Baggage by thejsq



Summary: Summer after 5th Year. A conversation with Ron leaves Harry wondering whether he's only liked for his celebrity status.
Rating: PG starstarstarstarhalf-star
Categories: Post-OotP
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2004.09.17
Updated: 2004.09.17


Baggage by thejsq
Chapter 1: Default
Author's Notes:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor anything in JKR's magical universe.


Harry Potter stretched out on his twin bed in the room he and Ron shared at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Despite the memories of Sirius that seemed to haunt the house, and the occasional nightmares, Harry was happy to be away from the Dursleys for the rest of the summer. He had arrived only three days ago, and was basking in the quiet of a Dursley-free afternoon. He was almost asleep when shouting in the hall roused him.

“You can take your bloody cat upstairs yourself! And give me back my jumper!” Ron slammed the door as he yelled.

Hermione snorted in response and presumably took the hissing Crookshanks from Ron. The cat seemed to get slightly quieter.

“I don’t know why I ever offered to meet you in the first place,” Ron yelled as he stomped up the stairs.

“Ron Weasley, you are the most hot-headed, stubborn, immature…” But what else Ron might have been, Harry never found out because Mrs. Black’s painting interrupted with her own insults about Hermione’s parentage and Ron’s lack of proper wizarding loyalties.

“Bloody Krum.” Ron was now in his and Harry’s shared room. Harry could not begin to fathom how this fight had anything to do with Viktor Krum, but he was certain that Ron would explain. Hermione’s door slammed at the other end of the hall. Ron slammed their door in response.

“She only fancies him because he’s famous,” said Ron, sagely. “I mean, he’s a grouchy git and he went to Durmstrang.” He said this as if it settled the matter — Hermione couldn’t possibly like a Durmstrang student unless he was famous.

“Did she say she fancied him?” Harry asked. He was almost certain that Hermione had done no such thing.

“No, but she’s got a whole bundle of his letters with her school things. They fell out of her trunk on the Knight Bus,” Ron admitted grudgingly. “All girls want is fame, you know. Look at Lockhart! Girls falling all over him and we know what an idiot he was…even before he Obliviated himself.”

Harry sat up and looked at Ron. He opened his mouth to defend Hermione and girls in general when Ron sprang from his bed and started again.

“You know, Harry, I reckon that’s why Ginny fancied you for so long. You being the famous Harry Potter and all. You’re well out of it, mate. Ruddy women.” Ron paced and ran his fingers through his hair. “My own sister,” he muttered under his breath.

Harry had heard enough. Next Ron would be on about Mrs. Weasley’s Lockhart book on household charms and Harry didn’t think he could really handle that.

“You know, Ron, I don’t think Hermione really fancies Krum,” Harry offered.

“You should have heard her on the bus,” Ron countered. “Going on about her privacy and her space and her reasons,” Ron spat the last word as if it were Basilisk venom.

“Ron, you know Hermione better than to think that she wants Krum for his fame. You know she could be his girlfriend by now if she wanted. And she’s not, so she obviously doesn’t want to be. And you know Ginny better than that too,” Harry answered.

Ron’s remarks about Ginny had started Harry thinking. Certainly, Cho had liked him for the wrong reasons — his connection with Cedric, their mutual fondness for Quidditch. Come to think of it, he’d liked her just because she was pretty and had always been nice to him.

It hurt to think that Ginny hadn’t really liked him for himself either.

Ron’s sigh brought Harry out of his own thoughts. “Sometimes, I just get so tired of it all, the rows I mean. It’s like every time we talk there are five years of other fights just waiting to bubble up.”

Ron paused.

“Do you reckon she ever thinks about me? I know I’m not famous…” Ron said it so quietly that Harry wasn’t sure he was supposed to answer.

“She spends every summer with you. Every waking moment with you when we’re at Hogwarts. She must think about you at least a bit.” Harry knew his answer was non-committal, but hoped Ron wouldn’t push farther. This really wasn’t his, Harry’s, battle. It was Ron’s, and Ron needed to sort it out on his own.

Harry’s track record with girls really wasn’t good enough for him to be dispensing advice anyway. He recalled all the girls who had invited him to the Yule Ball — he didn’t even know some of them; ‘just because I’m famous’ he reminded himself.

He sincerely hoped that Ginny had liked him for himself. It suddenly seemed very important that someone had actually seen him for himself and not just famous Harry Potter. If Ginny had seen him as separate from his celebrity…

He resolved to ask her about it as soon as possible.

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It had been nearly a week since Ron and Hermione’s row and Harry still hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Ginny about why she had fancied him.

Ron and Hermione had come to an awkward sort of truce about the Krum issue, and were currently working on their summer essays in the Grimmauld Place library. Harry had finished all his summer work while in exile at Privet Drive.

Harry was trying, unsuccessfully, to pay attention to his chess game with Ginny. They were the only ones in the drawing room and Harry’s desire to know what she had seen in him had finally overcome his embarrassment at asking such a loaded question.

“Ginny?” Harry ventured.

She looked up from the chessboard to indicate that he had her attention.

“I want to ask you a question and I want you to promise not to yell…or hex me.” Harry knew Ginny’s temper and wanted to be prepared for all eventualities.

She raised an eyebrow and pushed herself back from the chessboard. “You’ve been distracted all night. Go ahead.” Harry noticed that she hadn’t promised not to yell, but he went ahead anyway.

“Before, er..”

Harry scratched the back of his neck and started again, determinedly not meeting Ginny’s eyes.

“Ginny, your first year until… er, until you stopped, why did you fancy me?” Harry looked at his shoes. “I’m not trying to embarrass you or anything, it’s just that Ron said…and Cho only liked me because of Cedric and Parvati only went with me to the Yule Ball because I was a Hogwart’s Champion and… yeah.”

“It wasn’t just because you’re famous, Harry,” Ginny almost whispered.

Harry jerked his head up and looked at her. Her face was nearly as red as her hair and Harry realized how much it must have cost her to swallow her pride like that. He also realized that he had missed her blushing.

“Thanks,” he whispered back.

“Ron talked about you a lot after your first year. How you were so brave when you saved Hermione from the troll and found the Sorcerer’s Stone. And he said you didn’t care that he was poor. And that you were the youngest seeker in a century, but you never bragged about it. He also said how you didn’t like being treated differently just because you’re ‘famous Harry Potter.’ And then I met you, and it was all true,” she said.

Harry just looked at her, bewildered.

“Harry, people like you because you’re you, not because you’re famous. Ron and Hermione certainly don’t care. It’s never gotten Hermione anywhere except the hospital wing. And I know Ron would rather have just plain old Harry than a celebrity any day.”

“Thanks,” was all that Harry could get out.

“I think I’ll turn in,” Ginny said, with an exaggerated yawn. She turned to go, but stopped when she got to the door and smiled at Harry. “All those things are still true, you know,” she said as she left.

Harry sat in the darkening drawing room for a long time after Ginny left. When he crawled into bed, he was certain this would be one night without nightmares.

Fin

A/N: This is my first fic; please review.

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