'I've done braver things since,' he said lightly, and Ginny felt herself blush. It had been rather nervy of him to come in here and ask her like this, especially since they didn't know each other that well. And he was being awfully sweet about it.
She raised her chin and said, 'Of course I'd love to go to the ball with you, Seamus.'
A smile like sunrise broke over Seamus' face. 'That's great,' he said. 'And you can tell Ron I'll have you back by midnight. You know, it's a bit terrifying asking out the Head Boy's little sister.'
'Ron'll be at the Pub Crawl,' said Ginny. 'He'll drink a gallon of butterbeer and be absolutely legless by midnight. He wouldn't notice if you returned a giant pumpkin to Gryffindor Tower instead of me.'
'He'll figure it out by the next morning, though. And that Head Boy badge is sharp. I want to keep my skin intact,' Seamus grinned, came around to the side of the bed, and to Ginny's surprise, kissed her on the cheek. 'I'm off to practice — hope they let you out of this bloody place soon.'
'I hope so too,' said Ginny absently. A thought had occurred to her. That kiss on her cheek the night before — 'Seamus?' she said, suddenly.
He paused in the act of pulling back the curtain. 'Yes?'
'Did you — were you here last night?' she asked, her heart pounding. 'Did you visit me?'
He shook his head, looking honestly confused by the question. 'No, I didn't, why?'
'Oh,' said Ginny, sinking back against the pillows as a flood of guilty relief washed through her, 'No reason.'
'Seamus asked you to the Yule Ball? That's wonderful!' Hermione exclaimed, beaming at Ginny, who was dispiritedly forking scrambled eggs and toast off her plate. It was her first day out of the infirmary, and while she felt perfectly fine, a strange sort of gloom had settled on her; it was hard to shake it off.
'Shhh,' Ginny hissed, although fortunately Seamus was seated far away at the opposite end of the Gryffindor table and couldn't possibly overhear.
'Did you say yes?' asked Ron, who was pushing a piece of bread around his plate with his spoon. Apparently he wasn't very hungry either.
'Of course she said yes,' said Hermione quickly. 'Seamus is lovely, and he's good-looking and nice and talented and so funny.'
Ron looked taken aback. 'Good grief, Hermione, maybe you should date him.'
Hermione blushed. 'I just meant — '
'I said yes,' said Ginny abruptly.
'Great!' Hermione flashed her a wide smile. 'That's so lovely for you, Gin.'
'Thanks,' said Ginny, unable to shake off the feeling that Hermione was just a bit too happy for her.
'Hey all.' Ginny looked up and saw Harry, taking the empty place between Ron and Hermione that they had saved for him. He looked a little tired, but on the whole better than he'd looking lately.
'Seamus asked Ginny to the Yule Ball,' Hermione told him cheerfully as he sat down and picked up his fork.
'Great.' Harry poked uninterestedly at a sausage, then glanced up at Hermione. 'That's a good thing, right? You're not telling me this because I'm supposed to be indignant or something?'
'No.' Hermione shook her head. 'Of course it's a good thing.'
'Of course it means Seamus won't be at the Pub Crawl, which is too bad,' said Ron, reaching for the cream jug and pouring a liberal amount onto his porridge. When he glanced up, his expression was thoughtful. 'Hey, Harry — you've got a study period now, don't you?'
Harry nodded.
'You want to come to Hogsmeade with me?' said Ron. 'I've got to go down to the factory, to see George and Fred. Last-minute paperwork before the Crawl.' He tapped his pocket, from which a sheaf of parchment extruded.
'I've got a pass.'
Harry shrugged. 'Sure. Why not?'
'Can you make it back in time for Care of Magical Creatures?' Hermione asked, worried.
'If I don't, I don't,' said Harry without much interest.
'But — Charlie said he had something special for us.'
'Then you can tell me all about it later,' said Harry with finality.
Hermione looked as if she were about to say something. Ginny could tell that if she did, Harry would blow up like a Filibuster Firework. There was so much tension between those two these days you could have bounced a Galleon off it. 'Everyone still in love with Charlie?' she interrupted hastily.
Hermione dragged her eyes away from Harry. 'He's a really good teacher,' she said. 'He knows everything. Last week he talked about diricawls for two straight hours.'
'Nobody but you could think that was sexy, Hermione,' said Ron.
'I didn't say it was sexy,' said Hermione indignantly, and then she and Ron were off and running, bickering as was their habit. Harry sat quietly between them, looking across the room. A sense of something familiar tugged at the back of Ginny's mind as she looked at him. He reminded her of someone: the way he sat, the haunted expression, the contained and containing eyes that were light-years older than the rest of his young face.
It was when he reached up and pushed his hair back that she knew where she had seen that look before, and such similar eyes.
Tom, of course.
'Hurry up, Harry. Spring is approaching. Let's go, shall we? I did tell George we'd be there before noon.'
'Oh, all right.' Harry glanced up from his apparent fixed perusal of an icicle clinging to a tree branch. His fair skin was scarlet with cold along his cheekbones and so were his hands; he had not bothered to wear gloves.
He sighed, and resumed walking. 'Spring is approaching? You sound like Malfoy.'
'Heaven forbid.' Ron waited patiently for Harry to catch up to him.
Fortunately it was a gorgeous December day, the sky a hollowed blue bowl traced with faint white clouds. The path through the trees that led to Hogsmeade was worn to a glassy shimmer, and the bare tree branches stood out overhead like black lacework against the sky. Given the brightness and beauty of the weather, Harry's gloomy mood seemed like even more of a blot on the landscape. 'Really, Potter,' Ron drawled in his best Draco imitation, 'If I'd known you were going to drag along like a turtle with heavy shopping I wouldn't have invited you in the first place.'
'Ha ha. Very amusing.' Harry had now caught up to Ron, who started off again, Harry beside him. 'He doesn't always sound like that.' Ron looked at him witheringly. 'Oh, all right, so he does. It sounds weird coming from you though.' Harry paused, thoughtfully. 'Nastier.'
'You're just used to my normal radiant personality.'
'Probably,' said Harry, and glanced sideways at Ron. 'Speaking of which, have you asked anyone to the Pub Crawl yet?'
Ron nearly tripped over a fallen tree branch. 'Oh. No, actually.'
'Why not?' asked Harry curiously.
Ron bit back the response that he was shocked Harry had snapped out of his dirge-like mental state enough to notice whether Ron had a date or not. 'It's going to be like work for me, you know, being Head Boy and all.
Keeping an eye on everyone. It wouldn't be fun for a girl.'
'If you say so.'
'You asked Hermione yet?'
Harry looked taken aback. 'Well, no. I just assumed…why do you ask?'
Alarm was creeping into his voice. 'She didn't say she wanted to go with anyone else, did she?'
