too hard to chase us.”
“Let’s get going,” Ron said irritably. He didn’t like having things jump out at him any more than she did.
They moved forward to the next room in the house. It was cavernous, large enough to hold several Yule Balls at once, with only a single strobelight that almost blinded her when she looked for the exit to the next room. Squinting into the light, she and Harry walked forward. Every once in a while, Harry’s fingers would brush hers and she’d feel a thrill shoot up her spine that had nothing to do with the haunted house, which, she had to admit, wasn’t so boring. She was so intent on scanning the walls that she was completely taken by surprise by the hand that hit her midsection. Hard.
She turned in the direction of the hand into Harry’s horrified gaze.”I’m so sorry. I thought-I mean, I was trying-“
“For Merlin’s sake,” she heard someone mutter behind her. Probably Ron. She wasn’t quite ready to speak so she just nodded.
“What were you doing?” she asked once she could finally get words out.
“I was trying to hold your hand.” Ginny stared at him. She could have sworn he was blushing.
“Why?”
“In case you got scared.” There was a choked sound from behind them, and Ginny turned to see Ron, Hermione, Hannah and Neville all huddled close, afraid of being left behind.
She was about to say something to Harry-something terribly clever and flippant, she wanted to think, but it probably would have just been a squeaky “What?!”-when she realized that there were only four people behind her instead of six. “What happened to Fred and Angelina?”
“Fred and Angelina?” Hermione blinked like she’d never heard of them. She was acting so odd today, and Ginny didn’t know what to think of it at all.
“They’re probably somewhere snogging the living daylights out of each other,” Ron said impatiently. “Now how do we get out of this place? Haven’t you found a door yet?”
“You try looking-“ Ginny snapped, but just then the lights when out. She did grab Harry’s hand, then, and she even squeezed close to his side. It was pitch black and she was a bit freaked out but Ginny couldn’t help thinking that perhaps haunted houses were okay after all. And then she remembered that Harry was supposed to be with someone else that night, that he hadn’t intended to be with her at all, and she felt distinctively less charitable and all she wanted was for the lights to come back on and to get out of this stupid place.
An overhead light did come back on then, and she wished they hadn’t. Somehow the room had shrunk, the walls were much closer to them and the ceiling had dropped. But the worst part was the three figures-a woman in bloody clothes and straggly hair, holding a knife, a furry man with sharp fangs and bared claws, and a man with blades for fingers-standing in front of three of the walls. As the figures surged forward, there was only once place to go. Thankfully there was a door and she, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Hannah all tumbled through. The figures, thankfully, did not.
Hannah let out a breathless laugh and clung to Neville. Neville was doing his own fair share of clinging, and from the rattling of his tin armor, it sounded like his knees were shaking, too. Ron was holding on to Hermione tightly, staring distrustingly at the doorway they’d passed through, as if he expected any one of the three that had been chasing them to come through at any minute. Ginny blushed when she realized that she herself was in Harry’s arms, but at the thought of his mystery date, she pushed roughly away from him and turned away from him, under the pretense of straightening her cloak.
When she turned back, he was frowning intently at her. He reached for her hand but she pretended she didn’t see and walked briskly forward. The next few rooms passed without significant incident. She couldn’t even really remember what was in each of them, focused as she was on ignoring Harry. It wasn’t fair, really, that he could ask out another girl but then act the way he had with her tonight. She wouldn’t stand for it. She had more sense than that, more pride…
They’d reached another room, and Ginny hoped they were nearing the end. She wasn’t sure how much more of ignoring Harry she could take, especially when he kept trying to take her hand in his, and when in every connecting corridor, he’d looked at her like he wanted to say something.
She wouldn’t let him, though. She wasn’t about to let him break her heart, or help him toy with someone else’s. Never mind that she’d decided that she disliked his mystery date immensely. It was the principle of the thing. Not that she’d thought that Harry was the type to mess around with a girl’s emotions, but he’d certainly been doing it with hers for years…however unwittingly. She was just confused, as she always was where Harry was concerned.
With a sigh, she stepped into the room and froze. With an evil grin, she turned to watch Ron enter the room. His face was priceless. He knocked Neville to the ground in an effort to leave the room faster. “Ron!” Hermione had called after him, but the only thing he’d yelled-or shrieked, rather-was “Spiders!”
The surged with the movement of them as every inch was covered by a thick layer of spiders of every kind. Ginny wasn’t certain if they were fake or if there was something protecting the guests from them (although it certainly didn’t look like it). All she knew was that they were creepy. With a sigh, she and the others went to find her brother and Hermione.
They were just outside the door, arguing profusely. Ginny’s gaze bounced from one to the other as they shouted at each other.
“I’m telling you, Hermione, I’m not going in there!” he bellowed.
“And I”m telling you, it’s the only way out!”
“We’ll just go back the way we came, then.”
“We can’t. It’s against the rules!”
“Then I’ll jump out the bloody window. I’m. Not. Going. In. There.”
“Ronald, be reasonable.”
“I am being reasonable. I’ll stay here all night if I have to.”
With a beleaguered sigh, Hermione turned to Ginny. “You’d better go ahead. I’ll see if I can calm the scaredy cat here.”
Ron took exception to that. “I’m not a scaredy cat! It’s a normal honest-to-Merlin phobia!”
“What do you know about phobias?”
“Your dad explained them to me.”
Seeing that she wasn’t going to dislodge them anytime soon, she motioned for the rest of them to follow. Once again Harry tried to take her hand, even managed to get a grip on her fingers before she shook him off. She heard a distinctly frustrated growl come from him but at the moment she didn’t care. She just wanted to go home.
She decided to ignore the spiders, walking briskly towards the exit. Harry was hot on her heels while she could hear Neville struggling with his armor behind her. Then she heard the clank of armer and a shrieked, “NEVILLE!”
Whirling around, Hannah and Neville where nowhere to be seen. “Harry,” she whispered. This time when he took her hand, she didn’t pull away. The two ran back to where Hannah and Neville had been, but there was no trace of them. Hoping that they’d gone into the corridor with Ron and Hermione, Ginny pulled Harry along with her. But Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight.
She truly was frightened now. “They’re gone. Where could they have gone?” Harry shook his head, his face pale. “We have to find them.” She was just about to head back into the last room they’d been in, the one before the spider room, when something jumped out at her. It wasn’t at all like the costumed workers they’d seen through the haunted house. Those had been somewhat scary. This one, with it’s long claws and dripping fangs, was terrifying.
“Run!” Ginny shouted, pushing Harry ahead of her. He kept hold of her hand as they ran through the spider room, through another short corridor, and finally, blessedly, the exit. Only this furry creature was still behind them. And it was gaining, fast. Ginny stumbled as her heel caught in the grass outside the haunted house. Harry caught her before she fell. Harry threw the axe at the creature, but it didn’t slow down.
Ginny snatched off her heels and threw one. It missed. The next shoe didn’t, the heel of her shoe connecting with the creature’s forehead. It howled in pain. Harry pulled her along as they ran, the hunstman and Little Red Riding Hood, running from the big bad wolf. It was after them again and this time she had nothing left to throw at it. Neither did Harry. She peeked back to see how close the monster was.
And then she saw it. One of the legs from Fred’s spider costume was stuck in its claws. Whatever it was had been picking them off, and now it was just her and Harry. She would have turned back to face it, but she had nothing to fight it with. She’d stupidly left her wand at the Burrow. There was a copse of trees in the distance. Perhaps she could find a big enough branch…if she made it that far.
Oh Merlin…
She looked back again and slid to a halt. It was gone, just as suddenly as it had appeared. She tugged Harry’s hand. “We have to go back!” she shouted, pulling him into the house.
“We can’t, Gin,” he said softly.
“They’re in trouble. I know they are. That thing…it had part of Fred’s costume!” She tried pulling again but Harry didn’t move.
“Ginny-“
“What are you waiting for?” she demanded. “They’re your friends, my brothers, we have to-“
Harry gripped Ginny’s shoulders, shaking her slightly to calm her. “Damnit, Ginny, they aren’t in danger!”
“They…they aren’t?” She blinked; his eyes, shining in the light of the full moon, held the truth.
With a frustrated groan, Harry let her go, walking a few steps away. “No. It was all part of a plan so that I could be alone with you.”
From abject terror to utter confusion, all in one sentence and it left her reeling as the adrenaline subsided. It was replaced by something else, something warmer, as his words sunk in. “A plan?”
He nodded, but still didn’t look at her. “I know it’s pathetic, but when you’ve been pining after a girl for as long as I have-“
Her jaw dropped open. “Pining?”
“Yeah. Pining.” He snuck a peek at her. “After you.”
“I don’t think I understand.” She wanted him to say it again, needed him to say it again. Her heart was racing now for an entirely different reason. He strode towards her, taking her hand in his.
“Do you remember my sixth year, the Hogsmeade visit around Valentine’s Day?” Ginny was once again at sea at his change of topic, and she could only nod. “That was the day I was going to tell you how I felt about you. I’d been working up the courage for weeks,” he said with a self-deprecating smile. “I could face Voldemort, no problem, but the prospect of telling you-well I needed a lot of time to prepare myself. Ron even gave me a pep talk.”
Ginny smiled. “He did?”
“Yeah. Remember how the four of us were supposed to meet for lunch? And how we were late? That was because I was so nervous Ron pulled me aside to calm me down. And then I walked in, ready to offer you my heart, and I saw you kissing Cormac McLaggen.”
“Oh, Harry!” He’d liked her. All the way back in fifth year, he’d liked her and he’d been about to tell her. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around that. “He kissed me, Harry. I wasn’t kissing him, I was trying to get him off of me.”
“I know that now. But back then, it broke my heart.”
“Oh, Harry.” She cradled his cheek in her palm.
“Once I figured out what happened I decided I didn’t want to ruin our friendship by pushing my own unwanted feelings on you-“
“They were never unwanted, Harry,” she said quietly. “What brought on the change of heart?”
“Never a change of heart,” he murmured, turning his head so his lips brushed against her palm. He let go of her hand, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. Ginny looped her arms around his neck. “Just a change of resolve. After you graduated, the more time we spent together outside of Hogwarts, the sillier it seemed not just…do it. So I’ve been working up to it. Slowly. But it didn’t seem to be working.”
She hid a smile, knowing that it would be a mistake while he was revealing his heart to her. Instead, she brushed her thumb over his cheek. “You’ve been trying?”
Harry sighed, a weary sigh of disappointment. “You haven’t noticed? I was trying to take it slow, to ease you into the idea.”
She did smile then. He wanted to ease her into the idea? “Why didn’t you just tell me, Harry?”
The withering look he gave her rivaled one of Hermione’s. “Right, like you told me?”
He had her there. “So you really developed this elaborate ruse to get me alone?”
“Well the ruse was Hermione’s,” he admitted. “But I was the one who decided that it was time for drastic measures. The plan was to get you here and scare you into getting close to me. And slowly the others would wander off and we’d be here, where we are now. And then under the moonlight I’d tell you how lovely you look and how much I love you and I’d ask if I could kiss you…but it didn’t turn out like that at all. I thought it was working but then you pulled away and I didn’t know what to do and so Hermione changed the plan a bit-“
“And you decided to scare me out of my wits?” she asked with a laugh. He laughed, too, but then his smile faded and he regarded her solemnly.
“Why did you pull away? Not just tonight, but the past few weeks.”
“At the Burrow a few weeks ago I heard Ron and Hermione talking about your date to the haunted house.”
“And you got jealous?” A brilliant grin swept over his face and she scowled at him.
“I couldn’t stand the thought of watching you with someone else all night so I decided not to go. And all I could think of tonight was that you’d wanted to be here with someone else-”
He pressed a swift kiss to her forehead. “There was no one else. Ever. Not for the last three years. You heard Ron and Hermione discussing you.”
“So that’s why Hermione insisted the costume would fit.”
“She had it made specifically for you. When Hermione said you weren’t going, I wanted to scrap the whole thing. But she said she’d get you here, even if she had to drag you herself.”
Warmth suffused her as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. This-the feel of his arms around her, loving her, was perfect. “Harry, you know that part of your plan…the one about you kissing me?”
“Yeah?”
“It wasn’t half bad.” He lifted his head and smiled down at her.
“Alright then. Ginny Weasley, can I-“ He never got to finish his sentence as Ginny speared her fingers through his hair and kissed him firmly. In that moment, a horde of fake werewolves could have descended upon them and she wouldn’t have noticed a thing.
The only thing she knew was Harry, pressing her tightly to him, kissing her in the moonlight.
It was perfect.
-
They didn’t know how long they stood there, kissing and whispering words of love. All they knew was that that was how the others found them later, when they were getting ready to leave.
She noticed Fred first, out of costume, a large gash on his forehead as he and Angelina led the pack. “Merlin, Gin, a bloke goes to help his sister and her pitiful love life out, and that’s the kind of thanks he gets?”
“You deserved it!” Ginny retorted. “I thought you were going to kill us. How did you do that anyway?”
“Hermione transfigured parts of him,” Angelina said with a grin. “It was pretty brilliant, but even she couldn’t change his fur from ginger to black.”
“So it’s all worked out, then?” Hermione asked, even though her answer was clearly in front of her. Harry refused to let Ginny go, and Ginny herself didn’t seem in any hurry to extricate herself. “Then the plan was a success.”
Neville laughed and it was then Ginny realized that some of his armor was dented and he looked a little worse for the wear. At her wide eyed expression, Neville scratched his head sheepishly. “Ron grabbed me in the spider room, hid me and Hannah until you two were out of the building. Sorry, Hermione. We didn’t know that there was a big plan in the works.”
Ginny rested her head against Harry’s chest, and Harry dropped another kiss on her forehead.
Ron looked almost bilious. “Alright then, none of that now. At least not in front of me.”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Like you haven’t done worse in front of me with Hermione?”
“That’s different. I’m a man. You’re a-“
Hermione punched him in the arm. “You really do not want to finish that sentence, Ronald.” Wisely, he didn’t. Ginny giggled, and surveyed the group that had executed this wonderfully harebrained plan.
“Thank you. All of you.” She realized then that a couple was missing. “Where are George and Luna?”
“Right here!” George called out as he and Luna hurried over to the group. Luna was wearing his heat and the bow on Luna’s dress was askew. They looked oddly breathless, too.
Fred scowled at the approaching couple. “Fine time to show up now. I could have used your help when your sister was turning shoes into deadly weapons.”
George grinned unrepentantly. “I was…otherwise occupied. And now that you’re all settled, Luna and I will head off on our real date.”
The others called out a goodbye as George and Luna walked off into the night, Luna’s voice carrying back to them. “But George, couldn’t we speak to some more ghosts?”
Couple by couple, the group diminished until it was just Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny. Ginny reached out and squeezed Hermione’s hand. “Really, thank you. Both of you.”
“Any time, little sister,” Ron said, tugging on a lock of Ginny’s hair.
“Any time?” Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.
“You know what I mean.” Ginny, her cheek resting against Harry’s chest, smiled happily.
“Oh, I’m just so happy that you’re happy!” Hermione cried, throwing her arms around Harry and Ginny with such force she almost knocked them over.
Harry took one arm from around Ginny’s waist and wrapped it around Hermione’s shoulders. “You’re the best.”
Ron stared at the three of them, amusement dancing in his eyes. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, get over here, Ron.”
He hesitated, then Hermione gave him a look. With a resigned sigh, he shook his head. “If you tell anybody about this…” But he joined the group hug just the same. After a moment, he pulled away, tugging Hermione with him. “Come on, ‘Mione. We’ve got a date of our own to get to.”
With a cheerful goodbye, Harry and Ginny were left alone. “What do you say we head over to my place for dinner? I have it on good authority that my roommate is out for the night.”
“I’d love to.” But they didn’t move, content to stay in each others’ arms.
“Hey Ginny?”
“Yes?”
“Happy Halloween.”
And as she stood there with Harry in the moonlight, it was.
Gift for: cwarbeck
Author: nessismore
Pairing: Harry/Ginny; Ron/Hermione; Fred/Angelina; George/Luna; Hannah/Neville
Rating: PG
Word Count: 7,076
Summary: Ginny certainly didn’t plan to spend Halloween with Harry. So what exactly was she doing with him at a haunted house? And what could possibly go wrong?
Ginny sat on the couch at the apartment she shared with Luna in Muggle London and flipped through a magazine, idly thinking about what everybody else was doing. Luna was out somewhere with her dad, she knew, hunting some creature or other that only came out on Halloween….something about a pumpkin that emerged from a pumpkin patch and delivered toys to children. Her brothers and Hermione were all going to a haunted house; Ginny was supposed to go with them, but that was before she’d known that Harry was bringing someone else. She’d overheard Ron and Hermione discussing Harry’s date to the stupid haunted house, and that was around the same time that she’d remembered that she couldn’t possibly go out on Halloween.
That day, unable to think of a sufficient reason not to go to the haunted house, she’d made up a hasty excuse to leave the Burrow, and had studiously avoided Hermione since then. It wasn’t that she still carried a torch for Harry. Not at all. Sure there had been a time during her fifth year where she’d been so sure…but no. Nothing had ever happened and really, Ginny preferred it that way. Truly she did.
It was just that she didn’t want to be a third wheel. Or a ninth wheel, as the case would be, since she was sure that Fred and George would have no problem finding dates. Not that she’d have had a problem finding a date. Ever since being thwarted by Hermione during Hermione’s sixth year, Cormac McLaggen had been suffering under the delusion that Ginny would truly be the perfect girl for him, and he was forever underfoot. He’d even kissed her once, on Valentine’s day of her fifth year. She’d been waiting in the Three Broomsticks for Hermione, her brother, and Harry when he’d swooped out from nowhere and kissed her. It had taken a kick to the groin to dislodge him, but somehow that-and a bat bogey hex she’d been particularly proud of-hadn’t discouraged him from pursuing her, even three years later. If she had truly needed a date, he would have been more than willing to step in. He was harmless, if a bit obnoxious. The fact that bringing him would have tweaked her brothers’ noses would almost have made up for the fact that she’d have to spend an extended time in Cormac’s company. Almost.
There was a knock on the door and stifled a discontented sigh and grabbed the candy bowl. Pasting a smile on her face, she opened the door to find-Snow White? Well, Hermione as Snow White.
Without waiting for Ginny to invite her in, a very frazzled Hermione barged into the apartment, a garment bag and a box balanced in her arms. “Happy Halloween,” Hermione said breathlessly, although Ginny couldn’t see what was so happy about it. “Thank goodness you’re still here.”
“Still here? Hermione, where would else would I be?”
“At that pressing Halloween engagement that was keeping you from going with us to the haunted house.”
“Pressing Halloween engage-oh! Yeah. That…it got cancelled.”
Hermione raised her brows, a faint smirk on her lips. “How convenient. That means you can come with us!”
“Come with you?” Ginny was starting to feel like a parrot. She just barely managed to keep from looking down at her arms to see if she was sprouting feathers.
“To the haunted house, of course. Harry’s date backed out. Apparently she had something pressing to go to, and we don’t want him to feel left out.”
Great. So now she was a pity date. Forcing a regretful smile, Ginny subtly tried to herd Hermione back towards the door. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m really busy tonight-”
Hermione refused to be herded. “Doing what?”
“Things?” Yeah, Ginny figured Hermione wouldn’t buy it. She grasped on another excuse. “Besides, I don’t have a costume.”
Hermione leveled Ginny with a look that made the younger feel like a particularly stupid six year-old. “You know, you are of age. This might come as a surprise, but you are allowed to do magic outside of school now.”
“You don’t say!” Ginny exclaimed in mock surprise, giving up on subtly and attempting to pull Hermione towards the door. Of course her friend wasn’t daunted in the least.
“And besides, you needn’t worry. I’ve got a costume here for you. It was supposed to go with Harry’s, so I hope you don’t mind.” Hermione probably wouldn’t have cared if Ginny did mind, and she had no choice but to except when Hermione pushed the garment bag and box into Ginny’s arms. The battle was lost. Ginny might have had the Weasley determination, but no one could stop Hermione once she had her mind set on something. Ginny usually found that trait admirable-especially when it was being used on Ron-but she found it wasn’t quite so fun when focused on her.
“Do you think it will fit?” Ginny asked, trying to stall.
Hermione gave Ginny a shove towards the bathroom. “Honestly, Ginny, are you a witch or not? Besides, it should be close. I’m confident that you’re similar in size.”
Ginny scowled at her. She wasn’t particularly interested in hearing about Harry’s date. She certainly wasn’t interested in wearing his date’s costume. In fact, she was tempted to tell Hermione just where to shove it, when Hermione pulled out the big guns.
“If you don’t put that on, I’m telling your mother.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would. All I have to do is tell her that you refuse to save Harry from certain embarrassment, which really isn’t well done of you at all-“
“Fine!” Ginny snapped, stomping over to the bathroom. It would have been petty to slam the door, really, but she didn’t anyway. Still, she wasn’t sure who she was more irritated with: Hermione for forcing her to go, or herself for that cursed flip of anticipation in her stomach.
-
“Trick or treat,” Hermione said bright as the door to the Burrow opened. Ron, dressed as some sort of prince, greeted her with a blinding smile.
“Treat,” he said softly as he leaned down to give her a quick kiss.
Ginny made a gagging sound and pushed past them. “You two are nauseating.”
“You want a treat, too, Gin? Alright, I’ll find Harry.”
Ginny froze, then spun around to face her brother. “I will kill you.”
Instead of being properly cowed by the fire in Ginny’s eyes and the lethal tenor of her voice, Ron just grinned and hauled Hermione into his side. “Nah, Hermione wouldn’t let you.”
“Hiding behind a woman, Ronniekins?” Ginny turned and saw Fred and George seated on the couch. Fred was grinning at her broadly. From her angle, she couldn’t tell what his costume was.
George, dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland shook his head sadly. “Never figured you for a coward.”
Ron snorted. “Right, because the pair of you didn’t hide behind Angelina last week when mum was furious with you for blowing up the kitchen.”
Fred was about to launch into an argument with Ron when George interrupted. “What the hell are you wearing?” He was staring at Ginny with such a horrified look, she struggled not to laugh.
Up until that point, she’d been uncomfortable with her costume, which consisted of a beautiful long red cloak and a sweet white frock that would have been innocent if it hadn’t been for the uncomfortably short skirt and indecently low neckline. The look was completed with obscenely high red heels. Little Red Riding Hood, Hermione had told her. Ginny scoffed. The only thing little about this dress was the amount of material used to make it. She thought about Harry’s date wearing this and wanted to rip her hair out. His date’s hair, not her own.
“I can’t wear this!” she’d shouted at Hermione, who’d simply sniffed dismissively and hurried her out the door. Now, looking at the discomfort in her brothers’ eyes, she was perversely glad that she’d worn the costume.
“It’s a costume, George,” she said haughtily.
“You’re practically in your knickers!” Fred croaked. “People can probably see your knickers.”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I’d have expected this from Ron, but not the pair of you.”
“You’ll get cold,” George pointed out.
“I’ve got a cloak,” she said sweetly. She really did enjoy the gaping expressions on their faces. “I’m perfectly decent.” She refused to look at Hermione, knowing that her friend was smirking because on the way to the Burrow she’d been moaning about how perfectly indecent she felt.
“It would help if you were actually wearing something underneath it,” Fred muttered.
Angelina bustled in then, cuffing Fred on the arm. “I think she looks lovely.”
“Thank you, Angelina,” Ginny said primly. She looked at Angelina’s blue and white gingham dress. “Dorothy?”
“Miss Muppet, actually.”
“So that makes Fred…” Ginny laughed when she saw the furry legs sticking out from Fred’s waist, and the huge blob centered around the middle of his body. “You’re the spider?”
“What can I say? I’m good at making her scream.” Fred let out a fair shout of his own when Angelina hit him again.
Angelina turned haughtily to Hermione, changing the subject. “I thought you said that Harry’s date couldn’t make it.”
“She couldn’t.” Hermione had the oddest look on her face, the one she usually gave Ron when he was being particularly tactless.
“But Ginny-“ Angelina broke off when Fred nipped at her wrist. “Stop that!’
“I’m just practicing my spider bites, dear,” he said with a wink. But Ginny didn’t miss the look of gratitude on Hermione’s face.
She probably didn’t want to ruin Harry’s night by having him overhear a conversation about his aborted date. Of course, she thought bitterly, seeing me here instead of her will be reminder enough of that. Perhaps it wouldn’t be too late to apparate home. She was inching towards the door when she ran into something soft and warm. Cringing, she turned, hoping it wasn’t Harry.
“Is the party over, then? Is that why you’re leaving, Ginny?”
Ginny blinked in confusion. “Luna? I thought you were looking for that giant pumpkin creature with your dad.”
“Oh, I was. But George finally convinced me to go with him to the party.”
“Finally?” This night was getting stranger by the minute.
“Ginny, you’re not going anywhere except for with us,” Ron said irritably, but she ignored him and focused on Luna.
“He’s been asking me for a while, but I thought it was a joke. Your brother does love jokes, you know,” Luna said, her wide eyes bright with excitement. “But when he said he’d go with daddy and me to the pumpkin patch instead, I didn’t think he was joking then. Daddy insisted that we go to the party, but I had to bring him dinner first.”
“Oh.” Because really, what was there to say when your best friend was walking over to your brother, perching on his lap like she belonged there?
George smiled and wrapped his arms around Luna’s waist. “It’s not a party, Luna love. We’re going to a haunted house.”
Luna looked pleased. “Oh, lovely! Daddy says that blibbering humdingers are attracted to ghosts. Perhaps we’ll see one.”
Instead of laughing, George said, “Perhaps,” and kissed her on the cheek, daring anyone else to laugh at either of them. They did look rather sweet together, Luna’s Alice to George’s Mad Hatter. Ginny never would have thought of them-George and Luna-together, really, but somehow they made sense. And it explained why George had been stopping by the apartment so often lately.
Still, as Ginny’s gaze went from George and Luna to Hermione and Ron, she couldn’t help thinking that her friends had terrible taste in men. Then again, at least the men they were attracted to were actually attracted back. Not that she was still attracted to Harry.
And then he walked in, looking quite rugged and masculine in a flannel shirt, a ridiculous plastic axe over his shoulder.
She was not still attracted to him, she told herself firmly. She studiously tried to ignore the voice in her head calling her a liar.
-
“Do you think we’ll see any real ghosts?” Luna asked as she and George skipped ahead of the group. Well, Luna skipped and George walked quickly to keep up with her. The entire way he kept her hand firmly in his.
Fred chuckled. “Luna, we lived in a haunted castle. You’ve met ghosts before.”
“Well yes,” Luna said over her shoulder, “but it would be fun to meet new ones.”
As George quietly explained to Luna about Muggle haunted houses, Ginny snuck a look at Harry by her side. He looked uncomfortable, and really she couldn’t blame him. The others, who were getting further and further ahead of them were all holding hands and acting disgustingly lovey dovey. While she and Harry…well, you could probably fit a family of elephants in between them and still have room to spare.
When he’d seen her at the Burrow, she saw his eyes go wide with shock and he’d barely been able to stammer out a hello. Probably disappointment, she’d told herself as she muttered a passably polite greeting of her own. At least, she thought she’d been polite. The mood she’d been in, she wasn’t entirely certain. But the extent of their conversation since that greeting had been a pair of “So…’s” that couldn’t quite manage to stretch themselves into an actual conversation. So that awkward greeting at the Burrow and that awkward hello had transformed itself into awkward silence that settled between them as they followed the others.
She hated it. They hadn’t been this uncomfortable with each other since her second year at Hogwarts and she’d vowed to get over her awful crush on him. She hadn’t managed to attain that goal while at Hogwarts-still haven’t, that awful voice in her head whispered-but they’d at least become comfortable, and eventually friends. Friends who had lunch together once a week (at least until she’d found out he had a date who wasn’t her and she’d cancelled on him as often as she could) and they’d gone to several movies when they’d been lonely for company, and sometimes they’d grabbed coffee just to chat. Friends who weren’t horribly uncomfortable because of disappointed expectations. Really, they were better than this and she wasn’t going to stand it a moment longer.
She turned to look at him and took a deep breath. “Listen, Harry-oof!” Of course with her luck she’d managed to run smack dab into a knight, and she went tumbling to the ground. Merlin, she was clumsy today. She blamed Hermione. And Harry. It was always Harry’s fault when she did something silly. Of course, it was hard to be annoyed with him when he immediately knelt by her side to see if she was alright.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ginny!” The voice coming from tin helmet of the knight in question was familiar.
“Neville?”
After a brief struggle the knight managed to pull free from his helmet, revealing Neville’s rueful grin. “I’m sorry. Hannah and I saw you coming. We wanted to say hello.”
“Hello,” Ginny said brightly, although really wanted to tear her hear out and scream. She smiled politely at the princess at Neville’s side, noted their linked fingers. As she fought to get to her feet, she was irritable. Was Halloween the new Valentine’s Day? It seemed that everyone was a couple here. Everyone except her and Harry. She tried to get to her feet, but trying to preserve her modesty and untangle herself from her cloak at the same time seemed to be a difficult feat. Harry took pity on her and easily scooped her up.
She blinked.
When had he gotten so strong?
Focusing on keeping her lady bits covered, she allowed Harry to extricate her the tangled cloak from her legs. She was extremely conscious of his hand on her thigh and the proximity of his face to hers. If she leaned just a little forward-
“…and thought it might be fun to see how the Muggles did Halloween.” It was then that Ginny realized that Neville had been speaking, and she brushed profusely as Harry set her on the ground.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, avoiding looking at him.
“No problem.” His breath tickled her ear as he spoke quietly, and his voice sounded strained; she wondered if he was thinking about his stupid other date. “You look really nice, by the way. I probably forgot to tell you that.
“So what do you think?” Once again, Neville’s voice interrupted the moment. Another blush flooded Ginny’s cheeks but she tried to smile politely for fear of hurting Neville’s feelings.
“I’m sorry, Neville, what was that?”
“I asked if you’d like to join us. Walking through the haunted house.”
“Yeah,” Ginny said absently, her mind still on Harry. “Sure. We’re here with a group if you wanted to join us.”
And apparently that was about the time the group finally realized that Harry and Ginny weren’t with them, because her brothers and their dates descended upon them en masse.
“There you two are!” Hermione exclaimed as she hurried ahead of the others. “Neville? What are you doing here?”
Neville smiled brightly at her. “Hannah and I wanted to see a real Muggle haunted house. Harry and Ginny said we could join you.”
“Did they now?” Hermione sounded less than pleased and the look she sent Harry and Ginny told them so. What on earth was wrong with her?”
Neville sensed it, too, and he took an involuntary step back. “Uh…unless you don’t want us to?”
Ginny could tell Hermione’s smile was forced, but with determined cheer, Hermione said, “Of course we want you to. Come along.”
The rest of them followed in her wake, but Ginny’s mind was on the delicious feel of Harry’s breath tickling her ear. It was nothing, she knew it was. But she couldn’t help but wish that it wasn’t.
-
“This isn’t so bad,” Harry whispered as he and Ginny led the way through the first room. It was dimly lit and it was difficult to see anything, but she had to agree. While there was a chilling atmosphere permeating the night, the room itself wasn’t so scary. It was just a bunch of old paintings of creepy looking people. The canvases were ripped to shreds and there were cobwebs all over the place. Certainly spooky, but nothing to write home about.
“Did you expect it to be?”
“I don’t know what I expected.”
“Haven’t you been to one of these before?”
Ginny watched Harry’s shadowy form shrug. “No, the Dursleys never took me when they took Dudley.” Ginny’s heart broke for the little boy Harry had been.
“Well,” she whispered, “I’m glad our first time is together then.”
He mumbled something then, but didn’t clarify when she said, “Hmm?” His words sounded suspiciously like, “I hope so.” But Ginny certainly wasn’t going to let her mind go down that road.
A shriek made her jump, and she and Harry whirled to face the group behind them. Harry was brandishing his axe like he’d actually use it. It was almost comical, really. Harry bludgeoning some poor, unsuspecting creature with a plastic axe that weighed less than her cloak. The shriek was followed immediately by the sound of a fist hitting Weasley and an exclaimed, “Fred!”
Chuckling, Harry and Ginny turned to continue on when a huge figure jumped up from behind the door and shouted. The girls screamed, and Ginny leaped close to Harry. Only Luna seemed unfazed as she walked up to the shadow and asked, “Are you a ghost?”
It, of course, didn’t answer as they walked down a short corridor to the next room. Behind them they heard Luna’s voice. “I think I’d like to speak to the ghost.”
George’s voice followed. “Luna love, wait!”
Ginny paused, but Hermione was right behind her. “Just go on without them,” she whispered. “They’ll catch up.” Shrugging, Ginny did as she suggested. This room was much like the last, dark and shadowy, it looked almost normal. She was sure that there were cobwebs decorating the corners, but it looked almost like Hermione’s study. There was a flash of light, like lightning, and the room illuminated briefly. It was nothing like Hermione’s study. Every inch was covered in slashes and in what looked like blood. Ginny knew that it was fake, but she couldn’t help but gasp.
“Scared, Weasley?” Harry whispered in her ear. She wasn’t even aware that she’d gotten that close to him. Apparently she had.
“No,” she said, her voice small. This room was definitely creepier than the other. Another figure popped out from the doorway behind them, this one large and furry looking, almost like a werewolf, and she couldn’t help but gasp. Harry automatically put an arm around her and ran with her towards the next room. The others were close behind them, Neville’s armor clanking all the way.
They caught their breath in the connecting corridor. Ginny winced as her feet protested running in heels. She looked at Harry, who still had his arm around her. “I don’t think I like haunted houses,” she muttered. It wasn’t that the two rooms had been particularly scary, she just really could have done without things jumping out at her. And chasing.
“I thought you weren’t scared.”
“I’m not. I just don’t like things jumping out at me.”
“Don’t worry, Gin.” He was so close his nose brushed against her temple. “I’ll protect you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes. They’ll take one look at your puny axe and be laughing too hard to chase us.”
“Let’s get going,” Ron said irritably. He didn’t like having things jump out at him any more than she did.
They moved forward to the next room in the house. It was cavernous, large enough to hold several Yule Balls at once, with only a single strobelight that almost blinded her when she looked for the exit to the next room. Squinting into the light, she and Harry walked forward. Every once in a while, Harry’s fingers would brush hers and she’d feel a thrill shoot up her spine that had nothing to do with the haunted house, which, she had to admit, wasn’t so boring. She was so intent on scanning the walls that she was completely taken by surprise by the hand that hit her midsection. Hard.
She turned in the direction of the hand into Harry’s horrified gaze.”I’m so sorry. I thought-I mean, I was trying-“
“For Merlin’s sake,” she heard someone mutter behind her. Probably Ron. She wasn’t quite ready to speak so she just nodded.
“What were you doing?” she asked once she could finally get words out.
“I was trying to hold your hand.” Ginny stared at him. She could have sworn he was blushing.
“Why?”
“In case you got scared.” There was a choked sound from behind them, and Ginny turned to see Ron, Hermione, Hannah and Neville all huddled close, afraid of being left behind.
She was about to say something to Harry-something terribly clever and flippant, she wanted to think, but it probably would have just been a squeaky “What?!”-when she realized that there were only four people behind her instead of six. “What happened to Fred and Angelina?”
“Fred and Angelina?” Hermione blinked like she’d never heard of them. She was acting so odd today, and Ginny didn’t know what to think of it at all.
“They’re probably somewhere snogging the living daylights out of each other,” Ron said impatiently. “Now how do we get out of this place? Haven’t you found a door yet?”
“You try looking-“ Ginny snapped, but just then the lights when out. She did grab Harry’s hand, then, and she even squeezed close to his side. It was pitch black and she was a bit freaked out but Ginny couldn’t help thinking that perhaps haunted houses were okay after all. And then she remembered that Harry was supposed to be with someone else that night, that he hadn’t intended to be with her at all, and she felt distinctively less charitable and all she wanted was for the lights to come back on and to get out of this stupid place.
An overhead light did come back on then, and she wished they hadn’t. Somehow the room had shrunk, the walls were much closer to them and the ceiling had dropped. But the worst part was the three figures-a woman in bloody clothes and straggly hair, holding a knife, a furry man with sharp fangs and bared claws, and a man with blades for fingers-standing in front of three of the walls. As the figures surged forward, there was only once place to go. Thankfully there was a door and she, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Hannah all tumbled through. The figures, thankfully, did not.
Hannah let out a breathless laugh and clung to Neville. Neville was doing his own fair share of clinging, and from the rattling of his tin armor, it sounded like his knees were shaking, too. Ron was holding on to Hermione tightly, staring distrustingly at the doorway they’d passed through, as if he expected any one of the three that had been chasing them to come through at any minute. Ginny blushed when she realized that she herself was in Harry’s arms, but at the thought of his mystery date, she pushed roughly away from him and turned away from him, under the pretense of straightening her cloak.
When she turned back, he was frowning intently at her. He reached for her hand but she pretended she didn’t see and walked briskly forward. The next few rooms passed without significant incident. She couldn’t even really remember what was in each of them, focused as she was on ignoring Harry. It wasn’t fair, really, that he could ask out another girl but then act the way he had with her tonight. She wouldn’t stand for it. She had more sense than that, more pride…
They’d reached another room, and Ginny hoped they were nearing the end. She wasn’t sure how much more of ignoring Harry she could take, especially when he kept trying to take her hand in his, and when in every connecting corridor, he’d looked at her like he wanted to say something.
She wouldn’t let him, though. She wasn’t about to let him break her heart, or help him toy with someone else’s. Never mind that she’d decided that she disliked his mystery date immensely. It was the principle of the thing. Not that she’d thought that Harry was the type to mess around with a girl’s emotions, but he’d certainly been doing it with hers for years…however unwittingly. She was just confused, as she always was where Harry was concerned.
With a sigh, she stepped into the room and froze. With an evil grin, she turned to watch Ron enter the room. His face was priceless. He knocked Neville to the ground in an effort to leave the room faster. “Ron!” Hermione had called after him, but the only thing he’d yelled-or shrieked, rather-was “Spiders!”
The surged with the movement of them as every inch was covered by a thick layer of spiders of every kind. Ginny wasn’t certain if they were fake or if there was something protecting the guests from them (although it certainly didn’t look like it). All she knew was that they were creepy. With a sigh, she and the others went to find her brother and Hermione.
They were just outside the door, arguing profusely. Ginny’s gaze bounced from one to the other as they shouted at each other.
“I’m telling you, Hermione, I’m not going in there!” he bellowed.
“And I”m telling you, it’s the only way out!”
“We’ll just go back the way we came, then.”
“We can’t. It’s against the rules!”
“Then I’ll jump out the bloody window. I’m. Not. Going. In. There.”
“Ronald, be reasonable.”
“I am being reasonable. I’ll stay here all night if I have to.”
With a beleaguered sigh, Hermione turned to Ginny. “You’d better go ahead. I’ll see if I can calm the scaredy cat here.”
Ron took exception to that. “I’m not a scaredy cat! It’s a normal honest-to-Merlin phobia!”
“What do you know about phobias?”
“Your dad explained them to me.”
Seeing that she wasn’t going to dislodge them anytime soon, she motioned for the rest of them to follow. Once again Harry tried to take her hand, even managed to get a grip on her fingers before she shook him off. She heard a distinctly frustrated growl come from him but at the moment she didn’t care. She just wanted to go home.
She decided to ignore the spiders, walking briskly towards the exit. Harry was hot on her heels while she could hear Neville struggling with his armor behind her. Then she heard the clank of armer and a shrieked, “NEVILLE!”
Whirling around, Hannah and Neville where nowhere to be seen. “Harry,” she whispered. This time when he took her hand, she didn’t pull away. The two ran back to where Hannah and Neville had been, but there was no trace of them. Hoping that they’d gone into the corridor with Ron and Hermione, Ginny pulled Harry along with her. But Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight.
She truly was frightened now. “They’re gone. Where could they have gone?” Harry shook his head, his face pale. “We have to find them.” She was just about to head back into the last room they’d been in, the one before the spider room, when something jumped out at her. It wasn’t at all like the costumed workers they’d seen through the haunted house. Those had been somewhat scary. This one, with it’s long claws and dripping fangs, was terrifying.
“Run!” Ginny shouted, pushing Harry ahead of her. He kept hold of her hand as they ran through the spider room, through another short corridor, and finally, blessedly, the exit. Only this furry creature was still behind them. And it was gaining, fast. Ginny stumbled as her heel caught in the grass outside the haunted house. Harry caught her before she fell. Harry threw the axe at the creature, but it didn’t slow down.
Ginny snatched off her heels and threw one. It missed. The next shoe didn’t, the heel of her shoe connecting with the creature’s forehead. It howled in pain. Harry pulled her along as they ran, the hunstman and Little Red Riding Hood, running from the big bad wolf. It was after them again and this time she had nothing left to throw at it. Neither did Harry. She peeked back to see how close the monster was.
And then she saw it. One of the legs from Fred’s spider costume was stuck in its claws. Whatever it was had been picking them off, and now it was just her and Harry. She would have turned back to face it, but she had nothing to fight it with. She’d stupidly left her wand at the Burrow. There was a copse of trees in the distance. Perhaps she could find a big enough branch…if she made it that far.
Oh Merlin…
She looked back again and slid to a halt. It was gone, just as suddenly as it had appeared. She tugged Harry’s hand. “We have to go back!” she shouted, pulling him into the house.
“We can’t, Gin,” he said softly.
“They’re in trouble. I know they are. That thing…it had part of Fred’s costume!” She tried pulling again but Harry didn’t move.
“Ginny-“
“What are you waiting for?” she demanded. “They’re your friends, my brothers, we have to-“
Harry gripped Ginny’s shoulders, shaking her slightly to calm her. “Damnit, Ginny, they aren’t in danger!”
“They…they aren’t?” She blinked; his eyes, shining in the light of the full moon, held the truth.
With a frustrated groan, Harry let her go, walking a few steps away. “No. It was all part of a plan so that I could be alone with you.”
From abject terror to utter confusion, all in one sentence and it left her reeling as the adrenaline subsided. It was replaced by something else, something warmer, as his words sunk in. “A plan?”
He nodded, but still didn’t look at her. “I know it’s pathetic, but when you’ve been pining after a girl for as long as I have-“
Her jaw dropped open. “Pining?”
“Yeah. Pining.” He snuck a peek at her. “After you.”
“I don’t think I understand.” She wanted him to say it again, needed him to say it again. Her heart was racing now for an entirely different reason. He strode towards her, taking her hand in his.
“Do you remember my sixth year, the Hogsmeade visit around Valentine’s Day?” Ginny was once again at sea at his change of topic, and she could only nod. “That was the day I was going to tell you how I felt about you. I’d been working up the courage for weeks,” he said with a self-deprecating smile. “I could face Voldemort, no problem, but the prospect of telling you-well I needed a lot of time to prepare myself. Ron even gave me a pep talk.”
Ginny smiled. “He did?”
“Yeah. Remember how the four of us were supposed to meet for lunch? And how we were late? That was because I was so nervous Ron pulled me aside to calm me down. And then I walked in, ready to offer you my heart, and I saw you kissing Cormac McLaggen.”
“Oh, Harry!” He’d liked her. All the way back in fifth year, he’d liked her and he’d been about to tell her. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around that. “He kissed me, Harry. I wasn’t kissing him, I was trying to get him off of me.”
“I know that now. But back then, it broke my heart.”
“Oh, Harry.” She cradled his cheek in her palm.
“Once I figured out what happened I decided I didn’t want to ruin our friendship by pushing my own unwanted feelings on you-“
“They were never unwanted, Harry,” she said quietly. “What brought on the change of heart?”
“Never a change of heart,” he murmured, turning his head so his lips brushed against her palm. He let go of her hand, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. Ginny looped her arms around his neck. “Just a change of resolve. After you graduated, the more time we spent together outside of Hogwarts, the sillier it seemed not just…do it. So I’ve been working up to it. Slowly. But it didn’t seem to be working.”
She hid a smile, knowing that it would be a mistake while he was revealing his heart to her. Instead, she brushed her thumb over his cheek. “You’ve been trying?”
Harry sighed, a weary sigh of disappointment. “You haven’t noticed? I was trying to take it slow, to ease you into the idea.”
She did smile then. He wanted to ease her into the idea? “Why didn’t you just tell me, Harry?”
The withering look he gave her rivaled one of Hermione’s. “Right, like you told me?”
He had her there. “So you really developed this elaborate ruse to get me alone?”
“Well the ruse was Hermione’s,” he admitted. “But I was the one who decided that it was time for drastic measures. The plan was to get you here and scare you into getting close to me. And slowly the others would wander off and we’d be here, where we are now. And then under the moonlight I’d tell you how lovely you look and how much I love you and I’d ask if I could kiss you…but it didn’t turn out like that at all. I thought it was working but then you pulled away and I didn’t know what to do and so Hermione changed the plan a bit-“
“And you decided to scare me out of my wits?” she asked with a laugh. He laughed, too, but then his smile faded and he regarded her solemnly.
“Why did you pull away? Not just tonight, but the past few weeks.”
“At the Burrow a few weeks ago I heard Ron and Hermione talking about your date to the haunted house.”
“And you got jealous?” A brilliant grin swept over his face and she scowled at him.
“I couldn’t stand the thought of watching you with someone else all night so I decided not to go. And all I could think of tonight was that you’d wanted to be here with someone else-”
He pressed a swift kiss to her forehead. “There was no one else. Ever. Not for the last three years. You heard Ron and Hermione discussing you.”
“So that’s why Hermione insisted the costume would fit.”
“She had it made specifically for you. When Hermione said you weren’t going, I wanted to scrap the whole thing. But she said she’d get you here, even if she had to drag you herself.”
Warmth suffused her as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. This-the feel of his arms around her, loving her, was perfect. “Harry, you know that part of your plan…the one about you kissing me?”
“Yeah?”
“It wasn’t half bad.” He lifted his head and smiled down at her.
“Alright then. Ginny Weasley, can I-“ He never got to finish his sentence as Ginny speared her fingers through his hair and kissed him firmly. In that moment, a horde of fake werewolves could have descended upon them and she wouldn’t have noticed a thing.
The only thing she knew was Harry, pressing her tightly to him, kissing her in the moonlight.
It was perfect.
-
They didn’t know how long they stood there, kissing and whispering words of love. All they knew was that that was how the others found them later, when they were getting ready to leave.
She noticed Fred first, out of costume, a large gash on his forehead as he and Angelina led the pack. “Merlin, Gin, a bloke goes to help his sister and her pitiful love life out, and that’s the kind of thanks he gets?”
“You deserved it!” Ginny retorted. “I thought you were going to kill us. How did you do that anyway?”
“Hermione transfigured parts of him,” Angelina said with a grin. “It was pretty brilliant, but even she couldn’t change his fur from ginger to black.”
“So it’s all worked out, then?” Hermione asked, even though her answer was clearly in front of her. Harry refused to let Ginny go, and Ginny herself didn’t seem in any hurry to extricate herself. “Then the plan was a success.”
Neville laughed and it was then Ginny realized that some of his armor was dented and he looked a little worse for the wear. At her wide eyed expression, Neville scratched his head sheepishly. “Ron grabbed me in the spider room, hid me and Hannah until you two were out of the building. Sorry, Hermione. We didn’t know that there was a big plan in the works.”
Ginny rested her head against Harry’s chest, and Harry dropped another kiss on her forehead.
Ron looked almost bilious. “Alright then, none of that now. At least not in front of me.”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Like you haven’t done worse in front of me with Hermione?”
“That’s different. I’m a man. You’re a-“
Hermione punched him in the arm. “You really do not want to finish that sentence, Ronald.” Wisely, he didn’t. Ginny giggled, and surveyed the group that had executed this wonderfully harebrained plan.
“Thank you. All of you.” She realized then that a couple was missing. “Where are George and Luna?”
“Right here!” George called out as he and Luna hurried over to the group. Luna was wearing his heat and the bow on Luna’s dress was askew. They looked oddly breathless, too.
Fred scowled at the approaching couple. “Fine time to show up now. I could have used your help when your sister was turning shoes into deadly weapons.”
George grinned unrepentantly. “I was…otherwise occupied. And now that you’re all settled, Luna and I will head off on our real date.”
The others called out a goodbye as George and Luna walked off into the night, Luna’s voice carrying back to them. “But George, couldn’t we speak to some more ghosts?”
Couple by couple, the group diminished until it was just Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny. Ginny reached out and squeezed Hermione’s hand. “Really, thank you. Both of you.”
“Any time, little sister,” Ron said, tugging on a lock of Ginny’s hair.
“Any time?” Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.
“You know what I mean.” Ginny, her cheek resting against Harry’s chest, smiled happily.
“Oh, I’m just so happy that you’re happy!” Hermione cried, throwing her arms around Harry and Ginny with such force she almost knocked them over.
Harry took one arm from around Ginny’s waist and wrapped it around Hermione’s shoulders. “You’re the best.”
Ron stared at the three of them, amusement dancing in his eyes. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, get over here, Ron.”
He hesitated, then Hermione gave him a look. With a resigned sigh, he shook his head. “If you tell anybody about this…” But he joined the group hug just the same. After a moment, he pulled away, tugging Hermione with him. “Come on, ‘Mione. We’ve got a date of our own to get to.”
With a cheerful goodbye, Harry and Ginny were left alone. “What do you say we head over to my place for dinner? I have it on good authority that my roommate is out for the night.”
“I’d love to.” But they didn’t move, content to stay in each others’ arms.
“Hey Ginny?”
“Yes?”
“Happy Halloween.”
And as she stood there with Harry in the moonlight, it was.