Thanks to everyone who reviewed!! For anyone who's interested this story is based on Harry's 6th year but it's going to be happier with sort of a different version of events in regards to couples etc. Apart from that i truly have no idea where it's going to go haha. I'll just see how it goes!
Ginny's head lolled forward as Professor Binns continued on about Quenton III who'd pioneered the Goblin Revolution of 1783.
Normally in History of Magic she at least tried to stay awake even if she was too lazy to take notes down but last night she hadn't got a single hour of sleep. Instead of letting her already sore head rest she'd spent the whole night thinking about Harry and Quidditch training. Surely she was reading too much into it, he was Ron's best friend, he was older than her, why would he be interested? Especially after all this time, she'd been so intimidated by Harry the first time she had met him and as he'd stayed at their house various times it was obvious that she'd had a crush on him – Hermione and her mum knew.
Staying at the Grimmauld Place had been one of the first times she'd actually managed to calm down when he was around and stop embarrassing herself. She thought she was over all this, after all she was going out with Dean and he was really nice. She knew that she should forget about Quidditch training and move on, thinking about Harry was not going to get her anywhere.
But unfortunately plans of Ginny's never seemed to play out how she wanted them to.
She left History of Magic last ambling out slowly after Luna and what seemed a new addition to her wardrobe – a bright red scrunchie with house elfs plastered all over it. Amidst staring at Luna's scrunchie and trying to remember what lesson she had next she neglected to notice the streams of other people coming out into the corridor and the next moment she found herself sprayed across the hall, her bag and books everywhere.
Grabbing the hand that had lowered itself down in front of her, she grabbed it and glanced up only to catch her breath as Harry smiled down at her. She paused briefly as they looked at each other.
"Are you alright babe?" said Dean coming to stand next to Harry as crowds of people moved past them slowly, some first years even stopping to stare and point at Harry, as Ginny remembered that she was in fact sitting on the hall of the hallway staring at Harry, with her boyfriend right there.
"Um yeah- " she said smiling and trying to act normal, for some reason she had the feeling that everyone around them could tell that her heart was racing a million times an hour and that she felt shaky all over.
She felt a pang of guilt as she stood up and Dean draped an arm around her waist as Harry and Neville lent down to pick up her books, after all Dean was her boyfriend, not Harry, he was the one she was meant to like and think about. But he seemed oblivious to what she was thinking as he began rattling on about his day.
"so that's when McGonagall confiscated my rat and told me th- "
"Thanks Neville, thanks Harry", she said cutting off Dean and smiling as Neville handed her back her Transfiguration book.
At that moment Hermione and Ron walked up.
"Why are you guys all standing here?" asked Ron, looking confused and staring at the four of them.
Hermione looked at Ginny. For some reason Ginny always felt as if Hermione knew what she was thinking and feeling embarrassed and suddenly very awkward she pulled herself away from Dean's grip
"Thanks guys I'll see you later, I'm going to be late for Snape" she said glancing at Harry. "And I don't know about you guys but I don't fancy spending tonight cleaning the bathrooms with Filch" she said walking away as quickly as she could, and rounding the corner out of sight.
Unfortunately for Ginny by the time she got to dinner that night things weren't getting any better. After the awkward encounter in the hallway she had only just made it to class in time before Snape had come in, in a foul mood he had spent the whole class riducling and victimizing her in front of the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws just because she couldn't do a shield charm.
She slammed her bag down on the ground and grumpily slotted in to the table.
"Ginny don't worry about it – you'll get it eventually" said Sarah trying to sound as comforting as she could. "Snape's an arse we all know that, if it weren't for him you'd be fine."
"Yeah we'll it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to fail my Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL" she said grumpily beginning to spoon stew into her bowl, "I mean I don't think anyone in my family has ever failed theirs even Fred and George got there's, and mind you they only got 3 in the first place-"
"Hey have some respect towards your older and more wiser siblings" said Ron laughing at his own poor joke as he sat down next to Sarah.
Harry looking at Ginny could tell she was in an terrible mood already and decided to take a different approach as he sat down next to her, "What's the matter?" he said, trying not to sound to keen to talk to her. Hermione had been giving him funny looks all the way down to Hagrid's cabin after she had encountered them in the hallway. Was it really that obvious he felt that way about Ginny? He suddenly choked a little on his spew as he thought about Ron – what if he knew!
"Never mind her it looks like you've got enough trouble trying to manage your own eating" said Ron through mouthfuls. It had always amazed Ginny how Ron could talk and shovel food into his mouth at the same time – mind you she had endured around 7 years of sprayed food and mumbling while he had perfected this skill.
"Oh Ron your so funny-" smiled Lavender sitting down on the other side of Sarah closely followed by Dean and Pavarti as Lavender continued to bat her eyelashes at him, "and you're so good at Quidditch, I can't wait to come watch you play this weekend".
As conversation started up about Saturday's upcoming match with Slytherin Harry took the opportunity to turn back and talk quietly with Ginny.
"So anyway, what is the matter?" he said trying to sound casual.
Ginny sighed and dropped her spoon turning to look at him, which in turn was a bad idea because her heart started to race that little bit again, "Well it's just, I've never had any problem with Defence Against the Dark Arts but now with Snape teaching us I just can't seem to get anything right, and I'm stuffing up all my spells and I can't advance to the next ones because I'm not even getting the first ones right, I'm just really scared I'm going to fail my O.W.L" she said.
"Ginny you're kidding me," said Harry smiling, "You're brilliant – you'll be fine you just need to practice when Snape's not around and get really confident with your work. Then when you do it in class you'll be fine." He finished dropping his spoon and turning to look at her.
"Yeah but I'm already falling behind the class is two spells ahead of me" she argued miserably.
"Why don't you tutor her then Harry", said Hermione dropping her books on the table and sliding in next to him.
Harry smiled inwardly, he truly did love Hermione. Visions of him spending time and teaching Ginny were suddenly forming in his head...
"I dunno-" Ginny said as Harry's heart began to sink, "I wouldn't want to waste your time, I mean you've got all your work and Quidditch training and all that" she finished gingerly, as Harry's heart leapt up again.
"No it's fine" he smiled, "It's not that big of a deal I've got time" he couldn't help grinning.
Ginny was suddenly overflowed with happiness, she would have never thought after such an awful day she could have been so happy. SHE WAS GOING TO BE TUTORED BY HARRY! But her happiness was short lived as the next moment she found Dean having relocated himself from the other side of the table to sit next to her, had draped his arm around her waist for the second time today in front of Harry and was procceding to kiss her cheek and neck ... she was sudddnly very embarrassed. Why ...she didn't exactly know, but she was pretty sure it was something to do with Harry sitting next to her. Normally she couldn't have cared less what everyone thought. But right now there seemed to be no way out of the situation without actually physically pushing Dean off her.
Embarrassed she just dropped her hands and tried not to look at Harry through the corner of her eye. But as her hand dropped she accidentally brushed Harry's thigh and he jerked his head around to look at her, their eyes locked for a second but Ginny was so embarrassed that she looked down into her bowl.
"Anyway Slughorn's stupid 'slug club' is stupid" said Ron, glancing at Lavender as she nodded her head in agreement. "I mean it's the first week and he's already like recruiting people – it's ridiculous"
Luckily at this point Dean decided to join in on Ron's conversation –
"Yeah I know mate" and stopped kissing her cheek, and suddenly she was not so embarrassed anymore. If only he would remove his arm from around her waist.
"Hey Sarah, Hey Ginny – everyone else" said Katie sitting down on the opposite side of . Katie was a none to shy friend of Ginny's. It now seemed as if everyone was crowding in and she felt sandwiched. This was just great - she thought. On one side she had her actual boyfriend and on the other she had the guy who she actually wanted to be her boyfriend – all 3 of them squished up together.
"Well I still don't think Snape is worse than Umbridge – I mean at least he can't change rules" said Hermione having finished dinner she was now joining in on the rather loud conversation now.
"Yeah I know, look at the scars I got from that bitch when she made me do detention" said Dean cockily. Finally pulling his hand away from Ginny's waist to show the table.
"owww" said Pavarti,
"How did that happen?" asked Sarah.
At this point Ron glanced at Harry knowing full well that Harry had endured the same, if not worse punishment only he wasn't displaying it to the table.
"Well you see-" began Dean.
But at this point Harry tuned out. He didn't want to hear it, he didn't want to listen to Dean and his bullshit story about how brave he was. He knew normally he liked Dean and that Dean was a perfectly good guy. After all he'd been friends with him since first year, but right now, when Dean was with Ginny when he wasn't. he was so unbelievably jealous and angry. So angry in fact he did something that he would have normally never have dreamt of actually doing...
Ginny sat tuned out not listening to Dean more concerned about the fact that her side was pressed up against Harry when she felt his hand run along her outer thigh. So shocked she looked straight up at him but he was not looking at her. In fact, he was pretending as if he didn't have his hand on her thigh, just listening into the conversation. Her heart was racing faster than she ever thought possible as he reached her hand that was resting just above her knee and gently clasped it.
Ginny couldn't believe it. She continued to stare at him but he wasn't looking at her – he was pretending to listen to the conversation. But she could tell that he knew she was looking at him because the next moment he rested their intertwined fingers on her thigh and gave a little squeeze and she couldn't help smiling. Momentarily forgetting that Dean was sitting on the other side of her, she gave into her racing heart and the tingling sensation running up and down her body as Harry continued to hold her hand underneath the table as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
Her stomach dropped slightly as the two of the sat there. Was this technically cheating?? Oh well, she didn't care at the moment anyway. Alls she could think about was her up and coming tutoring sessions!
PLLLEEEASE REVIEW!!!