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Challenges
By St Margarets

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Category: End-of-Term Challenge (2004-2)
Characters:None
Genres: Fluff, Humor
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 44
Summary: Our favorite characters undergo the traditional seventh year challenge: a midnight swim with the squid.
Hitcount: Story Total: 7458







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Disclaimer: these are JKR's character who are all going to live long happy lives!

Challenges

"Ron, will you ever get a clue?" Seamus asked.

"What now?"

"You're not supposed to swim with the squid wearing clothes."

"I'm not going starkers, especially with girls around."

"Oh, come on, Ron!" Dean sniggered. "It's dark; we won't be able to see your shame."

"It's part of the seventh year challenge," Seamus continued, "and the girls don't come out here for this. They have their own challenge."

"What's their challenge?"

"I don't know-Lavender wouldn't tell me."

"I bet I know," Neville said

"Hey, dipstick!"

"Am I supposed to answer that?" Ernie Macmillan said huffily.

"I think you just did."

The seventh year boys roared with laughter. They were quick to laugh on this last night together. The feast was over. The teachers had gone to bed. And Seamus had firewhisky.

They slowly began to disrobe.

*

Oh, Hermione! "Lavender squealed," these--what do you call them?

"Binoculars."

"Yeah- binoculars-they're brilliant! I can see all the way to the edge of the lake and--O mother of Merlin! They're taking off their clothes!"

"Let me see." Pavati grabbed them out of Lavender's hand.

"Hey, I had them first!"

"Stop it!" Hermione said severely. "I can conjure more."

The Gryffindor girls then jostled for the best spot to look out the window.

"Eww, full moon, and I think it was---"

They all said together, "Ernie."

"Oh, there's Ron!"

"Nice chest," Lavender said appraisingly, "but I suppose you knew that."

Hermione blushed.

"And he's not taking off his pants."

Hermione focused the lenses in time to see Ron dive into the water in his underwear.

"You lose, Hermione. The challenge is to see your boyfriend and/or object of desire in the buff."

"Will I ever have a normal boyfriend?" Hermione muttered. But she said with good grace, "he is kind of shy."

"I reckon so," Lavender agreed. Then she giggled, "Oh, there he is!"

They all trained their binoculars on Seamus, who had discarded all of his clothes, but still hadn't entered the water, since he was taking swigs from a bottle of what looked suspiciously like firewhisky.

"You win, Lavender."

"Do you think this temporary blindness will wear off soon?" Parvati asked with a grin.

Hermione laughed. "I never thought I would regret finding out something new. But knowing what Seamus and Ernie and Neville look like nude, isn't really knowledge I want to retain."

"Look at Lavender," Parvati said, nudging Hermione.

"Should we glue those binoculars to your face?"

"Just doing some comparison shopping if you really want to know," she defended.

"Is Harry out there?" Parvati asked.

"Why? He's not your boyfriend."

"No, but he's definitely an object of desire!"

They scanned the group of boys.

"No, I don't think he's with them."

"I'm not surprised," Hermione said, "I'll bet he's spending his last night with Ginny. He won't see her for awhile, since he's going straight to Auror training from London tomorrow."

"Do you think they'll break up?"

"Why should they?"

"Because these kind of separations either make a couple split up or commit," Lavender said sagely. "It's decision time."

*

Harry sighed and looked up at the sky. The stars seemed close enough to touch. It was a beautiful night, his last night at Hogwarts. He didn't want to think about how much he was going to miss it; how much he was going to miss her.

"What are you doing?" asked a familiar voice.

It was as though he had conjured her presence by merely thinking about her. "Ginny, you're going to be in big trouble if you're caught out of your dormitory."

She snorted. "Like I care."

She sat next to him and took his hand. "Why aren't you swimming with the squid and putting on a show for the seventh year girls?" Then she laughed. "Why did I ask that question?"

Harry laughed too, feeling better all of a sudden. Ginny was here and now he could be happy. It frightened him a little to rely so much on her for his happiness. How am I going to cope without her? he thought in dismay.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. No.. I don't know," he stammered. Tell her how you feel, you daft prat!

She put her head on his shoulder. "I know. We have so much to be happy about. We're all alive, Voldemort is dead-and I can even say his name. But . . ." she trailed off.

"But," Harry picked up where she left off, "we're going to be apart." There--he had said it. His stomach dropped; saying it out loud made it real.

"Yeah." It was a sigh.

"Ginny?"

"What?" She drew back so she could look at his face, dim in the starlight.

"Do you think we should break up?" Harry asked quickly, anxiously.

She couldn't see his eyes, but she could hear the pain in his voice, so she answered cautiously, "why? Do you want to?"

"No! Yes! I don't know-I just want what is best for you. I don't want you to be sad."

"And you think that by breaking up with me, I would be happy," she said in a deadly calm voice, which told Harry that he was that close to being hexed.

"No," he said, defeated.

"Harry, what do you want? Do you want to be free?"

"Free?" He had never considered the concept. Free meant lonely . . .free meant alone. Free meant having to forget every beautiful moment he had spent with her. "No, not unless it comes with a Memory Charm."

"Why?" she whispered.

"Because I could never be free of you as long as I lived otherwise."

"Same here," she breathed.

He kissed her, feeling a little desperate, wondering how you could make time stand still.

"Harry?"

"What?"

"You can't make time stand still."

She did that sometimes; read his mind. At first it bothered him to be so transparent, to be so open to her, but now he was glad. She didn't just read him; she understood . . .

"No, you're right," he replied.

"Which is good, because time will go by while you're gone. And you'll be busy. And I'll be busy."

"Yeah."

They could hear the boys whooping and catcalling by the lake. Some sparks went up into the air, lighting the grounds for a moment.

"It will be that fast---our wait," she said with determination.

"Sometimes I think life goes that fast-a flash and then darkness again."

"Which is why we're lucky," Ginny said, putting her arms around his neck. "We found each other, and we haven't let go."

"It's going to be a tough year," he said, pulling her onto his lap.

"

Are you up for the challenge?"

"Yes-because I have no choice. Yes-because you're worth the wait."

"It's settled then," she said, kissing him.

He kissed her back, happy for the challenge; for he knew that life with her was going to be his greatest reward.

"Harry?"

"Hm?"

"I want to win my seventh year challenge."

"Meaning?"

"Me aning you are my boyfriend and my object of desire, and if you're not swimming in the lake . . ." she trailed off.

"Um, couldn't this be a private challenge?"

"Can't handle the thought of competing with Colin Creevey?"

"I can't handle the thought of anything with 'naked' and 'Colin Creevey' together."

She laughed. "Ok-a private challenge-but I get to go swimming too."

"Sounds fair--and exciting," he said, kissing her. But then he broke off and asked, "can we leave the squid out of it too?"

Reviews 44
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