Chapter 6
Blaise stood a few corridors from the Great Hall, leaning against the wall. He hoped he was in the path to the Gryffindor Common Room. He wanted to catch Ginny before she went in to breakfast. There was another mini-plan he hoped to put into action, helping to cement in people's minds that Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini were an item.
Luckily, he didn't have long to wait. At the end of the corridor he saw a flash of red and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Ginny's lithe, tall form walking down the hall. The only unfortunate thing was that she appeared to be with friends; three brunettes and a blonde, and they were all smiling and giggling loudly. That was a surprise – he hadn't seen Ginny with other girls in her year before, and had assumed they weren't close. Then the blond spotted him and nudged Ginny, who stopped laughing and looked up.
She winked at him. Ginny Weasley winked at him. He grinned back and held out a hand when she approached, still leaning against the wall. She took it and turned to her friends, saying, "You girls go on into the Hall, I think Blaise wants to talk to me."
The four of them smiled widely and nearly ran from the scene. One of the brunettes, a petite little thing, winked at Ginny before leaving with the rest.
Blaise turned back to Ginny. He was surprised to find her still grinning at him. "Well, aren't you in a chipper mood this morning," he said, noticing that she still hadn't let go of his hand.
She just smiled at him. "So, is there anything we need to talk about?"
"Not really. I just thought it was a good time to move your plan along," he said. "I was thinking we could walk into the Great Hall together. It's nothing big, but it's enough to get the gossip mills running. I think this will definitely convince everyone that we're a couple."
She nodded. "Sounds wonderful. Let's go." She pulled his hand, dislodging him from his spot against the wall with little difficulty. "So," she continued, "What's the plan after this?"
"That depends on how far you want to take this scheme of yours, Ginny." He didn't know anymore why he'd agreed to help her. How far did she really want to take it? Would what they'd done be enough to catapult Potter back into her arms?
"What do you mean?" she asked. Her face had a guarded look to it.
He glanced around them, surprised to see where they were. "We're almost to the Great Hall," he said, "and why make one scene when you can make two?" He winked at her, catching site of a small group of third or fourth year Hufflepuffs. "Meet me in the library during lunch? I promise you won't starve."
She smiled at him. "Of course. But, Blaise—"
He cut her off, leaning down and pecking her briefly on the lips before pulling her along behind him.
Their entrance into the Great Hall caused a bit of a stir.
Actually, Blaise amended silently, it caused a bit more than that. It caused something along the lines of complete, absolute silence, followed by shocked whispering from the Gryffindors and Slytherins, and interest from the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Clearly, their "romance" had caught the interest of the entire school. To force those who were ignoring them to accept it, Blaise walked Ginny to the Gryffindor table, and leaned down, pressing a kiss to the hand that was still clasped in his.
Blaise was impressed as she blushed prettily – he didn't know she'd be able to do that. Not many girls could blush on command, much less red-haired Gryffindors.
He was grateful for the shock he had put the rest of the school into, and walked over to the Slytherin table, grabbing a croissant and an apple and leaving the room again.
As soon as Blaise left the Great Hall, what had been latent mumblings burst forth in an avalanche.
Ginny would have liked to say that she was composed and cool as she sat at the table next to her roommates buttering her croissant, and blandly ignoring the many stares she was getting. However, that was not the case. On the contrary, she kept sticking her knife halfway through her croissant, and narrowly avoided stabbing her hand with it. She couldn't stop thinking about the way Blaise was handling the whole thing and wondering if she even had a chance when it came to a real relationship with him.
Willie, Evelyn, Helen, and Mary surprisingly held their questions until after Ginny had poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice. As soon as she had done that, though, the questions—and comments!—poured forth.
"What did he want to talk to you about?"
"I can't believe he kissed your hand!"
"Oh, those eyes of his were positively smoldering!"
"Did he kiss you?"
"That was so romantic. Why can't Colin ever do that?"
Mary giggled from her spot at Ginny's elbow. She really was a petite little thing, Ginny thought. "Girls, let off on her. Can't you see she's busy dreaming?"
Which was true, to an extent. The kiss he'd bestowed upon her hand before he'd left the Great Hall, in addition to the peck he'd given her when they were alone had been enough to get those hormones of hers in a frenzy. All she could think about was kissing him more, and maybe going even farther than kissing, into touching, and possibly to the point of no return…
But she really shouldn't be turning to those thoughts in the Great Hall, and she knew it. She shifted uncomfortably on her seat, smiling at Willie, who was sitting across from her. "Were there any questions you wanted answered, girls?"
There was laughter immediately, as Evelyn explained—interspersed with laughter—that they'd already asked questions. Ginny smiled guiltily, but the girls didn't seem to care about her lack of attention earlier, repeating the questions they really wanted answered.
"Did he kiss you?" Willie asked. It seemed they had already decided which order they would ask, as no one seemed perturbed at her asking first.
Ginny knew that her face was red before she saw the knowing smiles on the other girls' faces. "Yes."
Evelyn was next. "What did he want to talk to you about?"
Although Ginny momentarily panicked, she very quickly remembered the lunch date Blaise had secured with her. "He wants me to meet him in the library during lunch."
The girls ooh-ed and ahh-ed, with identical grins on their faces.
"That's so sweet," Willie said, sighing. "I wish Colin would do something like that."
"Like what?" Helen asked, speaking up.
"Ask me to do something other than Hogsmeade, or snogging in the Astronomy Tower and getting caught by Snape." She shuddered. "It's all so…unoriginal."
Mary rolled her eyes. "At least you have a boyfriend to be complaining about."
Evelyn rolled her eyes right back at Mary. "Please, Mary, how long have you been without one, two days?"
"A week, actually," she said primly, buttering a small piece of a croissant and offering the rest of it to Helen.
Helen took it, saying, "And no wonder she's nearly never without one, with what little she eats."
Ginny shook her head, tuning out of their conversation. The four of them were certainly interesting, and although she enjoyed all the talk at some times, right now she wasn't in the mood. Of course, that was mainly because she wanted to be doing some fantasizing that included a very delectable Slytherin. She smiled in her pumpkin juice as she took a sip, thinking that it wouldn't be very long before something happened with Harry. The only question was what she wanted to happen, and whether she would be happy or disappointed with the results.
She was surprised how quickly that turned out to be. Less than a minute after she had tuned out of her roommates' conversation, Willie kicked her under the table, motioning behind Ginny with her head. She turned around in her seat to find Harry standing behind her with an interesting look on his face that she wasn't sure how to identify.
"Ginny, can you come with me, please?" he asked, shifting on his feet.
She narrowed her eyes at him, thinking of the last conversation they'd had and wondering whether she should give him a hard time because of that or an easy time for the sake of her brother. Then she noticed that he had said the word "please," and decided that, if nothing else, he was at least well-mannered. And good manners should be rewarded as much as possible. "Sure," she said, standing up and grabbing her bag, just in case they took a while and she had to run straight to class.
"So," he said as they started walking out of the Great Hall. She hoped he was carefully considering his words, especially since the last time they'd spoken things had gone so badly. "I want to ask your forgiveness, Ginny."
Ginny was so surprised that she stopped walking. Luckily, they had just exited the Great Hall. "For what?" she managed to choke out.
Harry halted a few feet in front of her and turned around, realizing belatedly she wasn't following him anymore. "For judging you and Zabini so harshly." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want us to be enemies, Ginny. I know that Zabini isn't as bad as Malfoy, I just overreacted. He's a Slytherin, and therefore I don't trust him. However, I do trust you, and although I was surprised you started dating him so quickly, I…I trust you. That's all." He sighed again, raising his hands up a little bit at his sides before letting them fall again. "And I'm sorry."
Ginny's eyes were filled with tears. Stepping forward haltingly, she threw her arms around Harry and buried her head in his shoulder. "So, we're really over then?"
She swore she could feel him smile against her shoulder as he answered, "Yes, Ginny, we're really over."
Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness of this chapter. We'll have some fun stuff happening in the next one, I'm sure. I know, I know -- I said I had it all planned out and that Blaise would be featuring more in this one...well, I got a little side-tracked. Blaise just does not want to tell me about himself! I'll try to get him to open up for the next chapter for ya'll. :)