Disclaimer: Phaerie doesn't own Harry Potter and Co. but she does own Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince now! YAY!
Snapshots
Epilogue
And Now, the Rest of the Story
Ginny couldn't help but giggle as she sat curled up on the plush couch in front of the common room fire with a heavy book in hand and watched Harry stumble down the boys' dormitory staircase, looking like he was about to collapse from fever-induced exhaustion. "I told you not to go out flying in this weather," she admonished lightly, refering to the torrential downpour beating heavily against the windows.
He made his way over to her groggily and stated hoarsily, "You've lost your 'I told you so' rights. You're my girlfriend now, and as my girlfriend, you should be all concerned and anxious about my waning health."
"Says who?" she asked indignantly.
Harry, who had slumped down beside her and and let his head fall back over the back of the couch with a groan, rolled his head in her direction and glared. Unfortunately, she had gone back to her book and his glare was completely lost on her. "What?" he asked her incredulously, "I don't even get a 'Oh Harry, dear, you must lie down' or a 'Let me check your forehead to see if you have a fever'?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow and glanced at him briefly before returning to her book muttering, "Who do I look like to you? Your mum?"
"Well," Harry mused as he inspected the ceiling for leaks or other such faults in the structure, "You've got the red hair and pale complexion. If I take off my glasses and squint - " Here Harry was interrupted by a thorough whack to the back of his head by a very unamused Ginny. "Ow! First you laugh at me in my ill state, and then you abuse me? What kind of a girlfriend are you?"
"The perfect kind for you, Mr. Potter," she stated pompously. Looking at him over the top of her book she added, "You should lie down though, you look awfully exhausted."
"That's more like it," Harry mumbled as he fell over on the couch, using the armrest as a pillow.
"I didn't mean here!" Ginny cried, slamming her book shut, "You're going to infect me with your wicked germs!" To emphasize her point, she scooted as far away from him as she could without falling off the couch. With a sigh, Harry fumbled around for something in his robe's pocket before producing his wand. He lazily flicked his wrist and muttered a decontamination spell.
"How considerate of you," Ginny said sarcastically, relaxing back against the couch and reopening her book.
"I do try," Harry mumbled while trying to make himself comfortable. The armrest was quite uncomfortable, however, no matter what angle he turned his head. He sat up irritably and glared at horrid armrest.
"Why don't you go up to your dorm? You know, with your bed and its fluffy pillows..." Ginny suggested airily. But Harry didn't get up; he instead fell back on the couch, this time resting his head on Ginny's lap.
"Harry, I'm trying to read, in case you hadn't noticed," she told him exasperatedly. He blinked at her for a few moments before taking her book from her hands to read the front cover.
Replacing it in her hands, he drawled sarcastically, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks was such a fascinating book."
Ginny stuck her tongue out at him, "And how would you know?"
"I've read it," he stated as matter-of-factly as one could with a hoarse voice and stuffy nose. Ginny raised a skeptical eyebrow, to which Harry replied, "Alright, so I skimmed it."
"Lazy bum," she accused, absent-mindedly playing with his hair.
"Yes, but I'm your lazy bum," he mumbled back sleepily. He yawned and a few minutes later he was asleep.
"Aren't I the lucky one," Ginny whispered amusedly, carefully removing Harry's glasses and levitating them with her wand to the small table in front of the couch.
By the time Colin arrived later that night, the common room was empty with the exception of the two occupants of the couch in front of the dying fire. Ginny was reading a book that was levitating above the couch armrest. She lazily turned a page with a flick of her wand as Colin cautiously approached her.
"Ginny - " he began before being shushed with a glare from Ginny, who indicated her unconcious boyfriend and carefully set her book down. With a nervous grin, Colin whispered, "Perfect."
"What?" she asked suspiciously, careful to keep her voice quiet.
Colin looked at her furtively. He glanced quickly at Harry before answering anxiously, "You have to promise not to get upset. Remember, Harry's sleeping; wouldn't want to wake him. He looks quite tired."
"Colin," Ginny whispered harshly. He shifted from foot to foot for a few moments before reluctantly handing her a small stack of photos. "What are these?"
"The shots I took at the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff," Colin told her, unconciously taking a step back.
Ginny quickly sifted through the stack of pictures, her right eye acquiring a twitch halfway through that increased at a violent rate with every picture after. "Colin," she began in a forcibly-calm tone that pracitcally screamed 'DANGER: Red alert. Repeat, red alert.', "Do my eyes deceive me, or is this not a photo of one Mr. Potter floating mid-air on his broom with the wind tossling his hair perfectly, in which he is clearly distracted enough not to try to duck out of the frame?"
Colin gulped audibly, let out a strangled, nervous laugh, and bolted. Hopefully he could get a good head start. Harry looked liked he'd be out for a while longer.
Ginny, meanwhile, was flipping through the snapshots again, laughing silently at Harry's slack jaw and dazed eyes. She suddenly recalled something Jake had said during the time-out that had been called that game: "Look, we're only down by 120 points, we can still win this if Harry'd stop hovering mid-air and staring at - umph!"
Smiling fondly at her boyfriend, Ginny soon turned her thoughts to plotting her oh-so-sweet revenge on Colin for putting her and Harry through this whole messy, indecent ordeal. It promised to be great fun.
A/N: Yay! That's the officially official END. I hope you all liked it! Please review, just one last time! Also, if you liked this fic, please check out my new one, The Secret Assignments. Thank you so much for reading this!
And special thanks to my wonderful reviewers: GiGiFanFic, Kaseomelette, Black Rose25, deity of death1, Miss Ginny, LilyP-Writer, Annay, Drone 233248, dementorchic, Karen, toriisen, Layce74, SilverDragon14, u, Kat Solo, Tara, JamieBell, mellowyellow36, dab+ brakensilver, ronslilprincess, Madeca, I'm S.S.M., starlight-aurora, Mep, Keebler Elf, Jaime, maria, haydenrocks14, Thunder's Shadow, skittish, Sparkle Tangerine, revitmjr, Nightwing 509, dave-gerecke, dress-without-sleeves, SOBs 4 Sirius 223, mary-v, Amanda Lily Potter, lemonjello, Augurey Song, Talix, Moonhawkpebbly, frizzbizz, Ocean-Poweress, charmingly-holly, Snow White, Silver Warrior, CoffeelovesCream, Werewolf of London, nixtear, Clause, and blaiselover
You guys are wicked awesome!
-Phaerie