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Getting Over Harry Potter | ||||||
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Category: Post-OotP, Alternate Universe, Buried Gems Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley Genres: General, Humor Warnings: None Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 515 Summary: When Ginny realises that she is firmly entrenched as Harry’s friend in the strictest, most platonic sense of the word, she is determined to banish any of her own definitely non-platonic sentiments once and for all. She comes up with a plan – an ingenious, infallible, perfect, foolproof plan – but how was it supposed to work if Harry seemed to be everywhere she looked? Hitcount: Story Total: 131230; Chapter Total: 19539 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: I'm happy that the first chapter was so well-received. I hope you lot like this one. |
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Sunday The next day, right after breakfast, Ginny stood up and excused herself from the Gryffindor table, where a small crowd had gathered around her brother and Seamus Finnigan as they steadily ate their way through a colossal stack of pancakes stuffed with lemon juice and sugar. Ron grunted in acknowledgement. Harry looked up from his fascinated scrutiny of Ron’s astounding gastronomic talents. “Leaving so soon? Where are you off to, Ginny?” “Just need to get started on my Transfiguration essay,” she responded casually. Hermione nodded at her in an approving sort of way. “Don’t you want to see whether or not Ron can actually finish his breakfast without making himself sick?” He jerked his head over to her brother, who was in the process of stuffing his face with an entire pancake. Dean Thomas was giving little shouts of encouragement to Seamus as the Irish boy tried to match Ron bite for bite. Hermione tutted reproachfully at the boys and fretted that Ron was going to end up in the hospital wing due to indigestion. Neville Longbottom was watching in open-mouthed admiration, his own forgotten breakfast of eggs congealing slowly in front of him. The crowd was murmuring excitedly, and a small betting pool had been started. “Do you think Seamus will beat him?” Harry asked in an amused tone. “They’ve both wolfed down about twenty pancakes each.” A tally of how many pancakes each boy had eaten was floating above their heads; the number ‘20’ was glowing brightly over Ron’s head, and a ‘19’ was above Seamus’s. “Harry, there’s no way Ron’s going to lose. Twenty pancakes? That’s nothing to a Weasley, especially to that particular Weasley. Why do you think Ron weighs thirteen stone? He even ate four entire shepherd’s pies all by himself when he was about nine years old,” Ginny said, rather proudly. “And that was when he had a nasty bout of dragon pox and claimed that he had no appetite whatsoever.” Harry chuckled appreciatively. “You’ve got a point there. All right then. I’ll see you later, yeah?” He gave her a lopsided grin that almost made Ginny change her mind about leaving the table. Somehow, willpower had won over giddiness and a crazy urge to climb onto his lap and snuggle up to him. “Sure, Harry. See you later,” she said in a perfectly calm voice, even as she found herself taking a half step towards him. Backing up slowly, she waved a casual good-bye and left for Gryffindor Tower. After she retrieved her rucksack from her dormitory room, she settled herself in her favourite squashy sofa by the common room fire and pulled out a parchment and her deluxe eagle owl feather quill, a gift from her brother Bill for her last birthday. “All right, Ginny Weasley. We need to write things down so that we can start getting over a certain boy,” she announced. Realizing that she probably looked foolish talking out loud to herself, she took a quick glance around the common room. Except for a couple of seventh year students who were hunched up over their books — N.E.W.T. levels were so demanding that most of them opted to eat all their meals in Gryffindor Tower, trying to squeeze in any extra amount of study time — Ginny was all by herself. She hastily took out her Transfiguration book and propped it open in front of her to give the impression that she was studying, just in case people became curious as to why she was mumbling to herself. Grateful that most of the other Gryffindors were still at the Great Hall, she dipped her quill in her special purple ink, rubbed the end of the eagle owl quill on her nose and wrote: on the very top of her parchment with a certain flourish. Reading what she had just written down, she became quite lost in the memory of how amazingly green Harry’s eyes were when he was massaging her leg yesterday that several seconds ticked by before she realized that ink was slowly dripping off her quill and onto the table in large purple splotches. Ginny frowned as she blotted the ink stains carefully and decided that this was not right: there was no use denying that she had already fallen for Harry again, so it was useless to enumerate ways on how not to do that. She tapped the eagle feather thoughtfully against her chin as she tried to think of a more appropriate title. Bending over the parchment, she crossed out her original heading and instead scribbled: How to Get Over Boys Who Are Really Much Too Thick To Notice a Good Thing Even If It’s Right Under Their Noses Hmmm. Too long. Shaking her head, Ginny again drew a line through this sentence and bit her lip. She needed to be more specific to remind herself of the importance of her goal. How to Get Over Boys Who Are Really Much Too Thick To Notice a Good Thing Even If It’s Right Under Their Noses How to Get Over Harry Potter Ginny looked critically at what she had written. It still seemed to lack something. She decided to give herself a deadline just to make sure that she would complete her objective. How to Get Over Boys Who Are Really Much Too Thick To Notice a Good Thing When They See One How to Get Over Harry Potter in One Day Ginny leaned back and reread her title. Her eyebrows drew together and she decided that one day was probably unrealistic and too ambitious. She had fancied Harry for so long that she did not think she could get over him in just a day, as if she were simply turning off a switch. How to Get Over Boys Who Are Really Much Too Thick To Notice a Good Thing When They See One How to Get Over Harry Potter in Ginny gave a satisfied little nod. There, that sounded right. Seven days. One week. She could do this. She carefully rewrote the title on a fresh piece of parchment. Just as she was about to begin enumerating the ways she could fulfil her plan, her attention was sidetracked by the arrival of the rest of the Gryffindor students returning from breakfast. She returned Colin Creevey’s enthusiastic greeting, smiled at Neville as he inadvertently tripped over a footstool, and rolled her eyes at Seamus when he winked smarmily at her. Hermione, Ron and Harry were the next to come into the room. Hermione was lecturing Ron thoroughly on the dangers of high cholesterol levels and elevated blood pressure. Ron blatantly ignored her by loudly asking Harry if he should buy the new Chudley Cannons commemorative robes with his winnings from the pancake-eating contest. Ron’s dilemma was that he could not decide between the new robe colours available: should he get the Tasteful Tangerine, or did Harry agree that Shocking Neon Orange was more his style? The trio spotted her and made their way to sit by her. Becoming alarmed that they might see what she had been writing — she especially did not want Harry to find out what she had been up to — she rolled up the parchment and hurriedly stuffed it into a pocket of her robes as discreetly as she could. “Hi, Ginny,” Harry greeted her cheerily as he folded his lanky frame beside her. He casually placed his arm on the back of the sofa, brushing against Ginny’s hair in the process. “Revising all done?” Ginny became acutely aware that his left leg was grazing her right one. She willed herself not to let his proximity affect her and was glad that she had thought of placing her Transfiguration textbook in front of her before she had started writing. “Nope, I’ve only finished one chapter so far,” she said brightly, picking up her book and showing him the page she was supposedly reading. “I’ve still got two chapters to get through.” She took a closer look at her book and became embarrassingly conscious of the fact that it was upside down. She speedily turned it right side up, hoping that Harry had not seen her gaffe. “That’s very industrious of you,” Harry gently teased, bumping his hip slightly against hers. At the contact, she nearly dropped her book in shock, only managing to grip it tightly at the last minute. “You must be channeling Hermione over here.” He pointed at their brown-haired friend, who had taken the seat in front of the two of them. Ron plopped down heavily on the hearthrug in front of the fire, rubbing his stomach contentedly, his long legs splayed before him. “I think it’s brilliant that Ginny’s applying herself,” Hermione said, throwing a complimentary look at her. “It’s never too early to start revising for O.W.L.s, you know.” She shot a critical glance at Ron and Harry. “Not too early for some people to get a head start on N.E.W.T.s preparations either.” Ron and Harry both groaned audibly. “Not that again, Hermione,” Ron said, leaning back on his arms. “It’ll be ages until we even need to begin revising — heck, to even be thinking about N.E.W.T.s. Give it a rest, will you?” “Fine, both of you be that way.” Hermione gave a disapproving sniff. “But don’t come running to me when you need help with your homework, Ron Weasley.” Ron rolled his eyes and grinned audaciously at Hermione, a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes. “Aw, come on, Hermy. You know you love it when I tell you I need you.” Harry and Ginny stifled their laughter as Hermione’s cheeks turned pink. “Don’t call me Hermy, Ron,” was all an obviously flustered Hermione could say. “Why? It’s kind of catchy, and you really don’t have a cute nickname, Hermy,” Ron said jokingly, his grin becoming even wider on his freckled face. “Grawp had the right idea when he called you Hermy. You know, I reckon he was sweet on you.” “He was not sweet on me, as you so quaintly put it. And I don’t want or need a nickname, Ronald Bilius,” Hermione said tartly. It was her turn to smile smugly as Ron’s grin immediately turned into a scowl at the mention of his hated middle name. “Nice one, Hermione,” Ginny congratulated the older girl. “I see you’ve learned how to effectively put down my brother.” “Well,” Hermione sniffed again. “I’ve learned quite a few things over the past four or five years, and one of the more important ones I’ve managed to find out is to how to not let Ron get the upper hand.” Ron was about to make an angry retort when Harry raised his hands in order to keep the peace. “Okay, cut it out, you two.” Ginny suddenly missed the warmth of his arm across her shoulders. He stood up and prodded Ron with his foot. “Come on, mate, let’s go play some chess. Why don’t you get your board, and I’ll get my pieces?” Ron grudgingly hoisted himself off the floor, and the boys went up to their room. After a few seconds, they came back and began an intense game of Wizard Chess. Ginny smiled and opened her book again with the intention of really beginning her Transfiguration revision, when the roll of parchment slid out of her pocket and onto the floor. Before she could pick it up, Hermione had retrieved the parchment and was automatically unrolling it to check for errors, as she was wont to do, being accustomed to proofreading Harry’s and Ron’s homework. Ginny made to grab the paper out of Hermione’s hands, but the older girl held it out of her reach, a grin forming on her face as she scanned the paper. “Ginny, what is this?” To Ginny’s alarm, she started reading out loud. “How to Get Over–” “Aaargh!” Ginny tackled Hermione and clamped her hand over the other girl’s mouth. She snatched the paper away and gave Hermione a murderous glare. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Harry was looking curiously in their direction. Hermione giggled against Ginny’s hand and tried to wriggle out of her grip. Not wanting to attract further attention, especially from Harry, Ginny hissed in Hermione’s ear. “If I remove my hand, will you promise to be quiet?” Hermione nodded solemnly although her brown eyes still glittered with suppressed mirth. Ginny warily removed her hand from Hermione’s mouth, the corners of which continued to twitch. Hermione straightened up her rumpled robes as Ginny made to put away the parchment. “So, what’s that about, Ginny?” Hermione whispered. “Nothing. None of your business,” Ginny muttered grumpily. “Come on, don’t be like that,” Hermione soothed her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to read it. I just thought it was a bit of homework.” Ginny sighed. “Promise not to tell anyone? Especially those two.” Hermione glanced at Harry and Ron then nodded. “I promise.” “It’s kind of stupid, really.” Ginny looked furtively at the boys, but they appeared to be engrossed in their game. She glanced at Hermione, who was looking back at her with interest. Ginny sighed again. “You know how I said that I gave up on Harry when I was in fourth year?” Hermione was silent. They had discussed this in detail many times over the summer. Too many times, actually. “Well,” Ginny said slowly. “I said I gave up on him, but I never said I got over him.” She shot Hermione an anxious glance and was surprised to see no change in her friend’s expression. “I know,” Hermione said matter-of-factly. “You still like Harry.” Ginny gaped at her. “How – how did you know that?” “Please. It’s called semantics,” Hermione explained. She waved away Ginny’s confusion. “Go on with your story.” “You know what? Ron’s right. You’re positively scary sometimes, Hermione,” Ginny said in awe. “Ginny….” Hermione said impatiently. “Oh. Erm. Right. Anyway, I’d resigned myself to the fact that Harry will only see me as a friend and that’s probably better than nothing. But still, a girl can hope, right?” Ginny said wistfully. “There were times when I thought that maybe Harry was starting to see me as something besides his best friend’s little sister.” Ginny shook her head, causing her hair to fly around her face. “There were some times when I thought that Harry was giving me smouldering glances, but it was probably just wishful thinking on my part and maybe a bad case of indigestion on his. I’ve noticed that Harry has the habit of staring intensely at everything, even at potted plants.” “Ginny–” Hermione put a sympathetic hand on Ginny’s arm. “In a way, though, I got what I wanted,” Ginny said ruefully. “Harry’s come to see me as a friend.” “And that’s bad because–?” Hermione looked perplexed. “Oh Hermione, I’m just a friend. A mate. A buddy. One of the ace gang,” Ginny lamented. “Yesterday, after practice, he thumped me on the back and ruffled my hair, for Merlin’s sake,” she narrated in a pained voice. Hermione placed her hand over her mouth to hide her smile. “What do you mean by mate, exactly?” she asked mischievously. Ginny frowned at her but soon found the humour in the situation. She gave a grudging smile, which turned into a reluctant giggle. “I’m pathetic, aren’t I?” Ginny moaned, covering her face with her hands. “No, you’re not. You’re not pathetic at all. Anyway, I think there are worse things than being Harry Potter’s friend. You know how difficult it is for him to grow close to anybody,” Hermione gently pointed out. “It’s very hard for Harry to open up and trust people. And he trusts you, Ginny.” “I know that,” Ginny replied. “I’m happy that Harry considers me as a friend. And since it has become quite obvious that’s all I’m ever going to be, I’ve decided to get over him once and for all so I can concentrate on being a good friend to him.” “So that’s the reason for that, is it?” Hermione pointed to the parchment peeking out of Ginny’s pocket. “Yep. I thought that I’d take a page out of your book and outline a concrete plan of action so that I’ll succeed.” Now that Hermione knew about her scheme, Ginny suddenly realized that her friend’s well-known penchant for organization would be of immense assistance to her. She decided to appeal to Hermione’s slightly manic compulsion to make structured lists. “Do you think you can help me, Hermione?” Ginny put on her best puppy-dog face, the one she used on her brothers when she wanted something from them. Hermione looked at her searchingly. “Are you absolutely sure you want to get over Harry, Ginny?” Ginny took a deep breath. “Yes. It’s time to move on. Will you help me?” she asked again. Hermione gave her a calculating stare and muttered something unintelligible under her breath. “What’s that?” Ginny asked, leaning forward to hear Hermione better. “What did you say? Is something the matter?” “Nothing.” Hermione waved her hand in the air. “Okay, I’ll do what I can.” “Thanks, Hermione.” Ginny smiled at her friend, retrieved the parchment out from her robes and passed it to her. “So, what do you think about the title?” As Hermione perused the parchment, already scribbling notes in the margin, Ginny heard her brother crowing in triumph. It sounded as if he had beaten Harry at Wizard Chess for the millionth time. Ginny turned in their direction and was startled to see Harry smiling broadly at her, rolling his emerald eyes in Ron’s direction. Ginny felt her legs turn to jelly, and she automatically smiled back at him. This was going to be harder than she thought. She dragged her gaze away reluctantly from Harry and addressed Hermione. “Um, can I borrow that for a while? I need to revise the title one last time.” Hermione slid the parchment back over to her, the puzzled look in her eyes becoming one of amusement as Ginny dipped her quill back in her purple ink and wrote: (More or Less) A/N: My gratitude to all those who reviewed. Keep them coming! Thanks to Chreechree for her awesome beta skills. |
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