Chocolate ♕ Ginny Weasley

seventeen

Chapter Seventeen;

Time at the Burrow was supposed to be a distraction from the real world. It was a little hideaway, a place where Patricia didn't need to worry about anything but spending time with Ginny, her brothers, and on occasion Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. The house was always full of fun and laughter and warm hugs; there was always Quidditch to be played, jokes from Fred and George to laugh at, and time to play the Weird Sisters over the wireless and sing horribly off-key with Ginny – at least, until everyone yelled at them to shut up.

These holidays, it was different.

The war and the terror of You-Know-Who's reappearance had slivered into every corner of England; everything was tarnished and tainted by a jump at a strange noise, or a cold shiver down one's back when a shadow flittered nearby. The front page of the Daily Prophet was always reporting a defence proposal from the Ministry, the tale of someone gone missing, or the Dark Mark being sighted. Arthur Weasley would return from work with glum stories, and the Order of the Phoenix were speaking of things dark and dangerous.

It was horrifying, really, how much impact one person – if he could even be called a person – could have on the country.

Patricia and Ginny tried to brighten up the sombre atmosphere by spending time in Ginny's room (also so they could avoid Fleur Delacour who was staying at the Burrow following her engagement to Bill), talking about things that were perfectly normal as they flipped through Quidditch magazines or their own books. Upcoming O.W.L. exams, Quidditch, or how Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, was fascinated by the garden gnomes.

Patricia had been triple-checking her Hogwarts booklist – feeling sick as she realised just how much work was ahead of her that year – when Ginny cleared her throat and muttered, "I didn't tell you this... But, Dean Thomas asked me out."

Patricia didn't show any outside sign of surprise, apart from her eyes remaining glued on The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five. It felt like she'd taken a punch to the gut. Somehow, when she defined 'normal' topics of conversation, dating and relationships hadn't been on the list. Maybe it was because she was too in love with Ginny to even think about being with anyone else, or how dating had lost its appeal when she realised she wasn't interested in boys. At all. As far as Patricia was concerned, all the boys she knew still needed a lot of growing up to do.

"When did this happen?" Patricia asked guardedly. She did not look at Ginny, her eyes instead remaining resolutely fixed on the booklist.

"I don't know. I guess we'd been talking a bit in the common room recently... He asked me out before the term finished last year."

Patricia was very still when she asked, "What did you say?"

She was terrified to hear the answer.

Ginny shrugged and turned another page of her magazine. "I turned him down."

Patricia gasped. "You did?"

Her heart was soaring – no, not just her heart, her soul. She had grown wings and she was flying through the air and without a care in the world that You-Know-Who was at large once again, because Ginny Weasley was not dating anyone and Patricia still had a smidge of a chance. She was on a rollercoaster that was only going up.

Ginny flushed and shook her hair back, not meeting Patricia's gaze. "Yeah. I have my heart set on someone else... I couldn't date anyone apart from them."

At once, Patricia fell straight back to earth, with an impact that knocked all the breath out of her and shattered her hopes into tiny, irretrievable pieces.