Ginny Tells Hermione

Ginny opened the door and ran into the room, calling out to Hermione as she came in. On the left side of the room, Louise was sitting with Lavender on her bed, listening to her gossip. Both Lavender and Louise shot Ginny a curious glance as she rushed across the room to Hermione's bed.

When Ginny threw open the curtains that enclosed Hermione from her dorm mates, Hermione looked up, smiling, and held up a finger to her lips to quiet her. She was sitting at the head of her bed surrounded by books and had been making study notes on a parchment. Hermione pointed to Parvati sleeping in the next bed.

Parvati, in the bed behind her, stirred. Ginny covered her mouth at the silent, friendly reprimand, then tried to control her voice so she would not wake the sleeping girl. "You'll never guess! You'll never guess what my brothers just did!" Ginny said quietly, bursting to tell her.

Hermione motioned her to sit on the bed between the books. "Okay, tell me. What are those two up to now?" Hermione asked, ready to hear the worst.

Across the dorm room, Lavender stopped gossiping with Louise and became quiet and still. Both girls were now listening intensely to what Ginny might say. Ginny could almost imagine their furtive looks as she leaned close to Hermione. "They fixed me up with a partner to the Yule Ball." Ginny looked positively elated, and Hermione was genuinely happy for her.

"That's great, Ginny! I'm so glad," Hermione whispered, beaming at the good news. Keeping her voice just above a whisper, she asked, "So who is it?"

"Neville, actually," Ginny answered back softly, shrugging. "At least I get to go now!" She was having difficulty keeping her voice low.

"Neville asked you?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice, surprised. She smiled and then raised her voice a bit higher. "I'm glad he asked someone. He asked me, but I had to say no."

"I remember you telling me he asked you." Ginny kept her voice low enough to not to wake Parvati, but loud enough so Lavender and Louise could hear. "You told me you would have gone with him." Ginny suppressed a giggle, knowing that Lavender and Louise were hanging on their every word. "He asked you when we were leaving the library, didn't he? You told me about it right after Fred and George asked you," Ginny said aloud, then lowered her voice further, "why you turned him down." She had an impish grin, feeling a bit pixyish. She knew that she was giving the girls a bit of new gossip, implying that one of her brothers had asked Hermione to the Ball.

Lavender could be heard whispering to Louise. The room is so quiet they could probably barely hear Hermione and me breathing, Ginny thought. Lavender is such a gossip! It's just too much fun teasing her. More than once, Ginny and Hermione had spoken in hushed tones like this, omitting names or certain words. And because of Ginny's discretion, Hermione often shared her secrets with her.

Hermione caught the subtle implications and winked at Ginny. "Yes, after we left the library, remember? He stopped us in the hall so he could ask me. I regretted telling him no. It really hurt his feelings." Hermione peeked through the gap between the curtains. When she sat back she indicated to Ginny silently about the rapt curiosity of the other two eavesdroppers.

Ginny turned around to sneak a peek and then turned back to Hermione, clasping her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly and waking up Parvati, who was still sleeping in the next bed.

Lavender was straining to hear them now, practically leaning off her bed trying to listen to them talk. Her friend Louise had moved toward the foot of Lavender's bed and closer to Hermione's side of the room. Clearly both girls dearly wanted to be in on the gossip. Ginny and Hermione were having fun at their expense.

"Yeah, Fred and George told me that. Apparently he was a bit crushed." Ginny shook her head, laughing silently.

"I was afraid of that. He's a nice guy," Hermione said with a sigh. "I hated to hurt his feelings, but I tried to explain that I had already been asked to the Ball." Lavender and Louise looked stunned and looked at each other. Hermione and Ginny kept their heads close, as if in deep personal discussion, trying not to be obvious when they peeked at the other girls.

"Guys get really insecure about rejection, and he's really shy to begin with," Ginny whispered. "So Fred and George spoke to him and told him I'd say yes. Apparently he was really nervous about asking me."

"With Fred and George coming up to him in the first place, knowing that your two brothers have been pulling pranks on him since his first year here, and then to have them talking to him about asking you to the Ball, it wouldn't surprise me he was nervous one bit!" Hermione had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Neville's face when both Fred and George approached him. "I bet they did make him pretty nervous."

"Well, they did say that they gave him," Ginny began softly, then smiled as she raised her voice a tiny bit louder, "brotherly approval and all." Ginny shook her head. "As if I need their approval about whom I go to the Ball with!"

Lavender lost her balance, nearly falling off her bed, trying to listen to them, making Ginny and Hermione turn in her direction. She dropped her brush so it would seem as if she were merely retrieving it. Ginny stifled a laugh, watching her. Hermione gave Lavender a questioning stare and then turned to Ginny. "So are you excited?" she asked.

"Yes, I am... a bit. I get to go and all. I know that he and I will have a good time at least. That's what Fred and George said," Ginny replied with a small smile. "They said that he was a good dancer, actually."

"He is a good dancer!" Hermione whispered back, leaning very close to Ginny as she reached for a book right next to Ginny's leg. "In the 'class' Professor McGonagall gave tonight, he was dancing all over the place. He knew every dance Professor McGonagall showed us."

Ginny felt much better about this. It is one thing to believe Fred and George about Neville being a good dancer, but it means so much more being confirmed by Hermione.

"At least you will be dancing with a good partner." Hermione sat back against her pillows and gave a small chuckle. "I feel for the girls who dance with some of the blokes in our house. Some of them were dreadful!"

"I bet my brother Ron was one of them." Ginny laughed a bit at the thought of Ron actually dancing.

"Professor McGonagall pulled Ron out to dance with her to demonstrate how to do a box step. He was dreadful!" Hermione grinned at the thought. "But if he were to practice... and if someone took some time teaching him, he'd be much better." Ginny smiled at Hermione knowingly. "So what are you going to wear?" Hermione asked.

"I'll have to write to Mum and see what she comes up with," Ginny said with a sigh. "I just hope it isn't too dreadful."

"When I write to my mum I can ask her to send one of my gowns from home for you, if you like? I think I may have a gown that you could wear, Ginny. I do have a bridesmaid dress that's a soft pink and simple, with a nice full skirt. It's pretty, actually." She gave Ginny a wink. "Or with a bit of magic we can always fix anything your mum sends to you..." Hermione paused. "Either way you'd have a second choice, or have more to work with... if you want to, that is?"

"I'd appreciate that," Ginny said, suddenly looking more hopeful. "It'll depend on what Mum can find. I can always write to her and say I want to wear something with pink in it."

Hermione took out a piece of parchment and a spare quill and handed it to Ginny. "Might as well go ahead and write your note. Oh, and tell her who you're going with. I'm sure that your mum will know his family and she will be very happy about it."

Ginny thanked Hermione and began her letter. She looked up at Hermione. "Can I tell her who you'll be going with? She will be so surprised."

"I think that will be okay," Hermione said. "I just don't want to make a big deal of it." She took another slip of parchment and wrote a letter to her mum asking for her to send the bridesmaid dress hanging in her wardrobe at home.

Ginny wrote her mum a long letter about how Neville had been approached by both Fred and George and how they had set her up with him. She knew that her mum would get a laugh from it. She asked as directly as she dared if she could have a new gown rather than a secondhand one. She added plenty of concerned questions like: "How are you?" and "How is Dad?" "How's work going for him?" and "What's new with you?" mixed in to keep the letter light and friendly. Well, she did want to know actually. Then she added about Viktor Krum asking Hermione and a few of the details she thought her mum would enjoy. Ginny sealed the letter and tucked it into her robe pocket. "I'll send yours tomorrow too, if you'd like?" Ginny asked as she stretched, suddenly feeling a bit tired.

"Sure, thanks." Hermione scribbled the last line of her letter and handed it to Ginny.

"Well I really must let you get some sleep," Ginny said as she rose off the bed. "See you at breakfast, then."

"Yeah, see you." Hermione started to remove her books and pile them on the bedside table.

Both Lavender and Louise were sitting, watching Ginny leave with disbelief. "Who asked her to the Ball?" Lavender finally asked as Hermione climbed into bed.

"A friend of ours actually. I'm really glad too. Ginny will have wonderful time." Hermione stretched and yawned, then uttered the spell to close her curtains with her wand, hiding a smug grin.

"But who is it?" Lavender persisted. "And who are you going with? Why won't you tell me?"

"But I've already told you, Lavender. I'm just going with a friend," Hermione said. She snuggled down into her big soft bed, listening to the wind rattle her window. She fell asleep smiling.