When I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when it was first published back in 2007, I was pretty dissatisfied with the book for many reasons. Even more so, I was, and still am, one of those fans who was not happy with the Harry/Ginny relationship and was of the opinion that it should have been Hermione that he ended up with.
Like other fan fiction I have written over the years, I decided to try my hand at writing a Harry Potter fanfic as a way to continue improving my own meager writing skills. I also wanted to see if I could make the erroneous relationship between Harry and Ginny work. However, real life obligations drew me away from it but before I stopped, I had written around 8,000 words and five chapters. Another reason I had stopped writing was that I wanted to use some of the plots I had outlined for this fanfic in my own series of novels and, to this day, have been unable to come up with a new plot for this.
But now I am looking at this again and have the urge to tackle it if I can. This was the first fanfic I had decided to share with a few people. Prior to this, the fan fiction I had written for other franchises had all just stayed on my shelves never to be read by other people.
So without further ado, I present the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Courtship of Ginny Weasley which takes place immediately after Voldemort was defeated.
Chapter 1
The Great Hall was packed as Ginny Weasley sat beside her mother at one of the tables, her nose wrinkling up due to the slight smell of smoke permeating throughout the place. All around them were witches and wizards, centaurs, house elves, and the Hogwarts’ ghosts, all of which were celebrating, talking, comforting each other, mourning, and contemplating the still-recent events. No one wanted to leave. Everyone was content to just stay in the Great Hall, despite its dilapidated state.
Yet throughout the Hall were signs that testified to the battle which had taken place. Scorch marks marred the once pristine walls while many of the windows had been shattered. Of the hundreds of candles, which had floated above the tables, there were many empty spots where spells had blasted them into oblivion. Looking up at the roof, which was showing the sun with a sprinkle of clouds scattered in a bright blue sky, Ginny could see portions of the ceiling where spells had blown it apart, interrupting the once perfect illusion of the Great Hall’s realistic mural.
Looking over at her mother, who was talking to a couple, Ginny suddenly felt exhausted both physically and mentally. As her mum continued to talk, Ginny lowered her head down onto her mother’s shoulder and stayed that way, letting the warmth and presence comfort her. Closing her eyes Ginny felt her mother’s hand on her head, gently stroking her red hair as her mother continued to carry on her conversation.
A little sigh escaped Ginny’s lips as she relaxed, while her mother continued to stroke her hair, and just let the sounds in the Great Hall begin to lull her to sleep until she heard someone cry out, “Oooh, look, a Blubbering Humdinger!”
Instantly recognizing Luna’s voice, Ginny opened her eyes, a smile now on her face, and started to look around the Great Hall.
In a corner she spotted Dean and Seamus talking while, several tables away, Neville was seated; the sword of Gryffindor near his plate as he ate. Around him were many of their classmates peppering him with questions about how he felt and “was he scared throughout the whole ordeal. Over at the High Table Ginny saw Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Slughorn, Trelawney, and Hagrid, as well as her father and Kingsley, huddled together talking. Each one of them had serious expressions on their faces as they conversed away from everyone else.
Several tables over Bill, Fleur, and Charlie were talking and further on George, whose face couldn’t hide the pain he felt at the loss of his twin, sat with Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, Alicia Spinnet, and the girl from her brother’s joke shop whose name she couldn’t remember.
In another section of the Great Hall Ginny could see Madame Pomfrey walking about, with her helpers, and several of the Hogwart’s House Elves, taking care of the injured. As she continued to scan the room Ginny’s eyes finally spotted Luna sitting alone a couple of tables behind her swinging her feet in an absent-minded fashion.
However, as Ginny continued to gaze around the room, she couldn’t find the three faces that she had most wanted to see; Harry, Ron, and Hermione were missing.
Realizing that they were missing, Ginny began to wonder what they were up to. She had thought that Harry might have wanted to at least come up to her and say how happy he was to see her, or that he was glad that she was alright. After all, this entire night he hadn’t done any such thing with the exception of when he defeated You Know Who. And that was only because they were all celebrating the Dark Lord’s demise. Recalling all of this Ginny started to become angry. Suddenly she stood up, surprising her mother in the process, excused herself, and left the Great Hall as the ceiling continued to mimic the beautiful day outside.
She wandered aimlessly down the school corridors oblivious of where she was going. In fact, Ginny didn’t care where she was going, only that she wanted to be alone by herself. As she traversed the damaged corridors she would, every now and then, hear another set of footsteps behind her. She didn’t care since it seemed as if she wasn’t the only one who wanted to be alone.
After a while she found herself climbing some stairs, wondering just how many other people wer e looking for a spot to be alone, when she heard footsteps once more.
Suddenly Ginny looked up and found herself staring at the empty portrait of the Fat Lady; she was outside the Gryffindor Common Room. One memory came to her now; their team had beaten Ravenclaw and, as Harry had walked through the portrait hole, she had run up to him, thrown her arms around him, and he had kissed her. Closing her eyes Ginny remembered their first kiss. She vividly recalled being shocked, bewildered, and then feeling a surge of unexplainable joy. After all those years, he had finally returned her feelings. She hadn’t cared that fifty other people were there, or that Ron could see them, all that mattered was Harry Potter kissing her and she was kissing him.
The sound of footsteps, up the darkened stairs, reached Ginny’s ears causing her to stop her reminiscing. Thinking that it belonged to yet another person looking for some solitude she continued to stand, with her eyes now open, in front of the Fat Lady’s empty portrait, wondering when the Fat Lady would return.
She continued to hear the footsteps until they stopped right behind her and someone tentatively said, “Ginny.”
Somewhat annoyed, Ginny turned around to face Michael Corner, a dark-haired boy she had dated in her fourth year, “Michael, what are you doing here?”
With a somewhat abashed look on his face he replied, “I saw you leave the Great Hall and I followed you.”
“And?”
Ginny watched as Michael’s expression changed to a more determined demeanor, “I wanted to know if you ever gave more thought to what I said at the beginning of the year?”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Ginny replied, “I told you that I was not over him yet and that I wasn’t looking for a relationship.”
“Oh yeah, I remember you saying that but it’s not as if the great Harry Potter tried to contact you; especially not after trying to steal the sword of Gryffindor for him.” Michael said with a sneer.
Her annoyance started to turn into a smoldering anger, “He was being hunted down you prat. Did you forget that he was the most wanted person until today?”
Dropping the sneer from his face Michael, in a serious tone, said, “If it had been me, then I would not have let that stop me. I would have found a way to get in contact with you to at least let you know that I was alright and that I missed you; not caring what kind of danger I was in…”
“Enough,” Ginny said, cutting Michael off from going further.
“Ginny,” Michael pleaded. “I love you. Why do you think I stuck by you all this time…throughout this year…helping with Dumbledore’s Army?”
“Because it was the right thing to do?” was her acerbic reply.
“What did I care about helping Harry for? I didn’t want you to get seriously hurt trying to help a person who didn’t care enough about you.”
“That’s enough.”
“No it’s not, Ginny. Just look at what I had to endure because I cared for you,” said Michael hotly. “I was tortured pretty badly for helping that first-year. I’ve been with you this whole year and yet you are still pining for a guy that…”
“I’m sorry, Michael, but I still care for Harry,” Ginny replied cutting Michael off.
Nevertheless Michael ignored her as he started to rant, “…That, from what I heard, broke up with you at the end of last year. If you cared for him so much, and he cared for you, then why did he break it off?”
“Because he was trying to protect me you git,” Ginny said angrily, “Because he figured if Voldemort had found out about us, then he would have come after me straight away.”
“Oh, please,” Michael sarcastically said, “I know you Ginny; you would not have cared who would come after you. If Potter knew you as well as I do, then he would never have expected you to accept such an excuse.”
“You weren’t there, Michael,” Ginny’s teeth were now clenched together; her temper reaching the boiling point. “You didn’t see the look in his eyes as he tried to get me to agree with him; and you certainly don’t know him. Besides, I knew that he would break up with me, especially after Dumbledore was killed. He didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of him.”
“Fine then,” Michael said. “But answer me this: when you came through the portrait, he didn’t look very pleased to see you. Why? Personally, I was surprised that he didn’t run up to you and at least hug you.”
Slowly Ginny started to draw out her wand while Michael continued, oblivious to her actions, “One would think that, if he really cared for you, he would have been happy to see you, even for a second. And then, just now in the Great Hall, he didn’t even look…”
BAM!
The light, emanating from the spell, lightened up the darkened stairway throwing everything into a sharp contrast for just a second as the noise echoed around the staircase followed immediately by the sound of flapping wings and screeching bats.
Just at that precise moment, the Fat Lady had returned and, before she could ask for the password, Ginny had yelled “Harry Potter!” and ran through the opening portrait.
The sounds of screeching bats and Michael’s shocked cry followed Ginny through the portrait until it went quiet as the opening sealed up.
